Almost all of my life I have been exposed to some form of multi-level network marketing. The most famous or rather infamous networking company is Amway which I think is know today in the United States as Quixtar under their holding company.  In recent years network marketing has become the venue of many companies that sell health food, cosmetics and telecommunications, etc.
Despite the complaints I have had over the years about this method of marketing I am not opposed to the idea it’s just that too many of these ventures fail in their approach. The most obvious disturbing thing to me about Amway/Quixtar is a “cult-like” devotion they expect from their distributors.  That’s the most obvious but it hit me the other day what disturbs me more than anything about almost any company that tries to market their products this way.  Are you ready?  They are not focused.  It seems that before I have had any chance to start using or buying a product on a frequent basis the distributor is trying get me to sign up as a distributor myself!  The reason for this is they will get a cut of any sales their down line makes.  Once again I am not opposed to this method of marketing.  I’m opposed to trying to be sold on selling a product before I have had the chance to be a consumer that is advocate of the product.  It’s like asking someone to marry you on the first date. If you product is as great as you say it is then give me some time to fall in love with it.

Now before you think I am being overly negative I want to tell you about a company that does it right.  Avon.  My grandmother sold Avon for many years after she retired and did very well.  She had many customers all over town and even had the guts to sell Avon to an annoying telemarketer who interrupted her on the phone one day!  Avon is great about cultivating customers who love their products and from what I have seen their distributors don’t make creating a downline the priority. They make their products the priority.

I just finished a series on branding and this is definitely a “branding” issue. Are you selling people on the opportunity of promoting your company or are you focused on your product? Is your product or service so compelling that others will want to sell it for you or woud desire to be your employee?

Why do so many “multi-level network marketing” companies put so much energy in selling the opportunity to sell their product and less in actually selling the product?   Do you sell and innovate your products and services that can “sell themselves” or are you putting more energy in “selling your company?” Even if your business is not using a network marketing model do you you use the same strategies when talking to other?  Do you talk more about your “business” or do you extol the great products and services your business provides?

If you are like me you hate to see the gas prices go up but as mentioned in a post I made yesterday you can use difficult times to your advantage. Here are 10 ways you can creatively network and promote your business when you want to drive your car a lot less;

1. Become part of a car pool - This gives you a great opportunity to talk about what you do in a time of natural conversation
2. Use a jacket, shirt or computer bag to advertise your company
3. Walk to lunch and invite others to walk with you
4. Take advantage of and promote mass transit in your community
5. Connect with people you know in social networks to create car pooling opportunities
6. If clients are on your route drop in and make a courtesy call
7. Make your vehicle do double duty and advertise with vinyl or magnetic ads
8. Use virtual office services online like Basecamp from 37 signals
9. Create your own podcast via a personal digital recorder while you drive
10. Get to know and support businesses within a walking distance from home - some may become clients.

My wife and I are currently down to one car so we are either commuting together or taking turns working at the office or from home. This is a great creative exercise for us while we decide what to do with the second and older car that is currently out of commission.  Can you suggest other ways to creatively work and network when you are trying to watch your gas/auto budget?

As you can probably tell I am making more blog posts in one day that I have in quite a while. I’ll probably be very busy the next several days with holiday activities but as the year winds down I wanted to give a retrospective of what has been going on with SpinningSilk Multimedia over the last year. The title of this post refers to three things that we focused on in 2007 and feel sets us apart from other companies like ours in the Greenville and Upstate South Carolina market. We are known mainly for our web design, web development and small print jobs like business cards and brochures. Essentially marketing and communication services for small businesses and organizations.

We however had opportunities the the realm of photography, using the technology of RSS within our web work and 2007 was the year we became involved is networking with other businesses and made great connections online.

Photography - is certainly nothing new. Of all the “high tech” forms of communication it is one of the oldest going back over a 100 years. What have we done with photography that was unique or were great opportunities? For starters we help our web and print customers develop compelling content. We develop a lot of e-commerce sites and with that we have provided our photography services for products our customers wish to showcase. We have also developed a relationship with a media company from Atlanta, GA auditing billboards for major advertisers. We also developed a great relationship with a local magazine by photographing the individuals profiled each month.

Feeds - What are feeds? By feeds I mean the technology of RSS feeds, also known as news feeds. These special lines are what have made blogs, podcasts and innovative social networks like Twitter and Facebook popular. Not only have we been in the process of optimizing our clients web site to include the RSS option for their site visitors but we have also given presentations to local business networks explaining what a useful tool RSS is for the business person.

Friends - 2007 is also the year we became really active in networking. Yes we were involved with business and special interest groups in the past but 2007 was the year we made it a top priority. Heather and I have both taken leadership positions in a local networking group, Professional Network Connections as well as becoming very active in the Upstate Entrepreneur’s Forum, The Greenville Mac User’s Group as well as other groups and meetings associated with the Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson Technology Council.

Our prime commitment is still the use of multi forms of cost effective media so our customers can get their message out and tell their story and in turn sell their product or service. The above are aspects and tools we use in web, print and portable media and we hope to carve our special niche in our market by providing expert services our customers are seeking.