One thing that every network marketer needs is leads for his or her business, and learning to generate free leads online could mean the difference between profit and failure.

If you are a marketer with any kind of business, new leads are the lifeblood of your business. You need to get people to your site, or through your door to make a sale.

It is obvious that business owners can pay for leads. They can actually buy them form a list vendor, or pay for advertising to generate the leads themselves. What many network marketers do not realize, is that getting free leads on the internet is easier than any other media.

One thing that can be done to get free leads is to write articles and place them in blogs and article directories. Another is to make videos and place them on any number of distribution sites. (YouTube is the largest.)

Network marketers can also generate leads for their MLM businesses by developing friends and followers on social media sites like Twitter, Face Book and MySpace.

For each of these options, different approaches are needed. It’s a great idea to get marketing training before diving in and wasting your time. Training can be as simple as searching online for various topics, or signing up for online courses, e-books. Some marketing systems come complete with excellent marketing training which can be used to generate leads for any MLM or business. One such system is PrimaryBusinesses.Net.

Many people have built sales and MLM/network marketing businesses completely by generating free leads online. They simply have learned how to market online, and then they implemented a marketing plan by taking massive action.

What opened my eyes to the seriousness of this situation is that a few of them sent messages which exactly matched what the others sent, links and all.

I think it is time to contact the Center for Disease Control, because these poor Twits are going blind.  There’s no other explanation I can think of.  They might still be able to see their keyboards, but some are obviously trying to hide their shortcomings by copying and pasting other people’s messages.  It’s sad and pathetic.

We who can still see need to raise awareness of this problem.  Send this message back to those whom you think may be going blind:

Stop it Before You Go Twitter-Blind!

And here’s something for those of you whose eyes are failing.  Copy this line and save it in a folder you can find easily on those days when your keyboard is darkest.  Then send it.

Help Stamp Out Twitter Blindness.

(You Could Be Next.)

The answer to all that is that it really helps if you do!

If you can get in front of a video camera, if you can get outside of your comfort zone and do that, you may find that it helps you immensely. It helps people get to know you a lot better.

There are several things you’ll have to do for marketing, to get your business up and going, and maybe being on Twitter and on FaceBook a couple of hours a day or maybe an hour a day might really take care of that for you.

The thing is—not to go overboard with it, unless it’s your only option. I use social media marketing as an adjunct to other kinds of marketing. It’s not my total focus, but I use it quite a bit and it has helped my business. You may choose to make social media marketing your main focus, as some marketers have done. They have become very successful at it.

If you haven’t seen my series of videos on answers to network marketing questions, sign in here to get access.

Social media marketing is all about getting out there in front of people and engaging them in conversations and trying to get to know people as best you can.  Basically this kind of marketing is called “network marketing,” and the way to network online is to let people know about you!

I have to admit that the first month went by rather uneventfully. I followed a few friends and generally ignored my account. Twitted once a week if I remembered to, and wasn’t sure who if anyone was reading my drivel, like “Eating fresh apple pie” and “Had a good dump.”

Mysteriously, my friend count went up to about 60, and I didn’t bother to follow anyone back since I had no idea who they were. After checking a few of them out, I decided that I was being followed by a bunch of hungry salespeople. More reason to ignore Twitter.

Then someone I met during an after party at a marketing conference said something which made sense of it all. He said to ignore all the spam and just pretend that Twitter is a party. Go find people who are following people I like, follow them, and see if you can strike up a conversation and get them to follow back.

Easier said than done. Ever been at a party full of new home business people? (And I don’t mean a Tupperware party.) It’s near impossible to get into any conversation which doesn’t turn into a business pitch!

So here’s what I did. I tweeted jokes, dumb, clean jokes. (What gets wet as it dries? …A Towel!) I started with one joke a day. And every time I got a new follower, I sent a message thanking them and asking if they had any jokes. By the end of a week, I had 350 followers! In 3 weeks, I hit 1000 followers, and today, about two months and several jokes later, I hit 6,000.

Those little jokes have started some real conversations, and have resulted in a few good business connections already. It’s slow going, but I’m having fun with it, and have been collecting jokes which are sent to me. (This one came in today: Have you seen the movie “Constipated”…no, perhaps it hasn’t come out yet……ugh!) I also like to re-tweet or comment on lots of interesting and funny stuff others are posting.

Daddy Jim Wood Telling A Twitter Joke

One of the interesting offshoots of these tweet-jokes is that it is keeping my Dad entertained, and helping his memory. He’s turning 84 in a few days, and needs something besides television to take his mind off of his physical condition. I am his primary care-giver, and announce each new joke to him as the tweets come in. He remembers lots of them, and entertains the nurses by doing a little comedy routine when they come to visit. They think he’s cute!