How to sell in your customer groups

You have a customer group, right?

As a direct seller you need to be on social media (yep, stating the obvious here).

Which social media? That’s up to you, wherever you’re comfortable and have connections.

But I do recommend you add Facebook to your mix – not in the least because you can create private customer groups.

Your customer group is the place where you can hang out, be a little more relaxed and have some fun. It’s also the place where you can sell to your existing customers and recruit new team members.

Why you need a Facebook business page & a group

Personal Profile	Business Page	FB Group
Your family & friends	Your ‘billboard’ (is Google searchable)	Your ‘clubhouse’
Sparingly post business posts	Post about your biz in a fun way	Engage with your customers and hosts
Doing business on a personal profile is not allowed and is spammy	You’re allowed to sell, run contests, and advertise	Engage, teach, have fun, and also sell and recruit
	Less importance in newsfeeds	More importance in newsfeeds

Many direct sales companies don’t allow you to post prices or specials in public places, so that’s where your private group comes in super handy too!

I recommend that you create a private group that is visible to everybody. That gives you full control over who is a member and also makes it a little more exclusive.

What to post in your Facebook Group

Once you have your Facebook Group setup, you want to make sure you engage that audience. You want them to enjoy their time in your group, you want them to stay and you want them to participate.

Don’t worry too much about the size of the group, it’s quality over quantity here! An engaged audience that comment and participates is much more important than having lots of people in your group.

I generally recommend the 9 – 1 – 1 posting cycle (full credit to Karen Clark, she’s the one who invented it): Out of every 11 posts, you post 9 unique and interesting bits of content, one promotional post (perhaps with an image or video provided by your company) and one personal post.

If you’re struggling with ideas for those 9 bits of unique content, have a look at my 50 Social Media Post Ideas for Direct Sellers, that’ll start your creative juices flowing!

One thing you want to add to your posting schedule is ‘engagement posts’. These are posts that invite a comment such as games, polls, or questions. I have an article with a bunch of free engagement images for you to download that you can use in your groups or your Facebook parties.

So now that you understand what to post, your next step is to schedule a bunch of posts. You can use a scheduler such as Cinchshare or use Facebook’s own scheduling service. By sitting down each month to plan out your posts, you make your life so much easier.

When you schedule your posts, leave some room for spontaneous additions such as business achievements, recognition or a special. Whenever something interesting happens in your personal life that your audience can relate to (you kid’s first day of school, a kitchen disaster, dropped your phone, won a raffle, etc.) you can also post that in your group, not just on your personal page.

Personal posts like that make you less corporate and more of a person – just like your customers.

How to sell in your direct sales Facebook Group

So now that you have your regular attraction marketing posts worked out, let’s talk about selling in the group.

There are several ways to do sales, and I recommend you use all of them (variety is the spice of life, after all).

Educate
If your product lends itself to it, you want (and even need) to educate people on how to get the most out of it. Examples are how to use a product to its maximum potential, how to care for your product, any product ‘hacks’, any background on how it was made or why was created, etc.

This is especially useful when a new product (range) is launched by your direct sales company.

The best way to do educational posts is with video! Video rules the rankings on Facebook and I highly recommend you get comfortable making videos and going Live.

With each educational post or video you want to end with a ‘Call To Action’ – that’s what you want your customers to do. At the end of a video or post you could say something like: “For more info on product XYZ, just send me a message now” or “Let me know in the comments how you use product XYZ” or “If you want to buy this product, just send me a message and I’ll set you up” or send them the link to the item on your shopping website.

Specials
Specials are always exciting for existing customers. Definitely post your company’s sales, special offers, etc. in your group as soon as they come out.

Series / Focus
If your products lend themselves to a series of posts, definitely do that. You don’t just have to do educational posts, you can mix things up with related games, polls, memes, etc.

