The Do’s and Don’ts for your Profile Picture

A profile picture on Facebook and other social media is prime real-estate for direct sellers. Don’t underestimate this aspect of your online presence because it’s small.

Unfortunately, I see so many terrible profile pictures – which means lots of direct sellers and party plan consultants waste this space.

Your profile pic is part of attraction marketing

Your profile picture is part of your attraction marketing strategy. After all, to stand out from all the other consultants you are marketing you as a person. Your aim is to draw people to you…not a sunset or your cat or your beautiful baby!

Even worse, I sometimes see direct sellers use their company logo or a picture of their favorite product. That just looks spammy and impersonal which is the very opposite of what you want.

Hot tips for great profile pictures for direct sellers

To attract people to your business online, they need to feel connected to you as a person. An easy way to help with that connection is to make sure you have a great profile photo.

That photo doesn’t need to be taken professionally, it just needs to be a good photo following the guidelines below:

Include your face and shoulders
No sunglasses
Show your teeth in your smile
Slightly (!) squint your eyes to make your smile more authentic
Dress well and take care with your hair and make-up

Research shows that a good profile picture helps people to see you as more like-able, competent and approachable – which is exactly what you want as direct seller.

Key Take-Aways:

Don’t have a picture of your cat, kids or company
Do have a good picture of you including your shoulders, well dressed with a smile that reaches your eyes

Not sure how to do this whole ‘attraction marketing’ thing? No fear, I’ve got you. Check out my Attraction Marketing for Direct Sellers course to learn how to set-up and manage Facebook pages and groups, and how to draw people to you instead of pushing them away with boring or spammy content.

10 Facebook Live Ideas for Direct Sellers

To maximize the effectiveness of your direct sales biz on Facebook, you need to do Facebook Lives.

The Facebook Algorithm massively favors Live video and this means that it’ll be seen by far more people than a simple status update.

Facebook Algorithm Quick Explainer

The Facebook Algorithm is a piece of software that decides what to show you in your newsfeed and in which order. Everybody’s newsfeed is completely different because the algorithm takes your own behavior as well as other bits of information into account.

When you open Facebook, the algorithm looks at all the stories posted by your friends and by the pages that you follow. The algorithm then looks at things like who posted the story and how often they publish, any negative feedback on that author, what time it is now, what device you’re on, what engagement stories already have, because the more engagement they have the more likely it is that you’ll see it in your feed.

The Facebook algorithm uses all that information (and then some) to make a prediction on what you’ll like and in what order to show you that.

How do you get the algorithm to like you? There are some general recommendations:

Complete your Facebook profile.
Publish regularly.
Create content likely to elicit positive feedback from your audience (positive comments, likes, or reactions. Reactions affect post ranking slightly more than likes). But do not ask for shares or likes – this is frowned upon by the algorithm.
When you want to post a video use Facebook Live or upload videos to Facebook directly, instead of linking to your YouTube videos.
Publish content that promotes engagement and an investment of time from your audience (games and video content is great for that).
Post content that’s informative and shareable.

Not just the algorithm but people also value Live videos. Through a Live it’s easier to feel connected to you as you’re showing your personality and passion.

It’s one of the best things you can add to your social media strategy – and it’s free!

I have noticed though that many consultants don’t know what to talk about on a Facebook Live or they feel they’ve run out of ideas after a couple of videos.

So in this article I want to help you with some ideas that you can use on your Facebook page or in your Group.

Facebook Live Ideas for your direct sales biz

1: Unboxing
This is a video where you can show your passion and excitement about the product. It hops on the bandwagon of the ‘blind bag hauls’ and unboxing craze that’s still popular on YouTube.

If you’re brand new to your direct sales business, you can give your biz a boost by unboxing your kit on a Live.

If you’ve been in direct sales a bit longer, you can do an unboxing when you get a delivery with new products or when you’ve earned free products and you get that delivery.

2: New Range First Impressions

People love new products. When you get a new range for your kit, get excited and do a Live review and share your initial reactions. Tell your audience who you’ll think this product would be good for and any other information you think they’ll want to hear.

You can extend this with a follow-up Live a week or so later with further observations on the products and how you’re using them and finding them longer term.

3: Product Reviews

Choose one particular product and talk about your personal experience with it. If you can, plan to do a weekly review at a regular time to build a consistent audience.

