The Problem with Prospecting & Recruiting with Social Media
If you’re prospecting and recruiting on social media, there are many pitfalls you need to avoid in order to successfully build your organization.
First, before we talk about the top 5 WRONG ways to recruit on social media, let me quickly tell you my story…
It’s been over a decade since I entered the network marketing arena and my life took a crazy detour into the world of entrepreneurship.
I’ve undergone deep personal development and experienced more negativity than any human should have to endure, but the good news is that my story in this industry has a happy ending.
I quit my job as an engineer 2 1/2 years after joining the industry in 2008, became a 6-figure earner in direct sales by 2009, built a 7-figure internet company by 2012, and I am now the co-owner of an online direct sales company.
My journey was filled with many fumbles, embarrassing moments, and more prospecting “faux pas” than I care to share
I hope my friends, family, and strangers I have attempted to prospect have long forgotten the things I did. LOL!
But here’s a few, so you have an idea…
Have you ever invited friends over for some beers and very unsmoothly transitioned to showing the business plan to a very angry audience?
I have.
Have you ever tried to prospect your bartender, a few too many beers past ‘buzzed,’ and have him respond with, “Is this Amway?”
Doh! I have.
Here’s a good one… have you ever, while on a date, prospected a girl as a “test,” because your upline told you that if a girl is not positive about your business, she’s not a keeper?
Yep… that didn’t turn out well!
And that’s about as much as I’ll reveal because I’m starting to get really depressed remembering all this right now. Haha.
The point is, before I cast some heavy stones at some networkers, but I just wanted to let y’all know I’ve made mistakes too.
But that doesn’t mean we should go easy on those that are committing some MAJOR mistakes when recruiting with social media.
In my day, my fumbles happened offline and there is no record…thankfully!
Unfortunately, today…
The Internet Never Forgets and It’s Ruining It for Everyone Else!
I once heard that success in business is all about ‘time’ and ‘place.’
As a professional marketer, I would add ‘message’ to the equation as well.
Network marketers today are being taught methods of recruiting with social media. Unfortunately, these so often include the wrong message, at the wrong time, at the wrong place.
Here’s the truth!
There is a VERY fine line between recruiting with social media and spamming people.
I’m sorry to say that most network marketers have been turned into human spam bots by their upline and company leaders…
‘Disposable distributors’ tasked with the job of spreading the word about their company’s products or opportunity at the expense of the individual’s reputation and risking the suspension of their social media accounts.
Just recently, I asked affiliates of my company to share examples of the WRONG WAY to prospect online by sending me screenshots of the poor attempts at prospecting they receive every day…
The WRONG Way to Prospect and Recruit
Have a look at these…
Successful entrepreneurs and networkers alike eventually learn the true secret to success, and it becomes the foundation upon which their entire prospecting, recruiting and business building strategy is founded.
That secret being:
The screenshots above are an example of a weak attempt from people recruiting with social media…
People who haven’t yet figured out that building a business is not about tricking people or finding the right copy/paste FB messages to send to strangers.
It’s about actually caring about people, becoming a person of value, and being someone uniquely positioned to help someone with their problems!
That last part is critical: “uniquely positioned to help someone with their problems.”
Any idiot can copy and paste a message into the Private Message function on Facebook.
What sets you apart from the rest of the desperate reps hitting people’s inboxes with their new “ground floor” opportunities or cash programs?
Now, this doesn’t mean prospecting online doesn’t work.
I know some very skilled recruiters who are excellent at online prospecting, but just like offline prospecting, they’ve devoted the time and effort to learn this very difficult skill and have mastered it.
And if that’s the strategy you want to deploy, you need to do it right or else!
But if you’re still a little fuzzy on whether you are a spammer or not, here’s a guide of sorts…
Top 5 Warning Signs Your Social Media Prospecting Efforts are Actually SPAM
1.) Your first private message to a stranger on social media includes a link to join your opportunity.
2.) You get angry replies via private messaging and/or you have been reported as a spammer.
3.) You post links to your opportunity or website in the comments section of other people’s social media posts.