Pinterest: How to sell in your customer Facebook groups

Make sure you have some sort of focus in the series. Here are some ideas:

Ingredient Focus = focus on 1 ingredient. Post about which products use it, what it does (benefits), where it comes from, history, in pop culture (book or movie references), etc.
Color Focus = all the products in your catalog in that color. Post about any backstory (personal or from the company), how to mix and match, any educational bits on these products, etc.
Product Group Series = when certain products go really well together. This is almost like a ‘hack’. If they buy this one product, you recommend that they add these other products because then they can achieve a better outcome. Post about why do they go well together, any way to maximize the use, can they get these products as a host reward or on a special, etc.
Purpose Focus = a series about all the products that do the same thing (ie. cleansers or purses). Post about why you need this type of product, what makes them different and how to choose which one is right for them.
Seasonal Focus = a series on seasonal products. Highlight each product, talk about how it enhances your season, etc.
New Release Series = all the new products in the new catalog. This is very much an educational series but you can add in any other bits of information (where it’s made, pop culture references, hacks, how to care for the product, etc.)

And don’t forget, end each video with a call to action. What is it that you want them to do? Do you want engagement? Ask for comments. Do you want a sale? Post the link to the ordering site or ask them to message you. Do you want them to request a catalog? Ask them to message you.

Pick one thing and end the video with that ‘call to action’.

When you do a product series, make sure you do it over a few days or a week and don’t do them too often. Spread them out over the year.

A 100 Square*
A fun way of ‘selling’ is using a 100-square. You create an image or document with 100 numbered squares. You sell each square for a certain price, let’s say $5, and you write the buyer’s name in the square.

This will give you $500 to buy a whole bunch of products from your company to create a couple of prize packs with. Once all the squares are sold you draw the winners and send them the prize packs! (If fewer squares are sold, you can either not do the draw (and not take the money) or buy fewer prizes)

If your total is enough to earn host rewards, you can use these for an extra prize.

The 100-square is very adaptable and can be used in a bunch of different ways to suit your situation. One variation is to use it for fundraising. You can donate a percentage of your commission and even the host rewards to a charity of your choice.

If you want to fundraise regularly, you could even pick a new charity every month (do a poll to ask your Facebook group which charity they’d like to fundraise for) and do a 100-square every month.

* As this is essentially a raffle, you have to be mindful of the rules and regulations in your state or country around raffles. Always abide by the rules!

Over to you: do you have any specific type of post you use to sell in your customer group?

If you want to learn more about ‘attraction marketing’ and how to draw people to you without being spammy, I’ve got just the thing for you: the Attraction Marketing Course for Direct Sellers. Check it out below!

2 Tips for Your Launch

Have you started your direct sales journey? Or are you resuming your journey after a break?

I’ve got 2 tips for you on (re-) launching your business and common mistakes that you want to avoid.

And if you’re a leader, you might consider teaching this strategies to your newbies, just like I do.

The first tip relates to how to promote your new adventure (and how not to do it) and the second tip is about how you get your very first parties filled.

DO: Shout it from the rooftops!
You’ll want to announce your new business online. You’ll want a business Facebook page, Instagram account, Twitter account…whichever social media is ‘home’ for you.

But your new business account is pretty empty when you first start out. So, start with announcing your new adventure on your personal social media profiles.

A really great way to grab people’s attention and show your enthusiasm for your new business is by doing a Facebook /Instagram Live of unboxing your starter kit. It won’t take long and isn’t difficult, but it’s a very effective way to show how excited you are and what kind of products you’ll be selling.

You can then follow up with a link to your business page, of course!

DON’T: Spam your friends
A common mistake is that new consultants announce in a text status update that they’ve joined a direct sales business. Boring. Then they’ll add something like “contact me if you want to book a party”. That’s not very interesting, enthusiastic, or personal. It also just doesn’t work.

To make matters worse, they’ll then spam their personal feed with endless product photos. And they wonder why nobody is buying or booking except their Mum (bless Mum!)