Perhaps you can even theme your reviews per month. For example a month on concealers or mascaras, a all the different ways you can use throw rugs, the best cupcake recipes, etc.

You can even link a product give-away for attending (or watching the replay) of your Facebook Live. During the Live you give them a code word to collect and at the end of the month everyone who collected all the code words will go in the draw for a prize.

4: Share Your Story

Talk about why you joined and what you love about your direct sales business. This is great ‘attraction marketing‘ and it also helps people to get to know you better. Sharing your own story helps people to feel a stronger connection with you.

5: Behind the Scenes

People are fascinated by the inner workings of a business and love to peek behind the scenes. You can go Live while you’re setting up for a party, when you’re packing customer orders, your product storage, deliveries ready to go, your messy office when unpacking deliveries, etc.

You don’t have to go Live long, just a quick excited or funny video will go a long way in building that connection with your Facebook tribe.

6: From an Event

Next time you attend a big company event, a team meeting or a training session make sure you go Live. A quick Live video before or after the event (or even in the break) is a great way to show off your direct sales business from a different angle.

7: Exciting Reveals

10 Facebook Live Ideas for direct sellers.

When there’s a new special, a host or customer special do a Live. Your enthusiasm and excitement will be contagious. Don’t forget, you can also create your own incentives for party bookings or joining your team.

8: Top Tips & Product Hacks

Offering your tips on how to make the most of a product will be appreciated by your tribe. This is not a review but more of an educational video. Videos on how to use a product in an unexpected way (a hack) are very popular online.

9: Tell Stories

Have you ever heard the saying ‘facts tell but stories sell’? It applies to your Facebook Lives too.

Back stories about how a product is made, where it’s from or about some specific ingredients are a great way to talk about your products without being salesy. You can also talk about your company, the founder or some of its history.

10: Interview a Customer or a Team Mate

If you have a customer who’s achieved great results with a product you sell, they might be happy to talk about it in an interview. This is a very powerful testimonial.

You can also focus on the business side and interview a team mate who can talk about how the business changed their life.

You might find that when you start out with Lives, your audience is small. That’s okay, the replay will still be available and rank high. (Also, you can re-use suitable videos in your Facebook parties – bonus!)

If you’re consistent in showing up Live, you will be build your audience over time.

If you want some help on what to post in other than Lives, download our huge list with 50 ideas on for social media for direct sellers!

Nobody likes a spammer, so don’t be a spammer. Use ‘attraction marketing’ instead where you draw people to you with your social media marketing. Not sure how? Learn how to rock your social media marketing in a non-salesy way with the Attraction Marketing course.

Facebook Messenger Parties for your Direct Sales Biz

Title: How to use Facebook Messenger Rooms for online parties

In late April, Facebook introduced a new feature in Messenger: Messenger Rooms.

Direct sellers and party plan consultants may be able to use it as an alternative to Zoom for online parties.

Let’s do a quick compare of Facebook Messenger Rooms vs Zoom for parties:

Facebook Messenger Rooms	Zoom
Up to 50 participants	Free plan up to 100 participants
Unlimited talk time	Free plan limited to 40 minutes
Invite via link (no need to be ‘friends’ to get access)	Invite via link
No meeting scheduling	Meeting scheduling available
Screen sharing*	Screen sharing
Lock room option	Password protection
	Waiting Room
Virtual backgrounds & effects in the Messenger mobile app	Virtual backgrounds
	Host can mute participants

* I have not been able to get screen sharing to work on my laptop when I played around with the Messenger Room feature. It’s probably just teething problems.

As you can see, you do get way more features and control with Zoom, and I didn’t even list all the features you get with Zoom’s free plan.

Facebook Messenger Room Party Tips

If you are going to use Facebook Messenger Rooms for a direct sales party, I’ve got some tips to make the most of it:

Facebook Messenger Rooms and Direct Sellers

Practice with a few friends or family first. I have not been able to get all features to work on my phone or computer just yet. Make sure you know all the features you can access before you dive in.
Start the room about 20 minutes before your announced start time. That way you get a link that you can send to guests or ask the host to send to guests. Leave the Messenger app open – once you close it, you close the room.
Since you don’t have a waiting room option, mute yourself but share a message either via a piece of paper in front of your camera or via screen sharing. The message could say something like “Welcome to the XYZ party! We’ll be starting at 2pm, I’m just getting ready 🙂 “
I recommend you do your Messenger Room Party via a laptop or computer because you don’t have to hold it up (although a tripod can help there) and – if it works – you have better screen sharing options than on a phone.

