The differences between the three Facebook platforms are huge.

But only one platform stands out as it can help you grow your brand and scale your business.

When I first started, the last thing I wanted was to build a business around the wrong platform that had limitations. Or worse, get my account suspended.

In this post, I’m going to shed some light on the differences between the three, and the best way to leverage Facebook to build your home business.

But first …

To be successful at social media for network marketing, you have to focus your content and marketing strategy towards an ultra specific audience.

When you do this, your message will truly resonate with your target audience, grabbing their interest and drawing them towards you…

So they’ll want to learn more about you, your product, service or opportunity.

And with Facebook and other social platforms, it is not the place to be coming across as salesy or spammy.

So forget about plugging your product or company left, right and center.

Otherwise, you’ll be putting off a whole bunch of people.

Instead leverage the platform as a way of helping readers out and establishing a connection with people who have similar interests.

So how do you build a business on Facebook?

There are really 5 steps to use social media for network marketing:

1. Know your audience.

Not everyone is your prospect. So be specific.

Better still, know what keeps them up at night. Understand their problems, frustrations, desires and goals.

And be the solution provider.

2. Attention

This part here is traffic generation. Whether it is via organic posts or Facebook Ads, your aim is to get attention to your brand (not your product or company) by leading with value

3. Grow your warm audience.

I’m big on building an email list of hot prospects and customers. So should you.

An email list is the key to your long term success.

To accomplish this, you’ll need a free compelling offer for a lead to give up their name and email.

And once they become a subscriber, this allows you to deliver more value and build a relationship based on trust.

When you do build an email list, you will be less reliant on algorithms that can limit your reach to favor paid ads, or go out of business.

4. Promote

It’s time to make an offer to your product, service or opportunity and close.

5. Follow Up

Not everyone will take action. It’s only natural. So make it a point to follow up.

People will think about it or skip it. You just need to Follow Up by talking to them, messaging them or via email. Most of all, listen to them, be sincere and help them out as much as possible.

With that out of the way…

Whether you choose to use a personal Facebook profile, a business page or a Group, there’s no right or wrong way.

There are many differing opinions as to which Facebook method is the best.

Here’s the thing …

If you follow the 5 steps above, you will go a long way in growing your network marketing business with Facebook.

It’s these steps that have propelled many successful home businesses to where they are now.

Instead of spending hours spamming and sending private messages to strangers on social media, they just focused on serving the needs of their niche audience.

In other words, placing their audience’s needs in front of their own.

When you’re there to fix people’s problems and help them reach their goals, your trust factor goes up … plenty!

Speaking of which …

Here are the differences between the strategies of using Facebook:

Facebook Profile

It’s free to use.  And it is the default setting that everyone begins with.

What’s neat about it, is …

You can quickly get exposure from your warm audience of friends and family.

You can quickly connect with people with messenger.

And if you have a large group of ‘friends’, it’s a nice way to create some buzz around your new business, or a challenge you’re in.

As well, it’s a way to get people to reach out and connect with you.

The smart networkers who use their personal profile will often avoid posting a bunch of links and the self serving junk.

Instead, they’ll be …

Sharing what’s going on in their life.

Sharing about their entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Sending out posts that will inspire people who wants the freedom of time to do whatever.

And attract those prospects to them.

But…

It has a limited reach. At the time of writing, you cannot have more than 5,000 friends. In other words, it is not scaleable.

And it’s against Facebook rules that you use your personal profile to promote a business.

It’s meant to be social.

And if you want more exposure and a more efficient prospecting system, you cannot run Ads.

Facebook Business Page

If you want to separate your business life from personal life on Facebook, then setting up a Facebook page is a must.

Using a business page allows you to position your brand and builds you as a credible authority in your industry or niche.

And if you are serious about growing your business, a business page is the way to scale for more leads and sales.

Although you will have to ‘pay to play’, a business page enables you to passively generate leads, customers, and new recruits even while you sleep, or are out to lunch, or out at a basketball game.

Another great thing about a Facebook business page, you can schedule out your posts, reels and story automatically, using Creator Studio.

Whether it is on the computer or on your cell phone, you can schedule days, weeks, or even a month’s worth of content in advance, all ready to go.

Another biggie, Insights. You’ll have access to the numbers of how each post performed organically. From People reached, likes, comments to shares, each post is tracked for your review.

Scale It With Paid Ads

If you want to quickly build an online audience, then Facebook Paid Ads can help.

By leveraging the Facebook Ads platform, you can attract the very best prospects and turn them into email subscribers … all on autopilot.

It’s like an automated prospecting system😁!

Plus you can retarget ads to people who have engaged on your posts and videos.

Which is a great way to turn prospects into paying customers and new reps.

Lastly, with a business page, you’ll have access to reports to measure your results from.

However …

There is a learning curve to using Facebook Ads.

There will be plenty of mistakes, testing and tweaking in the processes.

Plus there is no guaranteed return on your ad spend.

As NOT every lead will become a customer.

That’s the reality of doing business.

Facebook Groups

You can create a group for prospects and nurture the relationship.

You can create a group for your customers and provide support for any questions that needs to be answered.

You can even create a group for your team and provide additional support to building their business.

You can even create a Facebook challenge.

And more.

Really, it’s a place where you can interact and share ideas and knowledge with your audience and create a sense of community … that you bring in from your page or email list. 

Plus it’s free to use … so why not use it to build your business.

What’s more you can advertise your group to a target audience to create more exposure and grow the group.

And like a Facebook business page and a personal profile, you just have to show up and be consistent.

Aim to over deliver with value and engage with the people in your group.

Which leads me to ….

Which Facebook method should you use?

When you think about it …

Each method is really an enhancement or an add on of each other.

Which gives you more exposure to drive more leads, and to connect with more people.

Again, there’s no right way or wrong way.

It boils down to your own preference.

If you like to use your personal profile to personally connect and message with others, go for it. But, there are limitations.

If you want to run it like a business and have the ability scale it, then a Facebook Business page is the obvious way to go. It even provides access to handy tools and tracking to help grow your business. 

If you want to start using the power of groups and build a connection through this medium, go for it.

And if you want to maximize all three strategies, you can too.

But, for maximum exposure – focusing your efforts on a Facebook business page is the most effective.

However …

The key to making Facebook work is to …

Master the skill in growing a warm audience, connect with them, make an offer and follow up.

That’s right, these are the 4 essential steps in growing your network marketing business with social media.

P.S If you’re like me who skim to the P.S before you read the post, here’s what this is about:

1. Why you should be using Facebook page, and not Facebook profile. 

2. The advantages of using a Business page. 

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