Avoid this pitfall by reading this article on how to market online without being spammy, and then grab this free list of 50 social media post ideas. For bonus points, set-up an exclusive group for customers so you can start your social media marketing properly.

Launching your direct selling business? Here's how to announce it properly and how to get those first parties. #DirectSales #PartyPlan

DO: Set party dates for two personal parties
Set two dates within 3 days of each other (for example a Thursday night and a Saturday afternoon in the same week). By hosting your own two parties, you can take advantage of any host rewards and expand your kit quickly. It will also help you to achieve any starter incentives, if your company offers any.

How you approach the invitation can make a huge difference in the start of your business.

Here’s the secret: your number one aim when talking to family and friends is to get hosts. Filling your own two parties is secondary.

This is how you approach it:

Ask for help. Tell them how excited you are about your new business but that you really need their help to get the business started.

Tell them you’re looking for 2 parties in the next few weeks. (If you can secure more than 2 bookings from your friends and family, that’s fantastic but aim for at least 2).

Try to get your bookings within the first three to four weeks so you can build momentum and confidence quickly.

Anybody who isn’t interested in hosting their own party can be invited to one of your two parties. This is why you have your dates set already: you want this to be a smooth conversation where you ask them to host a party for you but you have a backup option where they can help you by being a guest at one of your parties. And you have 2 dates so that they’re more likely to be able to attend one of them!

Now, if they can’t host a party or attend your party as a guest, ask them if you can send them a catalog.

DON’T Start with the catalog option
Many new consultants are a bit nervous at first and make the mistake of starting the conversation by offering their catalog and then try to “upsell” to hosting a party.

But it’s much more effective to start with the biggest ask of hosting a party for you, then you can “downgrade” to the guest option and finally the catalog option.

Most people will want to help you and they don’t like saying “no” to you. They’re bound to say “yes” to at least one of your offers! But if you’ve already offered them the easy option of the catalog and they said “yes” to that, they won’t feel they need to say “yes” to anything else you’re offering them!

There are many more tips and ideas for new consultants that I could share, but I don’t want to overwhelm you.

If you implement the two tips above (and avoid the pitfalls) you’ll make a great start of it. Then continue to learn and grow!

If you want to continue reading today, I recommend these 3 articles:

Recruiting in Online Events

Recruiting from your online events can be a fabulous way to grow your business. But, unfortunately, most direct sellers don’t mention recruiting at all or just post 1 thing about the business opportunity at a Facebook party and believe they’ve done all that’s necessary to let recruits flow in.

It doesn’t quite work like that. Unfortunately.

My rule of thumb is to use 1/3 of your ‘display’ to be dedicated to the business opportunity, 1/3 to bookings, and 1/3rd to the products. With in-home parties I mean that quite literally, 1/3 of your display should be dedicated to promoting the business, and with Facebook parties I make about 1/3 of my posts related to the business.

It’s unlikely that your Facebook party guests see every single post that you put at the party. Not to mention, people need to see something multiple times before they take action. So don’t worry about having too many posts about joining or bookings.

Just to be sure, I’m not encouraging you to post the exact same thing several times! Be a bit creative, highlight different benefits, and try to reach different types of people with your posts.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Don’t rely solely on posts in your Facebook party. It’s super effective to go ‘Live’ during your event, preferably a few times! The Facebook Algorithm prioritizes Lives, so it’s likely many of the guests will see it!

Live videos will help the guests will form more of a connection with you as a person rather than thinking of you as Salesperson X of Company Y. A Live video also gives you the opportunity to talk about the business opportunity with enthusiasm and passion, which are hard to capture in a status update.

Doing this Live will help you to reach more people and have more of an impact – it’s the difference between reading about something and watching a video about it with images and sound. It’ll allow you to show your passion and enthusiasm and become an actual person rather than a name on a screen!

If you’re not confident enough yet to go Live, pre-record a video in which you talk about the business opportunity. This way, you can do it multiple times until you’re happy with it. It’s not as effective as the Facebook algorithm, but it’s the next best thing. And it’s just as effective in building trust and a connection with people!

