The astute and very pleasant Direct Sales Consultant, known by the handle The Traveling SalesWoman, asked the following question of me? You were the person who encouraged me to join Twitter, and I'm so grateful for that! Can you share some further thoughts about Twitter and why home party business owners should join in that conversation?

Are you are brothers and sisters fan? If so you have not missed the obvious connection between Sarah Walkers’ Greenotopia company and its’ many references to social networks and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter! And if you don’t know by now, you are no-one if you are not on twitter.

I was amused to find that my vocabulary has changed considerably over the past year! I am Youtubing, plurking, Facebooking, tweeting, blogging, linking, MySpacing, texting and a host of other things too! All these are some of the most popular social media sites and as you can see things can get pretty hairy, so I definitely recommend that you have a social media system.

Direct Sales Home Party Marketing Tip: Any task you do more than once NEEDS a procedure, system or checklist!

Before Bill Gates, no one had a personal computer! One man single handedly revolutionized the world with a dream...his dream was that every home would have a computer! His dream was to provide value to every single household in the world!

Even after Bill Gates created such an incredible tool, that gave rise to the Internet, Easy Online access & E-Commerce; it STILL amazes me just how many people refuse, are afraid and/or have not taken advantage of the power of the computer and the Internet! Computers as far as I am concerned are the best social media tools (of course for the obvious reason without one you cannot access social media ☺, yep)!

I told the travelling saleswoman that social media and social networks are all about relational capital. And like any thing social media marketing is an art form.

The question I often get asked by home party consultants and direct sales reps. Is why don’t they buy my product. The answer is simple, you have written a check, which came back with the red stamp mark, insufficient funds! (thanks Martin Luther King Jr. for that one).

You see people buy because: i) they know you,

ii) they trust you

iii) they believe that you have the solution the problem which the face and

iv) for status

People don’t buy a product, nor do they buy a feature and the benefits are as they are decided upon by the story they tell themselves. Your juice drink may help me loose weight. But the story I am telling myself is that I am going to look sexy, finally that size 0 pair of jeans that I have seen on display for a year will be mine. I am going to get hit on by men….you get the picture? So if your pitch is not in line with my story…

How does all this fit into social media and social marketing? Simple, you are building relational capital, by depositing in the bank of getting to know you, getting to know all about you! And you are not only doing it with one person, no you are reaching out to many in one shot!

There are people on these social media wedsites such as youtube, twitter, facebook, myspace that follow you. There are those that interact with you and those that want to see what you are about. The cool thing about social outlets is that you are King and Queen of your own little internet real estate King/Queendom!

Social media and social marketing is all about building that relational capital that gives you the all access pass to make your direct sales pitches to those who are ready, able and willing to hear what you have to say, and have the money to spend on what you have to sell. Do not under-estimate the power of relational capital!

How else do you think Pres. Barack Obama did it? I will be holding a special in a week or so about “the Pres. Obama Social Media Effect : How You Too Can Go From Zero To Hero! For more on social media, and how to use it effectively, just google “social media blog!”

The key to successful social media marketing is:

Don't spam. Show an interest in others.  Be careful you don't become a social media junkie, limit your time.  Post 1 link for every 3 bits of conversations, articles or posts!