As a network marketer, you do a lot of social work to build your business – whether it’s physically calling people, attending events or utilizing social media groups. You are a social marketer!

Are you using all the platforms appropriately? Are you spending just the right amount of time leveraging them for your business? We’ve received lots of questions about how to use these social channels for maximum results, and it’s been the subject of quite a few of our blog posts already (e.g. Social Media Marketing, Facebook, and Twitter). In fact, we even shared some of our knowledge with our friend Matthew Insardi on his wildly popular social media blog.

Let’s look at more of an overview about what it means to be a social network marketer, and how you can master social media marketing to increase sales.

To Be on X Social Channel, or Not to Be?

The power of social media means you can reach thousands of current and potential customers every time you post on one of your accounts. But not all social channels are created equal, and you should not give each platform the same attention. It all depends on what market you’re in, and where your customers are clicking, posting, sharing, and commenting.
For example, retail companies do extremely well on Pinterest. Why? Because it is a visual social channel, and retail customers are visual consumers.

On the other hand, a B2B (Business to Business) company may not see the same success on Pinterest. So why would you spend countless hours that you’ll never get back on Pinterest if it means nothing for your industry?

The answer is, you shouldn’t.
A B2B company would be much better suited pouring their energy into LinkedIn – the world’s largest professional network. The key is to find where your target audience is already active and engaging online, and then start investing the majority of your social focus on those 1 or 2 specific social media websites.

How Much Time?…That is the Question!

As a busy network marketer, you’re probably wondering, “How much time do I really need to spend on my channels?” Again, this answer varies per industry. However, a general rule of thumb is around 1 hour a day:

• 15 minutes in the morning
• A few scattered times throughout the day to respond to customers or team members in real time
• 30 minutes in the evening

What you don’t want is to log into your sites and find a lot of unread notifications, unanswered questions, and unattended comments. That would definitely mean you’re not being social enough!
There may come a day in your network marketing business that you get so much engagement on a daily basis that you need to delegate specific times in the middle of the day to manage your activity, and that’s great! But until then, just make sure you are present for anyone who needs your help – whether it’s a customer, a team member or just a stranger dropping in because they like what you had to say.

Social media is all about being social, don’t forget that. You need to be present, because not being present can have a terrible and negative snowball effect to your entire business!

(Quick tip: You can schedule all of your posts in advance using some of the free social media management tools we explained here.)

To Thine Own Business Be True

You do not need to Pin, Tweet, or post all day, every day. Let’s be honest, no one but a high school teen has time for that!
If you have found yourself checking in on Facebook every 5 minutes or trying to Pin and Tweet 80 times an hour, you probably feel like you’re running yourself ragged – and you ARE! There’s no need to overdo it, and your business needs you in other areas. While social media is an incredibly important aspect of marketing yourself and your products, you can’t neglect other priorities of the business while trying to stay “up to the second” on every single channel.

Summing Up the Social

Do your due diligence and research what social channels have the most engagement, and make the most SENSE, in your industry. If Pinterest doesn’t attract your target market, then don’t waste time there. You can have a presence on all of the social sites, but limit your activity to 1 or 2 posts a week if your target market really isn’t engaging. Once you’ve found what social platforms are right for your business, get active and stay active with 1 fresh post every day or every other day.
Remember, we are all social creatures by nature. If you are absent from your social channels, it can have a very negative effect on your entire business. Your team members and customers want to be able to reach you where they already are – don’t let your silence kill all of your hard work networking!

What are some of the social media hardships you have gone through?
Let us know in the comments below.