Here are some prompts to help you talk about your business opportunity:

What do you love most about your direct sales biz?
Why did you join?
How much does it cost to get started?
What benefits are there to starting right now?
What can they earn from an average party or event?
What else can they earn as a consultant?

You might not want to put all those things in your video or Live and rather talk about some of these topics in a post.

A critical component of success in your business is following up

Thinking ahead and planning for follow-up is vital when you’re doing online events. To be able to follow up, you’ll need contact details. You want to connect with them in a different way from Facebook posts to make it more personal. Here are some ideas to help you get those contact details:

Google Forms or Survey Monkey

I like to create a Lucky Door Prize entry form and encourage guests to fill out the form at the start of the party and will remind them throughout the event to fill out the form to go in the draw. At the end of the event I draw a winner who will get a small prize or a discount.

The advantage of a form or survey is that you can ask other questions too, such as an offer to provide more information on joining your direct sales business.

You could create a ‘tick box’ style question like this:
Tell me how I can:
– earn free products
– get an ongoing discount
– earn cash as a social seller to family and friends
– run a lucrative side hustle
– build a serious business

Connect via Messenger

It’s very helpful during the Facebook party to be able to send private messages to the guests. However, if you’ve never connected before, the guests are unlikely to even see your messages.

By offering ‘Party Points’ or a mystery prize winner to one lucky guest who sends you an emoji or hello to you, you make that initial connection in Facebook Messenger. Once you are connected, guests will see future messages from you. Make it easy for guests to actually connect with you by sharing your unique Messenger link, which you can find in your profile in the Messenger app. It’ll look something like m.me/facebook.name

I hope this article has given you a few ideas to improve your recruiting from online events. If there’s a tip you’d like to share, leave it below in the comments!

I’ve written the kind of book I would have loved someone to give me when I started out —it’s the HOW-TO OF RECRUITING.

Order your copy here

5 Ways to Maximize Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a fabulous opportunity for your party plan or direct sales business.

I’ve listed five ideas that you can swipe to maximize your February!

Shower your customers with love

Declare February “The Month Of Love.” This month, pamper your customers and show them how much you appreciate them. Perhaps you can offer a gift with every order, free shipping, or a discount.

The gift doesn’t have to be big or expensive. For example, I recently made an online purchase and received a small heart-shaped soap as a gift. How cute is that for February? Another option is adding chocolates to every order to make your customers feel special.

Declaring February as your “Month of Love” allows you to promote your special deal all month, not just for Valentine’s Day.

I’ve created some tiles you can use to promote your Month of Love on Social Media. Please scroll down to grab them.

Shower your leaders with love

If you have a party plan or direct sales team, you can use Valentine’s Day as the inspiration for a “Share the Love” recruiting incentive.

Encourage your team to focus on promoting the business opportunity during February by sharing their love for their business. For example, leaders can offer heart-shaped jewelry, luxury gift boxes of chocolates, or other Valentine’s Day-appropriate incentives to teamies who recruit.

Bonus tip: wait until after Valentine’s Day to buy your incentive prizes when they’re on sale!

The direct sales opportunity is a gift. Please share it with as many people as possible in February.

Make Buying Easy

Make buying gifts super easy for your customers by creating gift bundles.

Gather a few of your products that make an excellent set, and add a gift that complements your bundle. Think of gift items like a bottle of wine, a tea towel, a candle, etc.

The best way to promote this is to buy some nice boxes or baskets and create a few different bundles at various prices. Use gift wrap, cellophane, and ribbons to make your gift look stunningly attractive.

The benefit of pre-purchasing and preparing your gift bundles is that you can offer last-minute gifts (as you don’t have to wait for the stock to arrive) and have something physical and pretty to promote.

Start taking them to your in-home parties a few weeks before Valentine’s Day to promote your bundles. Also, take some photographs and share your bundles on social media focusing on the men in your customers’ lives.

