We are preparing to welcome about 200 members of our 2013 Founders Council to West Michigan next week, and for the first time ever you are invited to watch part of the festivities.

We will present a live broadcast of their arrival at our World Headquarters in Ada, Michigan. The one and a half hour live-stream will air on May 14th at 2:00 p.m. EDT via a special tab on Amway Corporate Facebook page.

Thanks to new technology – our Amacam – we are able to share all the glamour and excitement of the event with Amway distributors, prospects and friends around the globe.

The Amacam consists of three high-definition cameras (two inside and one outside) that will showcase the members as they arrive to walk the yellow carpet and be welcomed by hundreds of Amway employees.

Attendees to this year’s Founders Council group come from 15 different countries and include 11 new Founders Council members!

So, mark your calendar and plan to join us for the celebration. (How many of our top distributors will you be able to identify?)

Post by Gary Wade.

Would you like to own a piece of a Nutrilite Farm? Why stop there — how about a Nutrilite Lab? Amway Korea  has made it possible.

The more than 5 million users of a popular mobile game called Rule the Sky can purchase Nutrilite farms or crops, build Nutrilite structures and visit other users’ islands. It’s similar to Farmville, but in Rule the Sky users are on their own floating island in the sky called Flotia.

The marketing effort is called “advergaming,” and it’s not just a cool buzz word. When done correctly it can be a successful tactic with an immersive effect on players. Of the more than 5 million users of Rule the Sky, an average of 800,000 of them play 45-60 minutes more than once a day.

Rather than being exposed to a 30-second ad, a gamer’s attention is captured in a much more significant way. Advergaming also offers an additional measuring stick in the form of downloads: Nutrilite’s laboratory has been downloaded nearly 330,000 times. And Nutrilite’s El Petacal farm in Mexico? That’s been downloaded nearly 790,000 times.

So start tilling the virtual soil and rule the sky with your Nutrilite Farm!

Welcome to a new feature at the Amway Insider: 5 Minutes With…

Occasionally we will choose an interesting person connected to Amway or the direct selling industry and ask them a few quick questions. We’re very excited about our inaugural guest, Zac. We’ve written about him before, but this is the first time we got Zac to sit down for an interview. Thanks to Antonia Krunes of Amway Australia and New Zealand for tracking down the jet-setting stick figure.

How does it feel to be Amway’s unofficial “social mascot”?

Great! I love my Amway business and the great opportunity it offers. It’s so much fun being in my own videos and attending all the exciting Amway Achievers events. I love connecting with people through social media – it helps me share my great experiences with Amway!

What do you think about your social counterpart, Carlos, helping spread the word about Amway in Latin America?

Carlos is a legend – he’s doing a fantastic job at letting people in Latin America know about the best business opportunity in the world.

How many languages do you know?

I speak English, Spanish, Portugese and most of the other major languages. I’m a quick study!

Can you tell us about your latest video?

Sometimes people ask me if Amway products are worth the price tag. I know that nothing compares to Amway’s quality products – but I’m not sure how to tell others! So in my latest video I go on a journey to discover what makes Amway products world-class. I find out about the rich history of Amway’s products. They don’t manufacture to the lowest cost, but produce the best value. Watch it here and find out why “Nothing Compares to Amway!”

Can we find you on Facebook?

Sure can! I love Facebook and often pop up on the Amway Australia & New Zealand Facebook.

What do you think about fellow Aussie ARTISTRY Global Face Teresa Palmer.

Teresa is an Aussie beauty and a brilliant actress – she is taking Hollywood by storm! She is the perfect embodiment of ARTISTRY. Go, Teresa, go!

What stands out about your trip to Amway World Headquarters last year?

I definitely remember getting caught up on all of the episodes of “The Office” during the 14-hour airplane ride. Aside from that, so many things! I got to meet Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel and sit his office, which has an amazing view of the “flag promenade” where Amway displays the flags from every country where it does business.

I also loved touring the beauty research and development labs. They even gave me my very own lab coat! Walking down the Hall of Achievement was another eye-opening moment. If anyone reading this gets the chance to visit Ada, I’d highly recommend it – it was the experience of a lifetime.

Well, Zac, thanks so much for your time, and we look forward to your next video.

My pleasure, G’day!

Our Chief Marketing Officer Candace Matthews sat down with CMO.com recently and talked about her role in transforming marketing at Amway while ensuring the company maintains the identity that served it so well for more than 50 years.

Matthews talked about creating a global strategy and global branding to the business to help our more than 3 million distributors be more successful. And she talked about the importance of listening to the younger generations.

“They live in a digital world,” she said. “And what they’re thinking about is beyond what we baby boomers could ever imagine.”

While the younger generation of distributors may go about things a bit differently from their predecessors, the core of what they do remains the same — building relationships. And Matthews said that is the key to success.

“Digital enhances our business model; it won’t replace our business model because that contact is who we are,” she told CMO.com. “What digital does is it brings relevance, but it won’t replace relationships. That’s the core of who we are.”

Read the entire interview here.

The Marketing and Consumer Packaged Goods Club at Harvard Business School had a powerhouse of speakers come to its recent Marketing Innovation Conference, including General Mills CMO Mark Addicks and ESPN CEO John Skipper.

Amway was honored to have our very own Mike Edwards invited to participate in a panel discussion about social media and ROI.

Edwards, Amway’s director of digital and experiential marketing, served on the panel with Jan Rezab of Socialbakers, Ken Mah of Danaher and Seth Diamond of Catapult RPM. The panel spoke in front of a crowd of about 50 Harvard Business School students.

