As a conscious business owner the last thing you would ever do is send SPAM emails – right?   Well, if you have ever sent a bulk email to your Facebook friends list, then this blog is for you.

There’s been a trend building over the last several months on Facebook that has on a daily basis, filled my inbox with dozens of unwanted solicitations from well meaning “conscious” business owners trying to get the word out about their products, services and events.  My experience is not unique, as I’ve talked with others who say they too are getting an increasing number of solicitations in their Facebook inbox.

In my opinion, these Facebook emails are SPAM just as unrequested and unwanted as a Nigerian 419 letter or those never ending offers for free drugs to encourage the growth of certain body parts.

It’s understandable why so many are resorting to spamming their Facebook friends – it is a heck of a lot easier than building a real direct response list – but bad marketing practices have never been the path to a solid and sustainable business.   The few sales you gain short term, cannot make up for the damaged relationships and lost credibility over the long term.

Also, while bad marketing practices are annoying when applied to your own products and services, spamming as an affiliate can be grounds for loss of affiliate promotion privileges and even forfeiture of commissions in some cases.

If treating your Facebook friends as a direct response list is not the way to go, what are the options?

Here are my suggestions for upgrading Facebook marketing practices and results:

1) Create an event and invite every one of your Facebook friends to the event. The invitation will show up under “Events” and not in their email inbox.  Then, and this is VERY important, send confirming emails only to the invitees who reply “yes” or “maybe” and NOT to the ones who do not reply or who say no.   Ask your confirmed and maybe attendees to use the Share option on the event page and post the event on their wall or share with individually selected friends via personal email thereby increasing your exposure to others who will be interested.  It’s the Like attracts Like principal, and it works.

2) Create a fan page – which is much more like an opt-in list because by becoming a “fan” the person is essentially saying, “I am interested”.   If you are going to be sending marketing emails to your fans on a regular basis, I recommend you give them a heads up right on your fan page.   Fan pages are getting very creative, and many businesses are making a fortune from well designed Facebook fan pages.  Go for it!

3) Get personal – if you’ve got some “good fit for my stuff” peeps in your friends list (and of course you do), why not send them a personal email inviting them to look at your offer?  Yes, a personal email takes more time but it is proven more effective.  It also creates an opportunity to maximize the real value of Facebook, which is building relationships.  Instead of getting “unfriended” or “blocked” because of unprofessional social media marketing strategy, a personal email could lead you to a new client, a great referral partner or a gold mine of a joint venture partner.

4) Get organized – if you feel you simply must treat your Facebook friends like a direct response list, at least take the time to segment your friends into groups based on demographics or what you perceive their level of interest could be.  Minimally this will prevent you from looking like a dork for inviting friends in Montana to a networking coffee in Florida.

These are some of my thoughts on the subject of email marketing via Facebook, and I’d love to hear yours!  Comments are welcomed and encouraged but please, hold the blog spam.

Mary Kay Morgan is founder of AffiliateWealthPartners.com the only affiliate and joint venture resource exclusively serving the needs of the conscious business community.  Sign up now for our FREE membership into our Affiliate Community and gain access to our library of affiliate tutorials and to our approved list of high integrity, proven affiliate opportunities.

Relationships are the heart, soul and your business’s most powerful growth and revenue accelerators.

In an era gone by, the business relationship most associated with success was the business owners “relationship” to his or her competitors.  Much time and energy was spent identifying the competitor, studying them to discover weaknesses in their product/services, systems or people, and most importantly leveraging this information to eliminate the competitor from the market.

As conscious business owners, we know that that kind of negative energy and intent will not serve us.  We receive the growth and abundance we seek when we seek to spend time and energy optimizing 3 key business relationships.  Who and how however, may surprise you.

Essential Business Relationship #1: YOU! - Socrates’ golden rule was “Know thyself” and indeed, you cannot be in deeply connected relationship with someone you do not know.  Do you know yourself?  Do you have conscious awareness of your values – the experiences and energy you want to create in your life just for you?  Do you also have a conscious awareness of your purpose?  What are you here to do?   How are you to serve humanity and the world?

Being in conscious, aligned relationship with your values and your purpose is priority in creating a successful business.   It allows you to know without question what is a “Hell yes!” and what is a firm “No” in your business.  This clarity is also essential to creating successful affiliate and joint venture choices.

Essential Business Relationship #2:  Your personal relationships – in the competitive era previously mentioned, the last relationships a business owner considered as important to his or her business goals were the personal ones – spouses, partners, children, family, friends, all took a back seat to the demands of the business.

Rare is the conscious entrepreneur who isn’t seeking “whole life” success.  Humans are by nature “pack animals”. We need to be in positive energy exchange with our family and friends for optimum, whole-life fulfillment – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.  How well do you know the 5 most important people in your life?  How much time are you spending with them, being present to them, relating to them?  Commit to taking that time to optimize your personal relationships.  Your business will thank you for it.