For more tips, check the article I did on Zoom parties, many of the tips apply to video call parties in general.

Let me know in the comments if you have any tips to add!

If you’d like a detailed, step-by-step guide for running Zoom parties, you can grab this quick online training that I’ve put together. It comes with printables, done-for-you images for your social media, suitable games to play, extra tips and ideas, and how-to guides for your online direct sales events.

Grow your direct sales biz with Pinterest

Did you know that Pinterest drives more traffic to original sources than Facebook and Twitter combined?

Facebook and Instagram want to keep you on their platform for as long as possible. In fact they ‘punish’ content that aims to take people off the platform to another website. They do this by not making those posts a priority in people’s feed.

Pinterest is different. Pinterest is designed to move people off the platform to websites because Pinterest is more search engine and less social media.

This makes Pinterest the perfect place to promote your business!

The unique pins that you create (using Canva, for example) can be used to drive people to your customer group on Facebook or to your website or blog.

I personally prefer to drive people to my customer group on Facebook because that’s where I build a lasting relationship with them.

Pinterest tips to promote your direct sales business

Descriptions with keywords
Make sure your pins have good descriptions that use keywords. Keywords are the words that you might use in a search if you were trying to find you or your products. However, don’t just list the keywords, remember that an actual person will be reading your description.

Don’t worry about followers
On Pinterest followers are not as important as on Facebook or Instagram. They do help to proof that you are legit and helpful when someone clicks through to your profile, but only a few people do that.

Remember that Pinterest is more about searching – people just want to find good content or the right product. If you provide good content (helpful blog posts, for example) then you will gather followers over time. People that follow you are more likely to see your pins in their Smartfeed.

Board titles matter
Board titles matter both to people and to the Pinterest algorithm. Don’t be too clever with your board titles, just be descriptive. You also want to be specific in your board titles. For example, it’s much better to name your board “Gluten-free Cake Recipes” than “Cake Recipes” or “Summer Make-Up Trends” rather than just “Make-up Trends“.

Pin regularly
Pinterest likes it when you pin regularly. Content of regular pinners is more likely to end up in people’s Smartfeed or search results than irregular pinners. If daily pinning is too difficult to maintain, you can use a scheduler such as Tailwind to help you out.

Use secret boards
I highly recommend that you use secret boards to collect ideas and inspiration for yourself. That’s where you keep everything that your don’t need your public ‘brand’ to show.

Grow your direct sales biz with Pinterest.

Promoted pins are the bomb
Promoted pins are the Pinterest equivalent of Boosted Posts on Facebook – but better. Once your Facebook ads are finished, they disappear from people’s feeds. This doesn’t happen with promoted pins because they are saved on people’s boards, they still appear in search results and they stay on your boards. They are also better than Facebook ads or boosted posts because it’s cheaper on Pinterest!

Pinterest is such an exciting platform for direct sellers that I highly recommend you start putting some effort there as part of your social media strategy.

Zoom parties for your direct sales business

During this Covid-19 pandemic, social interaction has become more important than ever before. Having to distance ourselves from each other physically and practising self-isolation means we need to take care not to become lonely.

Humans are social creatures and social connections are vital for our mental health. As a direct seller, you can facilitate online social interaction in a really fun way using online tools.

I have been using Zoom for online training and video conferencing and I find it easy to use and reliable. Zoom allows you to have a group of people interacting through their device camera and microphone at the same time.

Using Zoom you can demonstrate products, play games, and allow people to ask questions – just like an in-home party.

How to make the most of a Zoom party as a direct seller

Stand-Alone Zoom Party

You can organize a Zoom party for an hour or so and do a condensed version of an in-home party. You would have to have a think about which products would translate well to a demonstration via video and make a careful selection.

At the end of the party you could gather orders in a variety of ways: you could call each guest and have your check-out chat with them over the phone, you could post a link to your order page (if you have one), or you could post a catalog out to guests beforehand and have them message or email you with their order.

Keep in mind that the more personal and interactive you make this process, the better the results.

Zoom Party as Part of a Facebook Party

Another option is to have a short (30 minutes or so) Zoom party that is incorporated in your Facebook party. You make the Zoom party the main event in the Facebook party and use the Facebook party to drive guests to the Zoom event.

By making it part of your Facebook party, you can keep in touch with guests before and after the Zoom event, which provides you with more opportunities to engage with the guests and keep the party going for longer.

