I’m reading Seth Godin’s Tribes. It’s about how communities need leaders. He challenges his readers to find their voice and make it known. To that end, I’m going to voice my opinion about the ethical behavior I see in Multi-Level Marketing, or Network Marketing.

PrePaid Legal (PPL) has created a shopping site that they hope will be the funnel, through social media, that they can secure more PrePaid Legal Associates. The new service is called BlastOff.

You can sign up for free and start saving a few dollars here and there. The real goal of BlastOff is for you to sign up as an associate. I did that several months ago, feeling it would be a nice service to offer my readers. However, I wasn’t able to promote it my way, which if I had realized that I probably wouldn’t have signed up to be an Associate,  and that wasn’t PrePaid Legals goal. They wanted me to work PPL, which would have taken away from my own business.

So, why do I share this story with you. I arrived at a networking event to hear that BlastOff was going to be bigger than Facebook.  Really???  Please!!! The tendency to over exaggerate MLM opportunities are abundant and just too ridiculous to even acknowledge. I’ve heard another MLM tell my fellow business owners that the product she represents (which IMHO BlastOff is trying to compete with) didn’t require me to do anything but purchase what I’m currently purchasing. She “forgets” to tell people that this opportunity to save money comes with a price tag of a couple hundred dollars.  Give me a break. Be honest when you give that 3o sec. elevator pitch.

The PPL sales reps that I’ve met over time have come to me asking me my opinion of BlastOff.  I’ve been honest with them. When I first tested BlastOff, remember I’m a web programmer, I realized that the product was no where near ready to launch. It had dead links and nothing else that could compare to the likes of Facebook. I wasn’t surprised that they had to push back the launch. I shared that I didn’t think it was ready for prime time and that it won’t be as big as Facebook. That doesn’t stop them, though. The next request was to ask me to send her link to my email database. Wow, hutzpah.

Which brings me to the point of my post…I recently had a running Facebook email conversation with, yet another, PPL and told him the same thing. I’m a PPL associate.  Even with that info, he decided it would be cool to post his BlastOff link on my wall.

So, what does that mean, to post a link on my wall. Posting a link on my wall, just like tagging a note or picture, puts the “poster’s” information on my wall and viewable by all my friends. What he did, after knowing I’m a PPL Associate, was to directly market to my friends, using my wall. It’s somewhat similar to spamming.  TOTAL BREACH OF ETHICS!! In fact, going over to Facebook I noticed I was tagged in a note from another friend…guess what….a note about another fabulous MLM opportunity. Geez, it never ends. Where’s the respect for my business and my friends?

Now, I know there are probably a lot of MLM businesses that are ethical, and do try to behave like business owners. It’s the rest of the MLMers that just don’t get it. This is why you are seeing more Business to Business (B2B) networking organizations cropping up. There are business owners who want to work with other business owners and not Network Marketing businesses.

So, what did I do, I unfriended the offender and am now having to justify my opinons with the PPLs who are commenting on my Facebook page. I’d like to hear the opinons of other business owners about their interactions with MLM or Networking Marketing businesses.  Have you been solicited lately? Asked to “work” their biz, rather than your own? I’m sure I’ll be flamed by the MLM/Networking Marketing community, but it’s time someone said something!

The other day I posted about "harvesting" e-mail addresses off forwarded e-mails. It’s hard to to resist taking the short cuts sometimes. So let’s talk about how to ethically market our business to prosper the bottom line.

Networking Ethics

I’ve belonged to a Leads Club for several years now. We invite visitors to attend two of our meetings before being asked to make a decision to join. Why do we do this? We want to make sure you’re a good fit for our membership. So my question to you is, are you serious about joining our chapter (good ethics), or are you visiting as many structured networking groups for the maximum amount of times just for the contacts (unethical behavior)?

Collecting Business Cards

At any given networking event there will be a networking table for attendees to place their business cards and brochures. Do you peruse the table looking for people you’d like to meet (ethical)? Or do you just grab all the cards possible to load into your database (questionable)?

If you collect all the cards and incorporate them into your database, you shouldn’t be at all surprised if one of the contacts busts you on who you are and why are you sending your e-mails to them. According to the CanSpam act, they should have a reasonable expectation that they’ll receive info from you if they’ve had a conversation with you. Collecting all the business cards just for the contact info is the same as collecting e-mails off the forwarded e-mail, unethical.

Asking For Help

I’m the techno geek at my networking events. I’m the one who talks about blogging, podcasting, Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, RSS, Syndicating Your Content, etc. I’ve been on the cutting edge for a couple of years now, blogging since 2005 and working hard to learn all I can about leveraging a business on the Internet. I can’t tell you how many times someone, out of the blue, comes to me to ask if they can buy me a cup of coffee and "pick my brains."

Do you have respect for your fellow business owners? Do you value their knowledge and what it’s taken them to gain the knowledge they have? And you want them to sit down with you and share it all?

Rather than ask to "pick my brain" (questionable ethics), why not ask me if I have info on my website that you could read and bone up on before asking me questions (ethical). That would show me that you were interested in furthering your knowledge by doing some of the leg work first, not just looking for the easy way to gain your info. I’d respect you more, if I were asked about a specific tool, task or strategy and not asked to share from A to Z.

Making An Introduction

Just last week I met a woman for the first time. It’s always been my practice to behave as a host. So I asked her who she was and what she did. She was happy to share everything about her business, including asking me if I could see how her business would benefit me. At the end of her conversation, she simply walked away, without asking me my name or what my business was. Do you think I’m interested in pursuing a business relationship with her? I’m betting she’s one of the "one hit wonders" that visits networking groups to the max before moving on to the next group.

Just How Long Can You Do That?

You may think your behavior goes unnoticed. I assure you, it doesn’t. Think about how you conduct yourself when you’re out in the business community. Do you really want to work at your networking relationships and building your business ethically, or are you out for the quick sale?

These are tough times. If you choose the short, unethical route it will only be a matter of time before you’ve destroyed any chance you have of prospering your business. I urge you to resist the shortcut, quick sale, and take the time to grow your business relationships. It’s more prosperous in the long run.

Blog Talk Radio is hosting a 12 hour talkathon.Blog Talk Radio’s Blog Action Day programming. You can follow the link and listen in right online while you work. Cool!!

So, how do you view ethics in the small business community? How has someone’s lack of, or example of ethical behavior affected you? Please feel free to share by commenting.