Social Networking: A Sign Of The Times

I received a message from Gabe Hunninghake at Alkastream this afternoon requesting that I check their new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/alkastream.

I don’t know anything about Facebook other than the kid that started it has made billions of dollars and they made a movie out of the story. My kids set up a Facebook page for me some time ago, but I never use it. I understand that this blog also has a facebook page and that 93 “people like this”. It doesn’t seem to me that 93 “likes” is very encouraging based upon the fact that nearly 50,000 people have visited my site.

When I checked out the Alkastream page on Facebook, I was surprised at how busy it was. There were announcements and videos and comments. I noticed that they started the page three weeks ago and that they had over 1,200″people like this” as I write this article. Geez…over 1,200….I started developing an inferiority complex.

I decided to check out some of the water ionizer companies to see if they had Facebook pages. It turns out the new MLM company Evontis has 100 “people like this” and their page has been up since November. Suddenly I didn’t feel so bad about my total of 93, as their Dealers would all be clicking on “like”. Then I checked out Enagic and they had 4,700 fans. That makes sense to me as they have thousands of dealers who communicate with each other through conference calls and obviously their Facebook page. The IonWays site had a page that had nothing on it but a picture of a water ionizer. That was a surprising disappointment because it seemed worse than having nothing at all. Speaking of nothing at all, I couldn’t find a page at all for Chanson or Watershed.

What does all of this mean? The Facebook sites for the MLM companies Enagic and Evontis offer notices of conference calls but little else. In light of the fact that their sites lack any useful information (like my Facebook site) it is no wonder there is so little interest. IonWays and the direct marketing companies like Chanson and Watershed are non-events, which tells me they either don’t care, or they don’t “get it”. What I learned during my little investigation is that if you provide information, you are more likely to attract people’s interest. It didn’t surprise me that Enagic was out in front of the pack as they are much better at marketing than everyone else.

What did surprise me was how fast the Alkastream guys are gaining in popularity. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have been surprised because they seem to be doing everything right in all facets of their business. They have recognized and addressed the fact that people are looking for clean, ionized water that is affordable. They responded quickly and efficiently when changes needed to be made to improve their products. They help their dealers instead of competing with them. It seems logical to me that they would have the Social Networking thing figured out as well.

When I discussed my findings with my 20 year old son this afternoon, he said to me “Dad, Social Networking is real and it is relevent, so you should check it out”. Thanks son!

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author (and his son).

3 Responses to Social Networking: A Sign Of The Times

  1. Wow Rob. I didn’t mean for you to write an entire article on the subject…just wanted you to friend us. :)

    One minor correction. Enagic is way out ahead of us as their main page has about 4700 fans. That may be changing based upon the number of Enagic reps who have been calling us interested in “supplementing”. Seems as though they lose a lot of sales…

    • Hi Gabe:

      The ideas for a lot of my articles are spawned by questions or tips from readers. I would never have even considered looking into the Social Network thing if you hadn’t pointed it out.

      I made the change to the article about the number of fans on the Enagic Facebook page. Thanks for the heads up.

  2. Hi

    You have soon reached 100 fans on facebook!
    But whatever happened to the Forum part? Wasn´t active enough or just unnecessary?
    Such a shame if so… otherwise I have found another forum which talks about ionizers. It isn´t all that 100% active yet with only 27 members. But hopefully it will rise and I believe with the pressence of your help and expertice would bring up the quality a great bunch, perhaps even bring more readers to your site !
    Right now I can only see one member with good knowledge helping to answer many questions in there.
    Best would be of course if the ION Trio of Rob, Gabe and Ian would participate 😀
    The address is ionizertalk.com if interested.

    P.S
    I am not the admin of that forum

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