About Zoom

Zoom offers a free account and a paid account. The free account is limited to 40 minutes per event. This means that if you use Zoom as part of your Facebook party and aim for a 30 minute event, you can get away with using a free account.

However, if you plan to make Zoom a more substantial part of your direct sales business, you can get a paid account starting at $20.99 per month.

Zoom is easy for your guests too!

Take your direct sales parties online with Zoom

Once you’ve scheduled your Zoom event, you get a link that you can send to your guests. All they need to do is click the link, if they don’t already have the Zoom app they will be prompted to download it with very clear instructions.

Zoom works on mobile and on desktop and is very user friendly even if people have never heard of Zoom.

One of the features I love about Zoom is that you can share your screen with participants. And there are lots of ways that you can make use if this:

Display ‘rules’ at a glance while you explain what you’re going to do in the Zoom party
Show customer or host offer details while you talk about it
Show images of the starter kit during your recruiting pitch
Show all the features and benefits of a particular product or range that you’re going to demonstrate

Using Zoom you can also get creative with themes. Play a quick game that matches with your theme and you could offer prizes for the best hat or earrings that match the theme.

If you have any Zoom tips you'd like to share, please leave a comment below.

The Coronavirus & your direct sales biz

You can’t turn on the TV or radio without being inundated with news about the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and the impact it’s having globally. And now I’m going to add to it…but I’m specifically talking you: direct sellers and party plan consultants.

This pandemic will impact everyone, including us. However, despite this growing crisis, there’s a lot that you can do to protect yourself and your business.

Quick tips for direct sellers during the Coronavirus crisis

Hygiene
While you’re still able to host in-home events, make sure you widely publicize the extra steps you are taking to ensure everyone’s safety. Examples include providing individual product samples, minimizing touch, and providing hand sanitizer.

Most direct sales companies are providing guidance and advice to their consultants, make sure you check them out and implement them so your customers can be reassured they’ll be protected as much as possible.

Build your business online
When my 6 year old daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia, my family faced our own health crisis. I spent many months in hospital with her and wasn’t able to run my usual in-home parties or team training sessions. I had to get good at running my business online and now we all have to get good at it! (My daughter is fine now, she’s in remission and a picture of health.)

An engaged customer group on Facebook will be vital for your business. If you need help with that, check this article where you can also download free engagement tiles to post in your own group.

You want to add Zoom to your arsenal. Zoom is fast becoming the default video conferencing app across the world. I’ve got some handy tips for you to organize Zoom parties in this article.

Attraction Marketing
Until this pandemic has run its course, opportunities for vendor events and perhaps even in-home parties will be limited. This means you’ll need to promote your direct sales business online.

The way to do that without being pushy or spammy is ‘attraction marketing’. A great place to learn exactly how to do this, is Direct Sales Inspiration’s Attraction Marketing Course.

And because we’re passionate about helping as many direct sellers through this Coronavirus crisis, we have a 50% discount code for you!

To get the discount, just use “corona50” at checkout.

Care Packages
As the crisis lengthens, more and more people will suffer financially. Hours will be cut and jobs lost - at least temporarily. The tourism industry is already suffering major cut-backs and more are sure to follow. Our industry can offer people impacted by the crisis a way to make some additional income during this difficult time.

Perhaps you can offer a number of 'bonus' packages (care packages) for anyone who joins your business due to virus-related job loss or cut-backs. These care packages could be products you have on hand, a stationary package, or some other incentive.

I want to stress here that it's super important to be sensitive and compassionate. It would not be wise to come across as though you want to capitalize on their hardship. Make clear that you are offering an option to help them.

It's also important not to over-promise on your business opportunity. Don't make big income claims - they will have to put in some work into their new business.

A great way to do some recruiting - even while observing social distancing - is to run a Facebook recruiting event. I've got all the steps involved and some images you can use here.

When in isolation
If you are forced to self-isolate or your area is in lock-down, make the most of the time.

You can grow your business online - if I could do it from a hospital room you can certainly do it from home. Having some time at home is also a great opportunity to increase your business knowledge and do some self-development.

Here are some ideas for podcasts for direct sellers and a few good books to read. It's also a great time to go refresh yourself on some of your company's online training or explore our training for direct sellers.

This too shall pass
Remind yourself that it's going to be okay. Do your best online during the crisis, but don't forget it's not the end of your business if your parties dry up.