Rather than identifying the shortest line between “likes” and profit, the discussion focused more on strategy and purpose. Edwards said social media at Amway is key for crowdsourcing innovation.

“It’s tremendous, and it’s proprietary for us,” he said.

That is one of the things that drives strategy, he said. He also commented on what doesn’t drive strategy.

“Getting fans and likes is not a strategy,” he said. “And planning your strategy based on content going viral is like planning your retirement based on winning the lotto.”

Panel members agreed that the definition of ROI in social media needs to be broadened.

“Social is about driving aspiration,” Diamond said.

The participants did not limit their topic to social media. After the official panel was over, they shared lunch with the business students where discussions turned to lofty matters of the Chinese economy, Indian infrastructure and issues in Pakistan. 

Combine that with their tour of campus and you could say the Amway team got a pretty nice Harvard education. Check out a photo album from the trip at our Amway Facebook page.

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to take part in a video shoot for new hires and interns hosted by Amway’s Talent Acquisition team. During this session, I was asked questions about my experience here at Amway. As the “new guy” I was still trying to navigate our massive parking lot and struggled to remember what building my department was in. To think of my broader understanding of the Amway brand took a little more time, and I ended up navigating a non-traditional avenue for orientation.

I live in a world of Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Even though I was supplied great training materials, the conversations and images that I found within the social space are what really helped me to not only understand Amway, but better relate to our global presence, products, employees and distributors.  

Amway might be a 53-year-old story, but more than ever it’s a relevant story, especially within the realms of social media.

So how did I wrap my head around a company with 20,000 employees, over 3 million distributors and a footprint in more than 100 countries and territories?

From the Americas to Malaysia, the Amway brand experience has common threads and a unified story. This brand has values and beliefs which center on a universal dream that any man or woman, no matter what their background, could have their own business. This kind of story telling is international and inspiring.  

To keep a rolling conversation, my Amway experience is chronicled in tweets, blog entries, Facebook posts, Instagram photos, YouTube videos and social media press releases. 

Companies have always used stories as a communication tool to articulate authenticity and original content. If a story is compelling enough, it will travel from person to person and convey a captivating snapshot of a brand.

The simple concept of storytelling hasn’t changed, but the medium we choose has.

For a global brand with over 20,000 employees and a presence in more than 100 countries and territories,  storytelling for Amway is not only a priority, it’s an international social media approach.

There is no denying that social media is a powerful and credible force. Right now, there are more than 950 million active monthly users on Facebook. Each day, 200 million photos are uploaded and 3.2 billion “likes” and comments stream across the social site.

We use the traditional storytelling methods such as press releases, but in order to truly capture the Amway experience, we also offer our fans an interactive social hub of posts, tweets, images, videos and blog articles that provide a digitally holistic picture of our global brand.

“Like” us on Facebook for our corporate Amway, Nutrilite, ARTISTRY and eSpring pages and “Follow” us on Twitter at @Amway  and @ARTISTRYTweets to stay connected and updated.

Just four seconds after midnight on January 1st of this year, people using Twitter in Japan set an all-time record in the number of Tweets sent per second. It was an impressive 7,000 Tweets – a lot of fast-moving fingers.

Fast forward to today, and Amway Japan is moving quickly in its own right, adding more than 5,000 Twitter followers within just five days of launching @AmwayJapan. Amway Japan is tweeting about products; the hope that others have found through our business opportunity there; and the corporate citizenship efforts that have made it part of Japan’s communities – online and off.

Amway Japan also launched its official Facebook page this week, making it clear that no matter what happens, when it comes to communicating in real-time – among other things - Amway Japan won’t be slowing down any time soon.

“¡¡¡Guau, esto es increíble!!!”

 “Fantástico.”

 “Sensacional.”

 “Wow this is incredible! Fantastic. Sensational.”

That’s how Latin American distributors received the news that Amway Latin America had launched a full-fledged social media effort allowing distributors and customers to interact with  Amway’s brands.  You’ll now find Amway, Nutrilite and Moiskin on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter with updates from all of Amway’s Latin American markets.

The web team, lead by Latin America Communications Director Eduardo Casas and social media guru Alicia Ordaz, has been busy answering questions on and off line about the new tools that are expected to increase social conversation in Latin America.

“We hope that with these new tools we’ll be able to better inform the public and generate interest and awareness of our brands and sales of our products,” Eduardo said .

 And the conversation has already begun, as just days after the launch hundred of people began “liking” the Facebook pages and following us on Twitter .

 To connect with Amway Latin America visit:

• Amway Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/AmwayLatinAmerica
• YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/AmwayLatinTV
• Latin Amway’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/AmwayLatin
• Nutrilite’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/NutriliteLatin
• Nutrilite Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/NutriliteLatinAmerica
• Moiskin’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/MoiskinLatin
• Moiskin Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/Moiskin

In Amway’s case, our voices carry around the world. It might be our distributors talking about the business; news about us that travels faster than ever before; or our global social media properties where our fans and followers contribute to the conversation.

That’s why we’ve built Amway Voices, a content aggregator that will bring blog posts from our World Headquarters, Australia, Italy, Canada, United States, Korea, Russia, Germany, Taiwan and more into one place. It’s also where you’ll find our global Facebook posts, Twitter updates and the photographs we post to Flickr.

It’s a collection of voices that we simply couldn’t leave sitting on separate shelves.