11 January 2011

MLM is Social Marketing!

11 January 2011
Social Media Marketing is it really MLM?

Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of others they recruit, creating a down line of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation. Other terms for MLM include network marketing, direct selling and referral marketing. Although the products and companies are supposed to be marketed directly to consumers and potential business partners by means of relationship referrals and word of mouth marketing, over the past two years we have seen an increase in MLM organizations in fact Network Marketing is considered the new Social Media Marketing. Google and online advertising play a large part in all of this.
Social media marketing is a recent addition to organizations’ integrated marketing communications plans. Integrated marketing communications is a principle organizations follow to connect with their targeted markets. Integrated marketing communications coordinates the elements of the promotional mix;advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion. In the traditional marketing communications model, the content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications by the organization is in collaboration with an external agent, i.e. advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and public relations firms. However, the growth of social media has impacted the way organizations communicate. With the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet provides a set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online. This gives more and more businesses the ability to operate on a network marketing platform.

Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. Examples include rewards sites, where users are rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as ‘retailer’ or ‘brand’), the network, the publisher (also known as ‘the affiliate’), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity to warrant a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third parties vendors.

With the expansion of social media platforms over the next 10 years you can expect to see huge growth in the MLM business platform as companies can no longer meet the needs of there employees and job security seem to be a thing of the past. Today individuals are choosing to build their own sales networks in order to gain long term income as well as financial independence. What was before considered a taboo industry we are seeing more individuals turning to MLM and social media Marketing as an alternative to 9:00 to 5:00 employment. Traditionally during times of economic slow down and recessions many people turn to MLM organizations in order to create added income however with social applications like Face Book, Google and Twitter both individuals as well as businesses are finding new ways to network and build a client base which could and in many cases does lead to unlimited income potential. So before you say no the the next MLM opportunity take a look at how many companies are using this platform to gain clients and this should tell you that MLM is here to stay.

Keeping up with business trends
Nexonta Technologies Inc