You can re-launch when the pandemic is over.

After I had been in business for quite a few years, I moved over 700 kilometres away to a new town where I had no connections at all. I used all the techniques to re-launch my business in a new area that I write about in this blog.

You can re-start a business and build it up again once this crisis is over.

Check this article on doing a re-launch and this article on getting bookings when you have none in your diary.

Worried about the Coronavirus crisis and your direct sales biz? Read these quick tips to protect your business!

Now is not the time to panic! We're fortunate that in our industry we can be flexible in how we conduct our business. Using technology we can be connected to our teamies, our customers and our prospects - even when we're confined to our homes.

When my daughter was isolated in hospital as her immune system was so weak, I never felt lonely because I managed to stay in touch with friends and family and my business connections. I'm so grateful that she beat cancer and that she's healthy. But in a funny way, the crisis our family went through has prepared me for this global crisis and I know that my business will be okay.

I'm sending you all my love - especially if you or your friends or family are in a high-risk category.

The 1 mistake you don’t want to make on social media

My cringe muscles are getting sore…because I cringe every time I’m on social media and see the one big mistake so many direct sellers make.

I’m sure you’ve seen it too…and maybe you’ve even done it yourself in the past: product dumping and constant begging for parties or recruits.

Posting product image after product image on social media and expecting friends and family to buy them doesn’t work. I’d be surprised if they even read those posts!

To make matters worse, some of these ‘product dumpers’ use generic company images and descriptions so the Facebook algorithm doesn’t think that’s unique content and won’t show it to many people at all.

(If you want to understand the Facebook algorithm better so your posts get seen more, just click the explainer below).

Facebook Algorithm Quick Explainer

An algorithm is a formula or set of steps to achieve something or solve a problem. In Facebook, the algorithm decides what to show you in your newsfeed and in which order. Everybody’s newsfeed is different because the algorithm takes your own behavior as well as other bits of information into account.

So when you open Facebook, the algorithm looks at all the stories posted by your friends and by the pages and groups that you follow. The algorithm then looks at things like who posted the story and how often they publish, any negative feedback on that author, what engagement stories already have (the more engagement they have the more likely it is that you’ll see it in your feed), if a friend has already commented, and much more.

The Facebook algorithm uses all that information to make some predictions, such as how likely you are to click on a story, watch a video, share a story, etc. This helps the algorithm decide what to show you in your newsfeed and in which order.

So you want the algorithm to like you to get shown in other people’s newsfeeds. How do you get the algorithm to like you? There are some general recommendations:

Complete your Facebook profile.
Publish regularly.
Create content that likely to elicit positive feedback from your audience (positive comments, likes, or reactions. Reactions affect post ranking slightly more than likes). But do not ask for shares or likes – this is frowned upon by the algorithm.
When you want to post a video, use Facebook Live or upload videos to Facebook directly instead of linking to YouTube videos.
Post content that’s informative and shareable.
Post content that your audience will spend some time on – for example videos.
Post unique content – so no pics or posts copied from your company.

In addition to product dumping, I see plenty ‘general announcement posts’ . The kind that says “I just started with XYZ Company, let me know if you’d like a party”.

And these direct sellers will tell you they’ve “asked everyone” to host a launch party and wonder why their business never really gets off the ground. (If you want to do a great launch, check this article).

How to do it well

Social media is all about…well…being social. As a direct seller you’re in the relationship business so you want to build lasting relationships online.

Here are a few things to consider:

Your Business Page or Account

This is an important asset for your business. It’s like an old fashioned Yellow Pages ad.

Google will index your Facebook business page so if people search for you they can find your page. Additionally, if your company allows paid advertising you can do that through your business page or account.

And while this page is separate from your personal page, you do need to show a little of your personality and what sets you apart from other consultants! It’s important to develop your own ‘voice’ and style on that page to attract people.

A business page is vital, but it’s only part of your attraction marketing strategy.

Your Customer or VIP Group

This is where the action is! You want to create lots of activity and engagement in your group and nurture those relationships with your customers and/or hosts.

Your group is more intimate and personal than your business page so you can be a little more personal there. I recommend lots of video content for your group – preferably live video to really build those personal connections (and so the Facebook Algorithm will favor your content).

Your Personal Profile

You can use your personal page or account to talk up your business – but you’ve got to do it well!