Depending on your products, you could even take these gifts to workplaces and offer men these gift packs for their loved ones.

Add Valentine’s to your display.

A great way to promote Valentine’s Day and spark the gift-purchasing impulse at your in-home parties or vendor events is to add some Valentine’s Day-themed items to your display.

Just as a window display is designed to entice people to enter the shop, your display attracts people to purchase products or book an event.

In the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, add some lovely heart-themed props to your display to promote gifts.

Don’t forget Self-Love.

I want to expand the meaning of Valentine’s Day to include self-love. At your events and on your social media, encourage your customers to treat themselves to something special.

Self-care is vital for our mental health, so let’s make sure that people treat themselves in February, so they feel fabulous!

I hope these ideas sparked your creativity to make the most of Valentine’s Day. And I’m curious to hear what you’re doing in February to maximize the special occasion!

Attract people into your customer group

Your Facebook Group is your hangout, your clubhouse. That’s where you engage with your fans, where you’re most likely to make sales and get bookings, and where you’re likely to recruit.

Additionally, many companies have strict policies on what you can post publicly, with more relaxed rules for private groups and personal messages.

So you want a Facebook Group. If you don’t already have one, create one right now!

Then the next question is, how do you get people to join your group?

Funnel people from your business page to your group

When you post about something new and exciting, such as a special or a new product launch, you want to link to your group:

Oh wow, look at this new product – it’s so amazing! Join my group to see more information [link to your group]

The new catalog is here with exciting new products. Join my group to see more [link to your group]

You can do something similar when you do Facebook Live. For example, if you do a Live video about a brand new product, you can say at the end something like, “Join my group to get more information.” Then, pop a link to your group in the comments so people can easily click through.

Once people join your group to find the information, you want to make it super easy for them to do that. Inside your group, you pin a post with an image of the product. Include the information and how to buy it.

By pinning the post at the top of your group, people will immediately find the information they want to see.

Ask party guests to join your group

At in-home parties, make it fun to join your Facebook group. Ask people to join your group, and everybody who joins on the spot gets a bar of chocolate or some other little prize.

You can reward people with party points or lucky draw tickets in online parties when they join your group.

An entertaining way to get party guests to join your Facebook group is to make it part of a game. The What’s On Your Phone game is designed to get people to join your group, and it’s a super fun game to play.

Be loud and proud

If people don’t know your group exists, they won’t want to join it. So make sure you post on your business page about your group. You can talk about how grateful you are for your fantastic group and publicly thank them when people share your group with others.

You can also ask your group members to post about the group. Perhaps do a little giveaway for everybody who posts about your group on their page and tags a few friends. Don’t ask people to invite their friends. It isn’t polite just to invite people who aren’t expecting it.

When your group reaches a milestone, like 50 or 100 members, celebrate that.

Content is king

Direct sales tip: how to attract people into your customer group

Content is king in your group. People will only stay if they get something out of it.

Post fun content (it doesn’t have to be business related) and educational, and helps them to connect with you. Videos are a great way to check all these boxes!

And, of course, if there are company specials and new offers, your fans will want to be the first to know about it!

Learn more!

5 Secrets to Thriving in Online Direct Sales

Title: 5 secrets to thriving in your online direct sales business

Since the pandemic, the way direct sellers engage with customers has changed and evolved.

Most direct sellers around the globe have been forced to run their business online.

I was ahead of the curve in 2016. At the time, my daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia and we were in and out of hospital for two and a half years, so I learned how to go virtual.

Sophie is healthy and thriving now but what I’ve learned came in handy when Covid-19 took hold. It meant I could help my team and go entirely online.

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed that there’s no one set formula for online success. As a result, direct sellers adapt and change tips and ideas. However, a few best practices work for everybody, so let’s look at those to help you thrive online with your direct sales business.

I recommend focusing on one or two platforms if you’re new to starting. There are two considerations when choosing which platforms to use.