Essential Business Relationship #3 – Your Business - How well do you know your business?  How often to you really give it the focus and intention it deserves.  Now I realize that you are probably thinking – I work in my business everyday!  And yes, perhaps that is the problem.  When you are working, working, working, in your business you are not working on and with your business.

Every creation is an energetic entity so in a very real way you are in relationship with your business.  When was the last time you paused to be conscious and aware of this business you have created?  How do you feel about your business?  Excited and joyful or disappointed and perhaps resentful?   You cannot create abundance from a foundation of negative energy.  There is no time for denial or a glaze of “positive mindset”.  If your business is not bringing a sense of happiness and joy, it’s imperative that you get into relationship with the truth and change what needs changing!

If you recognize that one or all three of your most important business relationships are in need of a serious attention, you are in luck.  Christine Kloser, best selling author of The Freedom Formula, and Molly Luffy, creator of The Star Power Success Circle, have come together to bring conscious entrepreneurs, like you, the opportunity to get into aligned relationship with what really matters when it comes to success in your business.

The program is called Rebuild My Business and I would like to invite you to an enlightening and FREE call on Thursday, January 14, 2010. On this call, Christine and Molly will lead you through a process that will identify the cracks in your business foundation including (especially) the areas where you are unconscious and out of alignment in your 3 most important business relationships.  The clarity you will receive from this call will allow you to create from a stronger and more stable foundation.  Learn more and sign up for the call here: http://budurl.com/rmbaffiliate.

In addition to being an affiliate for Rebuild My Business, Affiliate Wealth Partners is proud to be supporting this program through our Elite Affiliate and Launch Management Services. If you would like to make a difference in the lives and business of your community while bringing additional revenue into your business, join us as an affiliate of this powerful program. http://budurl.com/rmbaffiliateinfo.

Mary Kay Morgan is founder of AffiliateWealthPartners.com the only affiliate and joint venture resource exclusively serving the needs of the conscious business community.  Sign up now for our FREE membership into our Affiliate Community and gain access to our library of affiliate tutorials and to our approved list of high integrity, proven affiliate opportunities.

True Story:  Last week on Wednesday, December 2 in fact just one day after the new FTC regulations for testimonials, endorsements and affiliate promotions went into effect, I received an email from an affiliate for the highly recommended (and yes I’m an affiliate)  FTC compliance product from info-marketing mogul Joel Comm and attorney Kevin Houchin.

Guess what?  No disclosure anywhere in the email.  No kidding.  I could not believe it.  I read and re-read the email thinking surely I must have missed it, but nope, not there.  Here is someone who is promoting as an affiliate a product on FTC compliance and he was not in compliance.  As Forrest’s mom would say, “Stupid is as stupid does.”   Dude, get with the program!

Don’t let this happen to you!  Feel free to model or out right copy, with my blessings, the following statements to disclose your affiliate and endorsement relationships.

1) Blog options:

“Products and services that I review and recommend on this blog may be products that I have a financial interest in promoting or have received some other non-financial compensation.   As a valued reader you can be assured that whenever I recommend a resource to you, it is because of my firm belief in the merit and value of the product based on either my direct assessment of the product and/or of my first hand knowledge of the expertise and integrity of the person or organization behind it.”

2) “Products and services displayed on this blog via banner and other methods of paid advertising include those and only those that I consider directly relevant to the valued readers of this blog.  You may be assured that I allow only advertising of resources that I have direct knowledge of  the merit and value of the product or service and of the expertise and integrity of the person or organization behind it.  Compensation is never a factor in determining suitability of advertising.”

3) Be honestly silly: “Clicking any link, banner or other advertising on this site may result in a deposit to my Caribbean Get Away fund (or the Smith Family Refrigerator Fund).” Etc….

Affiliate Email Options:

4) In the subject line: Your Subject Followed or Preceded by {Affiliate Promotion}

5) In the subject line: Your Subject Followed or Preceded by <Yes! I’m an Affiliate

6) If the subject line feels a bit too disclosed, open or close an affiliate promotion email with: “I am excited to be an affiliate for Company XYZ and to share this information/product/service/resource with you.  I value your time and I appreciate your trust.  You can be assured that now and every time I share resources such as this one, it is my firm belief in the potential of the information/product/service/resource to deliver the stated results and in the integrity of the person/company/organization behind it.”

7) Or: “I’m an affiliate for this exceptional product/service/resource because I whole-heartedly believe in it!  As an affiliate, I may receive a commission and/or other non-financial compensation if you choose to take action.”

Be bold and just tell them it’s an affiliate link: “Make sure you click my affiliate link for more details <affiliate link>”. Have fun and match your link disclosure statement with the unique language you use to communicate with your list members.  This is a great option for promoting on social media outlets such as Facebook and Linked In, or use the same techniques as for Twitter:

9) Include in your tweets #affpromo or {afflink}

Mary Kay Morgan is founder of AffiliateWealthPartners.com the only affiliate and joint venture resource exclusively serving the needs of the conscious business community.  Sign up now for our FREE membership into our Affiliate Community and gain access to our library of affiliate tutorials and to our approved list of high integrity, proven affiliate opportunities.