You don’t want to post constantly about how amazing your business or your products are. It doesn’t matter how much your business has changed your life for the better, if you post about it a lot you’ll end up annoying people.

PIN: Don't make this 1 mistake on social media. Direct sales tip with free printable.

On the flip side, if someone scrolls through your last 10 posts or so and doesn’t see anything about your business at all you’ve missed an opportunity.

Every now and then talk about your business from a personal angle, after all it’s part of your life. The other thing you want to do is to include a link to your business page in your profile (not to your company’s page, to yours!).

Create engaging and entertaining content

So if you don’t want to be product dumping or endlessly beg for parties, what do you post?

I have a nice freebie for you I created a while back: a list of 50 social media post ideas specifically for direct sellers. You can get it here.

On top of that, I’ve created a calendar for 2020 with awareness days including some ideas of what to post to make the most of that day on your business page. Fill out the form below to receive that freebie.

Between these two printables you’ll have enough ideas to keep you going all year and attract people to you like a magnet, rather than push them away with spammy or boring content.

Get the social media calendar with direct sales post ideas and you'll also get my weekly email with tips. You'll never miss an article or freebie again!

We will process your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe any time by using the unsubscribe button in the emails.

If you want to learn more about how to rock your Facebook business pages and your Facebook groups, check out the Attraction Marketing Course.

Explore the Attraction Marketing Course

How to have a massive Black Friday in your Direct Sales Biz

Black Friday is coming! This is a massive opportunity for your direct sales biz, especially combined with Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.

Although Black Friday started as a US tradition following Thanksgiving, it has spread around the world and is now a global opportunity for us all. But as always, you’ve got to prepare to take advantage of it!

Don’t make this mistake…

I’ve observed many direct sellers making this mistake: focusing entirely on sales during this special weekend. Although Black Friday is a massive sales opportunity, you want to make sure you focus on future business growth too by collecting bookings and encouraging joining.

This is the time to use whatever stock supplies you’ve been able to gather throughout the year and invest them back into your biz this weekend. Offer prizes for everyone who books a December or January event and also put together ‘Lucky Friday’ bundles for everyone who joins your business.

Remember that a new team member is worth the most to your business long-term! Bookings help your business to continue to roll forward while sales are your income right now. Don’t make the mistake of only focusing on your income today – also work to grow your biz for tomorrow!

As very few direct sales companies add joining or booking incentives to their promotions, you’ll have to plan ahead and create your own!

Your Social Media Strategy

The more time you invest throughout the year into developing great online relationships, the better your results will be when it comes to promotions like this.

People don’t like to be sold to constantly, so you want to be adding value or entertainment in your social presence and your VIP groups.

But even if your VIP group is new or you haven’t been posting valuable content throughout the year, there are still some things you can do to promote your awesome Black Friday offers:

Go Live in your customer group. This is a great strategy for a few reasons: Facebook prioritizes live video content in people’s newsfeeds. This means you’ll get great reach with a Facebook Live. Second of all, live videos resonate with people as they can see the real you and catch your enthusiasm and excitement about the offers.
Use every available means to reach your customers. Use emails, text messages or messenger bots to promote your offers. I like to build up text groups and email lists as they are lists that I own and I don’t have to worry about Facebook or Instagram making changes to their platform.
Amplify features and benefits. Make your offers awesome and irresistible to your customers. Here are some ways doing that:
- Bundle Deals: if your company offers special bundle deals they’ll sell better if you explain the benefits of each product in the bundle and add suggestions who might like to receive these products as a gift.
- Discount: In the lead-up to Black Friday, encourage your customers to prepare a wishlist and tease them with ‘something exciting coming’ type posts. To make the most of discount offers you can create your own bundles and add a freebie to up the value. This helps to increase the average spend per customer.
- Build Excitement: Add to the momentum of the weekend by adding your own giveaways. As I mentioned above, it’s a good idea to have some incentives for bookings and joining your team, but you can also use gifts to encourage orders placed by a certain time, the first 20 orders, a draw from all Black Friday orders, orders over a certain amount, etc.
- In-home Event: Host your own in-home shopping event. There’s nothing better than the excitement of a group of people shopping together. You could even do a Live from the event into an online party or your customer group to share the excitement.

Takeaways:

Pin: Prepare for a MASSIVE Black Friday in your direct sales business.

Plan ahead to be ready to make the most of the Black Friday weekend.
Don’t just focus on sales. Encourage bookings and joining with special offers.
Share your Black Friday offers through text, email, and social media to maximize your customer reach.