Firstly, where are your customers hanging out and which social media are you most comfortable using? Secondly, most people are on Facebook, and you’re likely to find an older audience there.

On the other hand, the younger demographic and more affluent people tend to hang out on Instagram, and the digital natives like to use Tiktok and Snapchat.

Once you’re confident and happy with your one or two leading platforms, you might consider adding content to YouTube as well. YouTube is great for longer-form content, especially with an educational slant. In addition, it will help you to establish yourself as a knowledgeable and competent consultant.

Be Consistent

Consistency is key. It’s no use posting five times a day on Monday but nothing for the remainder of the week. So scheduling your posts and updates is super helpful to maintain consistency.

There are many schedulers around, and if you’re using Facebook, you can also utilise its scheduling functionality.

I use Cinchshare and sit down one afternoon a month to batch all my posts. Then, I leave room in my posting schedule for spontaneous updates. For example, when my company sends me flowers to congratulate an achievement, I’ll post about that in the gaps in my scheduled posts, so it’s relevant and new.

Be Professional

Remember that what you post publicly is a reflection on your business too.

Show Your Personality

To stand out, you want to let your personality shine.

You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be you. So bring elements of your personal life into the business.

For example, you can show how the flexibility of your business means you have lots of time for your rock painting hobby. Showing your style and personality online will make you unique and relatable.

Showcase Your Knowledge

Aim to become the go-to person for tips and information on the products you sell.

Keep in mind that it can take a while to build an audience online. Keep trying new things. Be consistent. Be persistent!

Are you ready for the next step in your direct sales business?

Learn how to pull people towards you and build long-term online relationships without being pushy or spammy

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, which means that far more people will see it 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 that many consultants don’t know what to talk about on a Facebook Live, or they are 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 delivered products.

2: New Range First Impressions

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

You can extend this with a follow-up Live a week 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. Then, 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, for one month, you could review concealers or mascaras. Other topics could be how to 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 into 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 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 setting up for a party when you pack customer orders and when deliveries are ready to go. You could tour your messy office when unpacking deliveries, etc.

You don’t have to go Live long. But, a quick, exciting, 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 during the break) is a great way to show off your direct sales business from a different angle.

7: Exciting Reveals

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

8: Top Tips & Product Hacks

Offering your tips on making 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.

The back story about how a product is made, where it’s from, or some specific ingredients is 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 teammate who can talk about how the business changed their life.

When you start with Lives, you might find that 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 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 for social media for direct sellers!

Learn more!

8 Easy Video Tips for Direct Sellers

Are you camera shy?
Is this dilemma holding you from reaching your highest potential as a direct seller?

I know it can be scary to get started on video if you’ve never done it before. So if you’re a bit shy about being on camera, read on for tips on overcoming that fear!

Video content is vital to your online presence and social media popularity. To gain success on social media, you must create your own videos because social media algorithms highly value unique content.

But this doesn’t have to be difficult or technical.

I like to keep things simple and cheap! Sounds good, right? Keep reading for easy, no-fuss tips to level up your video content.

1. Easy Equipment for Your Videos

Use what you already have!

Don’t buy expensive cameras unless it’s your hobby! You can use your smartphone, iPad, or laptop.

If you want to use your smartphone or iPad, you probably want some way to prop it up while you’re filming to keep it stable. You can use anything that will keep it steady, like books, a mini bean bag or a paperweight. Be careful you’re not muffling the sound. Also, make sure the microphone is free to record your voice.

Alternatively, you can grab yourself a cheap tripod – eBay or Amazon are full of very affordable and easy to use options.

Use the rear camera

Don’t use the front camera on your smartphone or tablet. Use the back camera instead. The rear camera is much higher quality, so use that to record your videos instead of the ‘selfie’ camera at the front.

Also, try to record in landscape mode (horizontally). This will give you good footage on larger devices, not just phone screens. You may have to record different video versions to suit different platforms or use an app to resize it. Many editing apps can resize for various socials for you to shoot once and then edit it for other social media platforms.

