Network Marketing in the Internet Age

In the beginning...

When starting a network marketing business, your upline probably told you the about "warm market" and "cold market" prospects. Your warm market leads are people you know: your family, friends, colleagues, dentist, etc. Your cold market is everyone else: people you do not know at the moment, but whom are looking for a network marketing business. My upline taught me this when I first got started, and gave me recommendations on how to approach each group.

For the cold market, they recommended a process called "FORM". I was to use it anytime I could. So when someone else strolled up to the tomatoes at the market, I was to start up a conversation using the FORM system. While I was waiting for my car to come out of the car wash, I should find someone else waiting and "FORM" them. FORM stands for "Family, Occupation, Recreation, Message". Easy to remember, and easy to do.

"So, are you married?" I might say. And then I listen to my prospect's answer.

"What do you do for a living?"

"I love to snowboard. What do you do for fun?"

"Well, I happen to own my own business. I'd love to have the opportunity to sit down and show you what I am doing."

You get the idea.

Now, don't misunderstand me. This system has helped to create fortunes throughout the history of network marketing, and other businesses as well. It is an easy to follow script that anyone can do. And it absolutely does have a place in building your business. Just not the way it is taught.

Here is the problem with FORM. If doing it 100%, you are having this conversation with everyone you pass on a daily basis. Not only does this take a great deal of time, but you are talking to people who might have absolutely no interest in network marketing.

For me, I want to be talking to people that want to be in network marketing. I want people that are qualified, targeted prospects that I can use the FORM process with.

Websites like Facebook and MySpace allow me to "M-FOR" people. I put the message portion out there on these Web 2.0 sites. People using the sites read about why I think network marketing is so great. They get to know me. They get to learn about network marketing. They then "friend" me, and NOW we start the F O R parts.

Because these people have taken an action to show me they are interested in what I am offering, I know that my time spent with them is far more likely to result in someone joining my business, and my time is not wasted on someone who has no interest.

The best part about social networking is it is totally free (in money, that is). It does take time. But that time is extremely leveraged time, because my message is available to thousands of people a day. And that is a great investment.

If you'd like to learn more about how to attract prospects to you, I recommend you check out the free training at the Renegade University. They'll show you click-by-click where to go and what to do using video instruction.