I’d really love to hear what you’re planning to do for the Black Friday weekend. Let us know in the comments below!

Facebook Party Game: Treasure Hunt

To make your direct sales Facebook parties a success you need interaction from the guests.

There are lots of ways to stimulate interaction (check this article for some information and ideas), with games being a favorite.

Today’s Facebook party game is a treasure hunt. And at the end of the treasure hunt there’s a prize, of course.

The treasure hunt isn’t just fun to do and leads to a prize, the advantage for you is that it nudges guests to check the catalog, videos, or your company website. You encourage them to interact with company materials they might have otherwise skipped!

What you need for the Facebook Treasure Hunt

A Facebook party
A prize, a discount, free delivery, or a 2-for-1 deal – a ‘treasure’ that your guests can win when they find all the clues
Clues
Videos and images to go with your treasure hunt posts
All relevant links to the catalog, company website or company videos.

How to set up the treasure hunt

The treasure hunt is played over the duration of your Facebook party. It works best over several days. You set up a series of clues for which the guests need to do something to find the answer. Once they’ve found the answers, they win a prize.

For example, if your party runs over 3 days you can create a treasure hunt with 4 questions, two for each day with winner announcements on the last day. Or if you play over 5 days you could do a clue each day and again on the last day do the winner announcements.

This isn’t a set-and-forget game. Guests will PM you with the answer so it’s not public in the comments. This means you’ll need to keep track of who’s solved which question!

At the start of the party, you announce the treasure hunt. You can do this in a video or a post. Either way, make sure you’re very clear on the rules. Include the following information:

How many clues there will be
The rules to win a prize (do they need to solve all clues? Or just one?)
When you’ll announce the winners
What the prize is (make a big deal out of this)
How to play (check the clue, find the answer, PM you)

Ideas for clues

Because every direct sales company is different, it’s impossible for me to write a script that you can just grab and go. But I can give you a big list of ideas so you can set-up your own treasure hunt. And once you’ve created your own treasure hunt, you can use it again and again.

I highly recommend grabbing the free printable below, it’ll help you to work through setting up your own treasure hunt and create a checklist you can use to tick off your tasks. It also comes with this list of ideas:

Ask a question about your welcome video at the start of your Facebook party. The answer can only be found by watching the video.
Ask a question about a specific page, product range, or special offer that can be found in the catalog.
Ask a question about a company recruiting video. They have to PM you with something they can only know by watching the whole video.
Ask for their favorite product of all time or their favorite product a new range.
Ask a question about one of your (or your company’s) how-to videos about how to use a specific product.
Ask guests something about the host (her favorite product, her ideal holiday, her secret ‘addiction’, etc.)
Ask a question that can only be answered by visiting your website (perhaps the ‘about me’ section, product ordering section, FAQ, etc.)
Ask a question about a specific product (benefit, ingredient, awards won, etc.) that they can find on the company website or the catalog.
Ask the guests to create an account on your website (some companies offer this option) and PM you with their customer number or a screenshot.
Ask something about the current host incentives, sales offer or joining incentive.
Ask guests to join your email list or VIP group.
Ask what’s on a specific page of the catalog (Which product is listed in the top left corner of page 5?)
Ask something that they can only know by reading a consultant story in the catalog or company website.

When setting up your treasure hunt, try to create a mix of tasks. You want the guests to view the catalog and at least watch or read something related to joining. Don’t make it all about joining or the company or all about the products, try to mix it up!

For each clue, create a post with a related image. Make sure you include the links they need to solve the clue. If you can do quick videos for all or some of the clues, even better!

Now, grab the printable to set-up your own treasure hunt that you can use in your Facebook parties.

Looking for even more games? Have a look at the Ultimate Games Bundle for Direct Sellers. It comes with 26 done-for-you games for in-home and Facebook parties. Check it out today:

Why Facebook Watch Parties are perfect for direct sellers

I think Facebook Watch Parties are the most exciting new feature for direct sellers to hit Facebook in the last 2 years.

If you don’t want to go Live on Facebook but still want to experience the benefits of a Live video…you will love Watch Parties.

Facebook has openly said that YouTube is their main competitor, so they are focusing much more of their attention on the video components of Facebook. The algorithm already massively favors video, especially Live video. But if you don’t want to go Live, you can still get all the benefits from the algorithm and more with Watch Parties!