4.) You compulsively want to talk about your company or products without anyone asking you to share.
Finally… this one is the most important one…
5.) You engage in interactions online with a hidden agenda hoping to transition the topic to something that would get people interested in your opportunity without caring about knowing the other person.
This last one for me is a big one but could also be controversial.
After all, #5 is the very definition of prospecting (online or offline) that even when done right… can still feel awkward, result in people getting angry at you, and very unleveraged.
That is why I eventually decided to stop prospecting altogether.
But here’s the interesting thing…
“When I Stopped Prospecting People, My Business Started Growing!”
I can’t tell you how relieved and at peace I felt, when I once again, was able to go out with my friends, visiting a family member’s home, or be in a public place without having to think about prospecting anyone.
Just enjoying being normal again was incredible after two years of being taught by my upline that “everyone was a prospect” and approaching every conversation with a hidden agenda; I was free!
That’s because it wasn’t until I STOPPED prospecting that my business actually started growing!
Weird, right?
At this point, you may be asking…
Well before I answer that, I have to say that there are people who are very skilled prospectors and recruiters who completely disregard the issues I mentioned above.
They knowingly and unashamedly, approach every interaction with a stranger as a prospecting opportunity.
Getting yelled at or cursed out by prospects is no big deal, as long as some people say ‘yes.’
And just like doing it right offline, there’s a way to successfully do it online as well. After learning and becoming very good at prospecting, I decided that I didn’t want to build my business this way.
The problem with prospecting in general, as it’s normally taught, is that the mindset going in is still about what YOU want people to do and about manipulating people into doing what you want them to do.
In other words, it’s about YOU, not them. I didn’t like that, but I still did it for a little while… until I found a better way.
The More Leveraged Alternative to 1-on-1 Prospecting, Which Won’t Make You Feel Like a Cheap Salesman
Now, I am not trying to be high and mighty about all this prospecting stuff because I’m not.
If it came down to either feeding my family with ‘stone cold’ prospecting tactics or my kids starving, I would choose stone cold prospecting every time, without remorse.
But the reason I was able to quit prospecting was that, with the help of some extraordinary mentors,
I eventually discovered an online recruiting strategy which enabled me to recruit more people in one day than the most skilled recruiter in the world can do in a month.
I was able to passively generate leads, customers, and new reps even when I was out having fun with friends and family.
(Hence why I didn’t have to worry about prospecting them!)
Rather than spending hours spamming or private messaging people on social media, I learned how to legitimately get Facebook and other networks to actually help me attract the people who are most interested in what I have to offer by using their own ads platform! (i.e. going legit!)
In fact, every day for almost 8 years now, I’ve awoken to an email inbox full of notifications for new leads, new customers, new team members, and commissions I earned while sleeping!
All without resorting to the odious and deceitful tactics commonly used when recruiting with social media in our industry.
This strategy is called ‘’, which is an internet marketing strategy designed for networkers and people in direct sales!
You see, if your business depends on you being on social media, sending private messages, or commenting on people’s posts all day, you are NOT doing internet marketing… despite what you may have been led to believe.
Online prospecting and internet marketing are NOT the same thing! Internet marketing is a passive strategy, which works, even when you are not.
So if you want to learn how to PASSIVELY build a business by attracting the prospects you want online, then get access to my .
There, I reveal the strategy I’ve used for the past decade, plus.
You’ll also get more details about a book I wrote that goes into the nuts n’ bolts of my recruiting & selling formula.
Now if traditional prospecting online or offline is your thing and you want to stick to that, by all means, go for it.
There are many top trainers and earners of mine in the industry that focus on cold market recruiting skills…
(And they do ‘attraction marketing’ too!)
For me, there was simply a certain way I wanted to live my life and that was more important.
I would much rather make a ton of money in my business first and then have my friends and family beg me to tell them more about it.
It’s much better than begging my friends and family to join a business which isn’t making any money.
Which would you prefer?
Exactly!
Sincerely,
Ferny Ceballos
Chief Marketing Officer
Elite Marketing Pro