Facebook is Amway 2.0
Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 4:32PM Mark Zukerberg is the next Richard DeVos. We know history repeats itself, and as we are seeing it right now as Facebook becomes Amway 2.0. Both organizations provide tools to aspiring networkers, focus on counting things, and work to monetize the relationships to the maximum degree possible.
Aspiring Networkers
Both Amway and Facebook provide the tools and encouragement to build a network of friends. Quantity of friends is more important that quality, and no attempt is made to value one friend more than another. There are no best friends on Facebook or in Amway.
Count Your Friends
Once in Amway you are encouraged to produce a list of your friends so you have a place to start building your network. You are coached as to how to approach your friends, and suggestions are made about friends of friends. The objective is to get as many friends into the network as possible.
We Make it Easy for You
Once you get enough friends into the network, you can work to sell things to them, or work to get them to sell things. You can be a big success even if your friends don’t buy anything – as long as your friends of fiends do.
So the next time someone asks you to lunch to discuss a new “business opportunity”, make sure to ask: is this Facebook?
All of this is not necessarily bad for Mark Zuckerberg. After all, Richard DaVos owns a really big boat and the Orlando Magic.
Later: Here is a good post by Robert Scoble about what Facebook should do.
Amway, Facebook in Tech Marketing
Reader Comments (3)
I’ve been reading your blogs for a while now, but have never commented on any of them. However, your blog post on the similarities between Facebook and Amway tickled my fancy. I found it hilarious because comparing the two is like comparing an aircraft carrier and a canoe because they both float on water. They might look the same, but their functions are completely different. So, I thought I’d chip in with my own $.02
“Quantity of friends is more important that quality, and no attempt is made to value one friend more than another. There are no best friends on Facebook or in Amway.”
The question here is have you met anyone with a real level of success in the Amway business? Or are you going off of someone else’s experience? If you meet with anyone at the Emerald level or above, you’ll discover that building the Amway business is about building relationships. The Amway business works because unless you help others be successful, you won’t be successful. Unlike the companies you write about often, (Goldman Sachs, etc.), everyone wins in the Amway business.
“Once in Amway you are encouraged to produce a list of your friends so you have a place to start building your network. You are coached as to how to approach your friends, and suggestions are made about friends of friends. The objective is to get as many friends into the network as possible.“
I am surprised that you paint this as being a negative. If I started up a physical therapy practice, wouldn’t it make sense for me to ask my friends and family to become clients? Wouldn’t it be a good business move to ask for referrals, and then pay back part of the sale for that referral? It’s called AFFILAITE marketing. Every major company has one today. Amazon, Microsoft, Ebay and even the Discovery Channel.
“Once you get enough friends into the network, you can work to sell things to them, or work to get them to sell things. You can be a big success even if your friends don’t buy anything – as long as your friends of fiends do.”
Again, you paint this in a negative light. What’s wrong with selling? Nothing is wrong with it at all. But the cool thing is, you don’t have to sell if you don’t want to. Think about it this way…how many sales people have you seen in a grocery store? None! People go in and buy what they need/want, and they go home. The old days of selling soap door to door is long gone. What it comes down to is, who can treat my loved ones better and get them better prices and service. Will Wal-Mart treat my mom better, or can I? Maybe some people feel entitled to have their friends and family as customers, but I think that most people would much rather have the opportunity to EARN their business. And when the products are bio-degradable, green, and there’s a 180 Day guarantee, how can you go wrong? Not only that, but Amway works with hundreds of Fortune 500 companies (Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Disney, Avis, etc.) and markets millions of other people’s products, just like Amazon does. And that makes it cool. Just some food for thought. Keep up the informative posts!
Thank you for the comment Charles. You bring up some very good points and I agree that Amway is clearly a business that ads value to our society. I suppose my point is that the obfuscation by Facebook around privacy, and by Amway when approaching people for a business opportunity serves neither firm well. Outside of the few meetings people from Amway drew me into many years ago, I really have no first hand experience with Amway and admit that I am not qualified to say what Amway does or does not do. I can say that the denial by the friend inviting me -- when I specifically asked "is this Amway" prior to the meeting -- killed whatever small chance Amway may have had to win me over.
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