2. Lighting

The difference between the light in front of me (left) and behind me (right). — *The difference between having the window light up my face (left) or having the window behind me (right).*

Lighting is crucial in videos, and fortunately, it’s pretty easy to get right if you pay a little attention.

Natural Light

Natural light is best, so sitting near a window with natural light that lights up your face is perfect.

Face the window and don’t have it behind you to get the best lighting. Then, check the image to see the difference between facing the window and having the window behind you.

Using Lamps

If you can only film at night or your house always looks shaded, you’ll need to get some lamps to light you up. Use any lamp to light your face from the front. You can use desk lamps or other lamps you already own without buying anything new. Try to get a warm shade as fluorescent lights are very harsh and don’t favour you.

Ring lights are cheap and popular and made for videos, so that’s a great option if you record regular videos. In addition, affordable ring lights are easy to find online.

Tip for people with glasses

Angle your lamps or ring light to shine down on you, and you don’t get distracting reflections in your glasses. It doesn’t have to be straight above you. Just slightly above and angled will do the trick. Practice a few times until you get the angle right.

3. Video Backgrounds

Try to have an uncluttered background that isn’t distracting the viewers. For example, consider using a banner with your company logo. You can also place a few products strategically on shelves behind you.

If you want to use your shelves to highlight a few products, keep the shelves mostly empty so they stand out, and it doesn’t look cluttered and distracting. Also, make sure you stand out from the background: don’t wear a white sweater if you’re in front of a white wall.

4. Make-up

I recommend that, at the very least, you use bright lipstick. Also, if you’re using make-up, apply it a little heavier than you usually wear – the camera loves it!

Bright colors attract attention and look great on camera. However, I have specific lipsticks that are too bright for daily wear, so I wear those colors when recording videos.

5. Editing

Do as little editing as possible. You probably need to trim the start and end so that you don’t have a weird “is this on?” moment, but instead, start with your ‘hook’ to get people interested.

On your phone, you can edit with the free app Inshot or Quick (both free on iPhone & Android). If you like using your computer, iMovie or Kapwing are excellent options. If you want to use the green screen effect without using an actual green screen, check out Unscreen, it’s also free. And if you’re a Canva user, they have great video templates with some editing features.

6. Timing

Keep it short. Videos of 2 to 3 minutes perform well on social media. Besides, if you’re only just getting started with recording videos for your direct sales business, it’s easier for you to do short videos too.

Be aware that some social media platforms require videos to be shorter. If you want to post it on multiple platforms, aim for 30 seconds to the 1-minute duration.

7. Uploading

Always upload natively. That means uploading the video to each social media platform instead of linking to a video on another platform.

On Instagram, you must always upload your video. You can’t link it, but on Facebook or Twitter, you could link to a YouTube video. Try to avoid that and instead upload your video to every platform, so it’s ‘native’. Social media algorithms prefer native video better, so more people will see your video.

8. Captions

Many people watch videos without sound. If they can understand your video without unmuting, they’re more likely to watch to the end! The good news is that YouTube auto-captions videos for you.

Most editing apps also allow you to add captions to the screen without much effort.

Want the secrets to successful online direct selling?

Learn how to draw people towards you on social media!

Maximize Your Facebook Party Results

Imagine this: You’re chilling out in your pajamas, chatting on Facebook, and making money!
Do you want to make this a reality? Then read on because this article is about direct selling parties on Facebook.
I want to help you with some tips, hints, and games to help you increase fun, sales, and bookings.

How to Train Your Dragon Facebook

If you want great results from your Facebook parties, you have to “train” Facebook. Or, more accurately, the Facebook algorithm.

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 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.

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 what order.

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 YouTube videos.
Publish content that promotes engagement and an investment of time from your audience (video content is great for that).
Post content that’s informative and shareable.

