You’re a busy person. You might be a parent or have a full-time job while running your direct sales business. That’s a lot on your plate. So, where will you find the time to make an Online Party template from scratch that’s authentically you and engages your Party guests?  

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You might consider using a template from your Upline Director or corporate to save yourself some time, but you’ve heard that using the same content as someone else may have you blocked on Facebook. What do you do?

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I’m here to tell you that you can have the best of both worlds! In this article, I will teach you how to take a generic shared Party template and add just enough flair to make it truly yours.  

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Lesson #1: Review the Template and Then Aim!

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You should never fly blind when it comes to shared templates. Read through everything, no matter how polished it looks.

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This is incredibly important because, on social media, you are your content. If a shared template goes live in your Parties without reading through it, you will not have control over how your potential customers see you. They may get the wrong idea about who you are and decide you are not a voice they can trust.

That would be terrible, right? So make sure any content you schedule represents your values and spirit.

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Once you start reading through the generic Party template, you’ll immediately see what doesn’t apply to you and your audience. Whether that’s because there are posts your demographic won’t be interested in, or maybe there’s a lot of redundancy. Follow your gut and delete it.

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What if you don’t have a gut feeling about what works best for your audience?

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First, take a minute to think about your customer base. Who are they? What is their age range? Do they respond to the same humor that you do? What kind of products are they buying the most? Having the answer to these questions will help you decide whether a post will appeal to your audience or not.

Go ahead, be discerning. Take out anything that doesn’t fit. Deleting posts is a significant way to convert a generic Shared Party template into something more authentic and unique to you.

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Lesson #2 - Trim the Fat!

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Now that you have deleted posts that do not serve your voice or your audience, it is time to edit any posts that are info dumps and cut them down.

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People will skip over any posts that have too much text. They do not need to know what the product is made out of or your company’s warranty policy. Avoid any dry information that is easily found on your website. Info dump posts will disengage your audience because they don’t evoke emotion or provide a solution for your customers to use practically in their lives.  

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Instead, follow this formula:

Have the post ask a question or mention a problem the product can solve. Then keep 1 to 2 sentences that explain what the product is and how it can solve said problem. Finally, end the post with 1 to 2 sentences that are a personal story about how you use the product or why you love it. That’s all you need!

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Your authentic voice shines when you make room to tell a story rather than just giving facts. You’ll come across more like a friend sharing a recommendation rather than a robot giving a sales pitch.

If one of the posts you’re trying to trim down showcases a product you don't have your own story for, go to your company’s website and read the reviews. Use the reviews as a guide to adding a sentence about the product that feels personal.

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Here’s an example of converting an info dump post into one that engages your party members.

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Be honest. Did you skim or skip the first example because it was a drag to read? Well, imagine that being in your Party. If you find it boring, so do your Party guests. In contrast, the edited version is more digestible AND allows for genuine conversation to happen.

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You can’t go wrong if you follow the formula above. You can even use it as a guide to writing your own posts.

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Lesson #3 - Making it “Sound” Like You!

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Now that you’ve cleaned up the shared Party template, it’s time to jazz up the copy, AKA the text that goes with each post. You don’t need to rewrite every post to make it sound like you. That would take forever, but you need to add how you speak into the wording.

Here’s an excellent way to think about this - How do you talk to your friends & family? Do you use lol or haha? Are you a “you guys” kind of person or a “y’all” one? Do you use certain emojis more than others? Or ellipses instead of exclamation marks?

Everyone has a unique way of communicating, even in the digital world. We have all kinds of quirks that make our voice ours and no one else’s. Use these to your benefit!

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Here’s an example of what this could look like:

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See how in the edited example above, I used slang and abbreviations, added an emoji, and changed some of the sentence structure to make the wording more unique. It doesn't seem like that big of a difference, but to the Facebook algorithm, it is. Doing these small changes will help you avoid being blocked on Facebook and help your audience relate to you more.

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PostMyParty makes this easy with our Content Rating System feature. It provides insight into whether or not your posts are safe to use on Facebook. Next to each post in your Party template, you'll see Green, Yellow, or Red marks depending on the likelihood of the post being blocked. To ensure your posts won't cause problems for you down the road, changing the words to sound more like you will make a huge difference in keeping your posts Green! ‍

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Lesson #4 - Add Your Face!

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Add pictures of yourself into the shared generic Party template. The more your face is seen in your Parties, the more your guests will relate and connect with you.

Isn’t that the whole point of these posts anyway? To start conversations and connect with people.

The easiest post to add is an introduction that includes a picture of yourself and shares your story. It might be sharing your "why," how you started your business, or what you love about your company and products. Just snap a quick selfie. It doesn't need to be fancy. Candid and day-in-the-life shots are incredibly relatable and tell more of a story than any polished graphic ever will. An introduction post helps set the tone for your Parties in a way that only you can provide.

Next is to see if there are any products in the generic shared Party template you already use. Pull them out and snap a picture of yourself holding them. Replace as many generic graphics in the template with these kinds of pictures. The more photos you have of you just being you - the better!

If you’re interested in more guidelines on how to create your own posts, check out this helpful article here.

At the end of the day, your Party template is important, but it isn’t the MOST important part of a successful Virtual Party. It needs to be there to engage your guests, but its real purpose is to start conversations. You don’t need perfect content to do that. So don’t sweat the small stuff. Use the lessons given in this article to change what you have so that it fits your voice and start creating connections because that’s where the real magic happens.

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