Today the computer is seen by millions as the next gold rush. People are flooding to get their piece of the pie.

With a 97% failure rate in the MLM industry, a fact most don’t want to acknowledge. People are losing their money long before they start earning anything, if they ever do.

So, it makes sense that the lure of “You too can earn an extra … blah, blah, blah a month by just getting on the Internet and promoting your companies products.” is appealing to many.  Sounds all too familiar to the “all you have to do is… and you will be wealthier than you ever imagined.” that we all heard in the past.

This hype mentality has been a big part of the shady reputation that network marketing companies have brought upon themselves.

I find the basic flaw to most, if not all of MLM is that the word marketing is used, but never taught.

Most network marketers are totally untrained in the field of marketing. The most training I ever received was how to peddle what my company produced. I was taught, “if you put a mirror under their nose and it fogs up, they’re a prospect.”  The Internet sequel to this is, “If they have a computer, and are on line, they’re a prospect.”

When someone begins Internet network marketing, and still hasn’t a clue about marketing, chances are they will, in no time at all, find themselves frustrated. They may even find themselves more out of luck because, face it, to many of us, new to the Internet, we have a lot more to learn then when we were told to drag a person to a hotel meeting.

I believe that the Internet is the future for MLM. Internet network marketing. It offers people the ability to reach many more people than was ever possible , anywhere, anytime. What needs to be taught, and should have been taught in the old school, is social marketing. I don’t just mean using social sites, but learning how to be vigilant in building not just a business but relationships.

Without the focus being on, what’s in it for the person we are talking to, we are no better than the outrages MLM enthusiast, who caused friends to cross the street, to avoid being asked to another meeting.

It’s been said, “there is power in knowledge,” and most people over 40, are pretty clueless, when they first arrive on the net, They need a great deal of education to learn not just skills and techniques, but theory and etiquette to do this correctly.

I see a major need for skilled Internet gurus, to mentor and guide these often insecure Internet fledgelings with step by step instruction, in all aspects of Internet network marketing.

I could say, “it’s up to them to avail themselves to all the resources out there.” Why do I care whether they get the extra help? The main reason, is because I know what it’s like to feel hopeless and terrified when you first start using the Internet.

I thought I could just go out there and spew my product information to the millions with the sole purpose of making the big bucks. I was a stranger in a strange land, to put it mildly.

I also feel a desire to take part in sparing the Internet all the unprofessional baggage these people will be flooding the net with, until they get that it’s not always about selling.

What I’ve realized through my experience, is that it takes time and hard work to learn what you need. No matter how fast you can surf, or how easy it may seem at first, this is not a get rich over night experience. This is especially true, if you want to have your presence seen out there on the the world wide web. Even more so, if one of your goals is to be respected as a valuable resource to others.

I believe those who first invest in their own education about marketing on line, through mentors, books, seminars, tutorials, will be the ones that avoid failing. If for no other reason than to be a good resource of information. Isn’t that what ultimately makes the net such a powerful tool, people providing value for people.

This brings me to my final point. One of the qualities about the Internet that appeals to me is that with it, the individual can truly own their business. Their on line business can reflect not just their network marketing company, but who they are as a person, with all the knowledge and expertise they have gained through living.

Social media marketing is one of the top priorities for businesses with an online presence in 2009, new research indicates. 

A major benefit to this type of marketing is it costs nothing to join and this in comparison to other traditional and sometimes costly marketing techniques that can leave you paying out far more than you ever get in.  What you are basically doing with social marketing is building on the back of your own network of contacts and clients and using that network to build your campaign.

The main social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube etc) are all free and are surprisingly simple to manage and maintain.  Alongside these sits blogging and article writing.  Things you can do with these networking opportunities include:

• Publicity – social media allows people to share things of interest with everyone thus increasing the visibility of your business and yourself
• Support – joining like minded groups will allow you to share areas of common interest, assisting and helping others whilst seeking support in areas you feel a bit of guidance is needed.
• Integrate – add social media into your other marketing arenas

Manage

Simplicity is the key and all of these sites can be surprisingly simple to manage and maintain. The truly great thing about social media is that it allows you to enter the fray with as large or as small a commitment as you feel is appropriate to you.

Another great thing about social media is that it has the potential to offer your business a whole new world of opportunities that are affordable, measurable and on an international scale.

What not to do

• Don’t just go on there to actively promote your business, people will rapidly lose interest in you as to them you ‘have little or no value’.
• Never leave a derogatory or negative comment in response to someone, if you don’t agree or dislike what someone may have said, sometimes it’s best just to ignore.

What to do

•  Inject an element of fun, fear or controversy into your campaigns
•  Offer something unique that you either know or suspect people will find interesting
•  If you’re aiming at a younger audience, find out where your audience is and target them on their terms and in their language
• Aim to build an audience each and every time you start a new campaign.  With social media you can hang onto some of those people and build up your own community, one that ideally intersects around the world.

The key to maintaining and building that community is a blog for your business, and here are some of the benefits:

• Higher search engine rankings – generally speaking, a regular stream of new articles is considered appealing by the search engines, who will pay more attention to your blog or website, ranking you more highly accordingly. The more pages you write, the more there is to be found. However, it’s an exercise in quality not quantity!
• Gaining trust – by writing informative and authoritative articles, over time you’ll build confidence, trust, respect and a sense of “expert status” around your business.
• A sense of community – you’re engaging with your customers in a conversational style that’s difficult to replicate by other means. And by allowing people to comment on your articles, you’re encouraging those people to participate, giving them a reason to return. In simple terms, a blog is a great opportunity for you to quickly share ideas

In Summary

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.  Social media marketing is an excellent way to get people to come into your site to take a look at at what you have to offer.  The actual overall process of this area of marketing is not difficult at all. 

It is one of the most effective tools for boosting your online business and making a presence for it in the web world. 

Social media marketing is one of the newest methods of marketing a web site and has evolved quickly into one of the most effective methods.