We just concluded Challenge Week over at Modern Direct Seller, and today we are taking a peek behind the MDS curtain! We’re not only talking about Challenge takeaways on the podcast, but we’re also examining some statistics, discussing a few pivots, and sharing what we learned from the changes we made so that you, too, might discover new ways to build your business.

Interested in even more business building? Check out the Modern Direct Seller Academy at ⁠⁠www.ModernDirectSellerAcademy.com⁠⁠!

Time based notes:

• 0:37 Challenge results
• 2:29 Pivoting to the business Page
• 7:01 Posting through CinchShare
• 8:06 Leveraging marketing messages
• 11:27 Collecting survey feedback

Behind the Scenes of the Modern Direct Seller Challenge

We just concluded Challenge Week over at Modern Direct Seller, and today we are taking a peek behind the MDS curtain! We had an incredible week last week with over 1,400 social sellers engaging and participating in the Modern Direct Seller Challenge. The week was full of incredible wins. We shared content around being bold and making some big moves in your business. And, I am so proud of all of you that showed up, participated, took a few steps outside of your comfort zone, and made some magic happen last week. You have just a couple more days to watch the replays in case you missed it. It is all over on our business Page at Facebook.com/ModernDirectSeller. Or, you can watch the videos on a playlist over on YouTube @ModernDirectSeller, as well.

We did some things differently this time around, so I want to share a little behind the scenes of our Challenge, spill the beans, and share with you what worked and what didn’t work so well so that you can take those learnings and apply them to your business.

The first big pivot we made this year in our Modern Direct Seller Challenge was practicing a little bit of what we preach. We’ve been doing this for three or four years, and this year we moved the Challenge outside of our closed Group and ran it publicly on our business Page. We’ve been sharing a lot about the changes coming to Facebook Groups, how visibility has been down, and the need to create content that’s going to be more shareable and more discoverable.

And, I have to tell you that I was a little nervous about making this switch. But, once we moved our Challenge out to the business Page, on Day One of the Challenge, get this: Our video had 51,000 impressions, reached over 30,000, and engagement on the post—comments, reactions, video plays, link clicks—was about 1,249! One of the stats that I’m most proud of is that our Day One video was shared over 20 times. So, if you were participating in the Challenge, and you found value in that video, you were able to click on that and share it directly with your team or your biz bestie so they could engage, as well. So, really excited about the reach that we had and how we were able to organically grow the visibility of that post by moving it to the business Page, because if it was in a closed Group, those shares would have not been possible.

Now, those stats continued throughout the week, as we had five days of videos and posts that were hitting each day. I pulled some other data about the overall performance of our business Page, and you may know that your analytics often show you either a red downward arrow or a green upward arrow. Since we did put a really intentional focus on building visibility and engagement using the business Page, we have a whole lot of green arrows! Overall, in March, as we’ve pivoted and focused more on the business Page, we have an increased reach of 127%, content interactions is up 129%, link clicks are up 41%, and minutes viewed is up 581%.

All that to say, the move to the business Page went really well. We had some unexpected additional visibility by moving to the business Page. And, in addition to that, we were still able to serve those 13,000 people in our Facebook Group. We took each day’s post, and we shared it to our Group, but we turned the commenting off; we really wanted to streamline all the commenting over on the business Page. So, even though the posts were visible inside the Group, and some probably got notifications that we had those posts hitting the Group, in order to engage, they had to click on that video and it would take them right back over to the business Page.

Now, I will say, there were a couple hiccups. We did run into a couple of challenges around scheduling posts using the Meta Business Suite. Things were getting scheduled, but sometimes they were being added to a playlist, which made it problematic to get a direct link to those posts ahead of time. So, we actually pivoted halfway through the Challenge and posted everything through CinchShare. And, rather than driving people to a specific link, we drove them to the business Page and pinned those posts at the top of the Page so they were easily accessible. And, everyone figured it out and was able to get what they needed when they needed it. So, that was a big win.

The second big change that we tried with this year’s Challenge is that we leveraged Facebook business Page marketing. And, this is something new. When I was fumbling around, working to try to find the link over on the business Page, I was invited to participate in the marketing messages feature that is now available through your business Page. And, this really intrigued me, because, you know, I talk a lot about being able to reach your customers directly in a one-to-one message. And, with the marketing messages, I was able to set up a series of messages that were sent to people that were interacting with my business Page, and I did not have to invest in advertising to do so.

So, the first one that we sent was, “Hey, would you like to be included in our exclusive messages?” And, we had over 100 new subscribers just from that first outbound message. Now, we’ve set that to be automated, so when people are interacting with our Page, they are automatically getting that welcome offer. And then, we sent out a message on Day Three of the Challenge. It was a quick check in, and we worded it in a way that really prompted interaction. We asked, “Hey, how’s the Challenge going for you?” And then, the last day of a Challenge, we sent another marketing message out. At this point, the message went to the almost 200 subscribers that had opted in to the marketing messages, and we asked, “Hey, how can we best serve you? Did you finish the Challenge? Are you ready for the Challenge survey? Are you still working on it and catching up this weekend? If so, I’ll send you the playlist! Would you like more information about the Modern Direct Seller Academy? Do you have any questions? Let me help you out.”

So, we got a tremendous number of clicks and opens and responses, which created a little bit extra work for our team. We were all up in the messages on Friday and into the weekend, but we had some really incredible conversations about the results that those participating in the Challenge we’re getting. So, overall, those marketing messages were a total win. We have them set up now and running, so we can continue to serve those interacting with our business Page in these marketing messages.

Now, the last thing I have to share behind the scenes of our Challenge is: I am so thrilled with the results that we have seen! We pour our hearts into this Challenge. And, the feedback that we receive every year just fills my cup. And, it’s incredible to hear from people the big wins, the bold moves, the sales that they’re getting, the new customers they’re acquiring, and the new habits they’re adopting in their business. This year, we collected that feedback using a survey. So, we actually had people go and put their information in, and share what their wins were, share what questions they had, and share what their takeaways were. That also allowed them to be eligible for the grand prize, which is an entire year in the Modern Direct Seller Academy!

It was pretty awesome to capture those testimonials and takeaways all in one place. And, I honestly read through every single response over the weekend. It really just validated that these Challenges are important to build community within our Academy, but also those outside of the Academy, and to serve the industry in a bigger way. What people have achieved has been huge, and we are so thrilled to welcome over 100 new direct sellers into our Modern Direct Seller Academy to continue learning and building momentum alongside us.

Thank you, if you participated. If you did not, there’s still time to check it out. And, if you do want to learn more about our spring enrollment inside the Modern Direct Seller Academy, this is your chance! Head on over to ModernDirectSellerAcademy.com.

Show sponsored by CinchShare: The #1 social media scheduler for direct sellers and online creators, and they’re offering our listeners a free 30-day trial with code GAMECHANGER! Get started through the app or by visiting ⁠CinchShare.com⁠.