What is the Facebook algorithm?

So when you open Facebook, the algorithm looks at all the stories posted by your friends and by the pages that you follow. The algorithm then looks at things like who posted the story and how often they publish, any negative feedback on that author, what time it is now, what device you’re on, what engagement stories already have (the more engagement they have the more likely it is that you’ll see it in your feed), if a friend has already commented, and much more.

How do you get the algorithm to like you as a publisher? Here are some general recommendations:

Complete your Facebook profile.
Publish regularly.
Create content likely to elicit positive feedback from your audience (positive comments, likes, or reactions. Reactions affect post ranking slightly more than likes). But do not ask for shares or likes – this is frowned upon by the algorithm.
When you want to post a video use Facebook Live or upload videos to Facebook directly, instead of linking to YouTube.
Publish content that promotes engagement and an investment of time from your audience (video content or polls are great for that).
Post content that’s informative and shareable.

So what’s so awesome about Facebook Watch Parties?

Awesome thing #1: You can stream any video that’s publicly available on Facebook

When you start a Watch Party, Facebook will stream the video live and treats it as though it’s a Facebook Live.

This means that you can stream a company recruitment video, for example, as though it’s your live video. Previously, if you shared a video from another page or group, its reach was very limited.

The other advantage is for people who are not fond of doing live videos. You can pre-record your videos and then use them in a Watch Party and still get the benefits of a Facebook Live. The Facebook algorithm will give your Watch Party the same priority and reach as if you’re doing a Live!

Awesome thing #2: You can invite people to your Watch Party

You can invite people to join your Watch Party, which increases the chances they’ll join. You can’t do this for a Facebook Live!

This is a powerful feature because people will get a notification about your Watch Party when it’s about to start.

Awesome thing #3: You can comment during the video

When you’re doing a Facebook Live, you can’t also type comments at the same time. When you’re doing a Watch Party you can be there and comment and chat with your leads, online party guests or customers.

This increases interaction and engagement with the video which the algorithm loves. And when the algorithm learns that people like your content, your content will show up in their newsfeeds more!

Awesome thing #4: You can schedule your Watch Parties

You can’t schedule a Facebook Live unless you use a third-party service such as BeLive. But you can schedule your Watch Party, so you can announce it in advance in your group or on your page.

Awesome thing #5: You can put multiple videos in your Watch Party

You can create a ‘playlist’ of videos in your Watch Party. This might come in handy if you have a series of product videos that go together, for example. And you can add videos during the Watch Party!

Limitations of Watch Parties

Facebook Watch Parties for Direct Sellers

When people miss the ‘screening’ they cannot replay it. Watch Parties are not like Netflix but more like broadcast television. Once the show is over, it’s over. However, your videos will still be visible as a post. So although the live interactive component is not accessible afterwards, people can still watch the videos of the Watch Party.

You can only use videos that are publicly available on Facebook. That means that videos you’ve shared in closed groups or secret groups cannot be used outside of those groups. You can create a Watch Party inside the group and use videos that you shared inside that group, you just can’t take it out of the group.

When you invite people to your Watch Party, they don’t get that invite until it begins. This means people who are invited aren’t notified in advance even if you’ve scheduled the party. You could manually message people separately to alert them ahead of time but that’s a lot of work.

How you can use Watch Parties in your direct sales business

Here are some ideas on how to use Watch Parties in your Facebook groups or Facebook business page:

Pre-record a welcome video for your Facebook parties and invite all guests to the Watch Party. This will be a great reminder that the Facebook party is happening now and you can re-use the video for other parties instead of going live every time.
Pre-record a product demonstration. You can then use this in your customer group, Facebook parties, on your business page, etc. Invite guests or group members to your Watch Party and be sure to interact in the comments.
When you’re doing an online recruiting event, you can use your company recruitment video or pre-record your own recruiting video. Invite your leads to watch the video with you in the Watch Party.
Pre-record a video with your monthly specials or offers. Create a Watch Party in your customer group, invite members and make sure you’re interacting in the comments for questions, bookings or sales.
In your team Facebook group you can create a Watch Party for training videos. You can be in the comments to clarify things. This is a great way to get the team together to learn a new feature or get brand new teamies together doing training with you online. With your invites you can target the team members you would like to ‘attend’.

I hope you can see the potential of Watch Parties for your business. I’m also curious how you guys are using Watch Parties, so please comment below.