Selling Online With Facebook

Before joining Scentsy, when I thought about how I was going to sell the products, I only thought as far as friends and family.  It was a natural progression for me to then to look towards utilising social media to build my customer base.

When you think of direct selling, the traditional methods of selling are via parties and whilst most are ultimately a party plan company, they do of course have to move with the times and this therefore means embracing online selling.

Behind all the friend requests, Facebook is a hive of activity for many businesses, when you see adverts, look at just how many of those companies promote their Facebook pages.

So how can Facebook and a party plan company work together, the answer is an online Facebook party!

The Advantages of an Online Facebook Party

As a hostess, the advantages of hosting a party online rather than in your home are that you don’t have to have a mad last minute spring clean and you don’t have to worry about supplying refreshments.  There is also the possibility that more people will attend as they don’t physically have to leave home, meaning they don’t have to worry about finding babysitters etc.  You can also invite friends and family who do not live close to you and who normally would not be able to attend a party hosted in your home.

As a consultant, the advantage of an online party is that you don’t have to go out (which is great on cold winter evenings!) and can work in your pyjamas (which is my favourite advantage – I don’t have a weakness for shoes – mine is pyjamas!!).

Preparing Your Online Party

The first thing to do is create your event on Facebook two weeks before the date of the party and ensure when creating the event that the guests are “invite only”.  This may seem strange to have it by invite only, but you want to target those who are interested in what you sell.  How many events do you get invited to on Facebook?  How many of those invitations are something you are interested in?  A golden rule of marketing on social media is to not infoblast.

If you have a hostess, make them a co-host for the event and ask them to invite their friends/family.  Encourage attendees to invite their friends and family as well.  The more the merrier!

Phone up and speak to those you are inviting in person, send out samples/catalogues of your products before the party so attendees have something in their hand on the night.  24 hours before the party, post on the event page again reminding everyone about the party.  Give teasers of what they can expect on the night, will there be games or competitions?  Post images of your products, evenly space out (don’t post 30 pictures for example one after one and clogging up everyones newsfeed).

How to Host an Online Facebook Party

The key is to making the party as close to a traditional home party as you can.  If you have a website, run competitions and games such as posting a description of a product and asking them to find which product you are describing.  Create conversations and encourage interaction between the guests.  Another game which is popular with my customers is “word bingo”, this is a very simple game but so much fun.

If you don’t have a party hostess, then you could enter everyone who has placed an order during the party into a draw to win the hostess rewards.

Utilise YouTube and post links to videos to show off your products and space out posting images of your products throughout the event, don’t post all at once as the party will move too fast and people won’t be able to keep up with conversations.

Keep the party simple and fun.

At the end of the party, if there is a hostess, I then post which rewards the hostess has earned and ask if anyone else would like to host a party, either online or in person.

Finally, once the party has ended, remember to thank everyone for attending and remember to follow-up all sales a week or so after delivery to make sure everyone is happy with their purchases.

Have you ever hosted an online party?  Do you have any tips to share?

I am an Independent Scentsy Consultant, if you are interested in hosting an online Facebook party, please email me becky@thecandleboutique.co.uk and we will get one in the diary!