Element 2: Soaking to Soften

This is a continuation of a series of blogs started on Saturday. It all started when I had a beautiful day of gardening. I reflected back on it and these are the lessons I learned and am applying to my online efforts.

As I reflect back on the "trick" of soaking the ground so I could dig the holes or pull the weeds, I think about true social networking/relationship marketing. Joining up a bunch of social networking sites to spam everyone is not going to do anything but turn people off of your opportunity. I try to avoid this, but I see it everywhere! Instead, join those sites, but then NETWORK. Start conversations & be a part of the discussions going on. Befriend and follow people with similar interests and connect with them on another level.

I will be adding links to social networking sites that pay in the near future. These are great because they usually have a lot of opportunity seekers as members. The no-spamming guidelines still apply, even though it will be more rampant on these sites. Lead by example and do not pick up this nasty habit.

I am on Yahoo Instant Messenger (YIM) and a lot of Work at Home Moms (WAHMs) have "blast groups." What that means is you can click on your blast group and send them an instant message all at the same time. It could be a special you are offering, notification that your blog has been updated, an alert about a contest you are running, etc. The idea is that everyone on that blast list then turns around and copies and sends that message to their entire blast list, and so on.

Lately there have been some complaints in the blasting community that not everyone passes along the blasts. Well, I am guilty of that myself sometimes and there could be many reasons for it that I don't need to get into right here and now. It just got me to thinking that the blasters who are getting upset may not be looking at YIM for the networking tool that it is and should be used as.