You need to teach the algorithm that the people in your event want to see your posts. Next, you need to ensure that you’re getting good engagement (which is measured by comments, likes or reactions).

When posts have good engagement, the algorithm will value them higher and show your posts to your guests in their daily newsfeed. And this means they don’t just see your posts when they choose to go into your event.

Having your posts showing up in their newsfeed serves as a great reminder of your party and increases the likelihood that they’ll come back to the event.

So, in addition to the general recommendations to “make the algorithm happy” (see the Facebook Algorithm Quick Explainer above), you need to publish posts that create engagement from your Facebook party guests.

But, how do you do that?

Videos Rule the Ranking

Get better results from your facebook parties - direct sales

One way to get engagement is to create videos for your parties.

You can do a quick Facebook Live to get the party started or demonstrate products.

With Facebook Live, you get a chance to show the authentic you – it’s unedited and “raw”. And people respond to that.

Another reason why Facebook Live works so well is that you can connect with your audience. You can talk to them while you’re doing the Live when they comment so they feel valued and “heard”. The audience can also ask questions and you can immediately answer them, so a Q&A session works well for Facebook Live.

Of course, once a Live is over, the video will stay accessible inside your event so people who’ve missed it can view it later—never done a Live? Check out this guide with screenshots.

If you’re not comfortable doing Lives, at least pre-record a few videos that you can stream for your Facebook parties. Videos rank well, and people enjoy them, but Live videos rank even better (and you don’t need any special software!).

People Love to Play

I’ve also collected a few games and posts designed for a bit of fun and engagement. I’ll talk about each of them below, and I’ve included a bundle of downloadable tiles that are ready to go at your parties (scroll down to download).

What is your unicorn name Facebook tile.

Tell Us Your Unicorn Name
There’s something about these types of posts that draw people in. I always get great engagement when I post something like this.

I use these posts for seasonal holidays (Elf Names at Christmas or Easter Bunny Name around Easter), and generic ones such as Unicorn Names, Tropical Names, Pirate Names, Hippie Names, etc at other times of the year.

How well do you know your host Facebook tile.

Guessing Game Contests
For these types of games, I always have a small prize for the winner (the first person to guess correctly), which increases engagement and guests enjoy it.

You could play “How well do you know your host?” Guests have to guess which of four of the options in the image the host likes best.

When you post the image, explain the game and mention the host by name (they may otherwise confuse “host” with you, the party plan consultant). And, of course, tell the guests what the prize is! Then let the guessing begin.

To make this game work for you, create your tiles with pictures of your company’s products. For example, you could have the guests guess which of the products in the image, the host likes best. Another version is to have the guests think about which 4 to 6 products are your company’s best sellers.

These games work well because there’s a bit of competition, and with the product version, the guests will already be thinking about what they’d like to buy!

(Don’t forget to show the host the images in advance so she can let you know what her favorites are!)

Party Points
This game really appeals to the competitive people out there.

In the pre-party post, I include the image, explain how it works, and let the guests know I have prizes for the people with the most points (you can choose to give prizes to the top 3 or reward the number 1).

With this game, you encourage engagement, sales, and bookings!

To make this game work better, provide a leaderboard update a few times throughout your Facebook party.

Book a Party, Pick a Prize
This is a great way to entice people to book their own Facebook or in-home party with you.

People love mystery prizes! You can choose to give hints about each number. You could tell them the type of prize, give them an approximate value, or keep it a complete mystery.

You’ll find a few versions of this booking tile in the bundle, including a Halloween and a Christmas version.

Key Takeaways

Facebook uses an algorithm to decide what to serve in a person’s newsfeed
You need ‘train’ the algorithm that your Facebook party guests want to see your posts
Use video to increase engagement and increase the time people spend on your posts
Facebook Live ranks incredibly well in the algorithm
You can make your parties more fun and increase engagement with games

I’ve got a whole bundle of tiles for you that you can use at your next Facebook party. They are ready to go, all you need to do is create a fun post for your Facebook party event!