You’ve heard of social media marketing, right? But have you heard of social selling? Do you know what it is?
It’s not the same as social media marketing or social media advertising.
It’s using the social media platforms to connect, network, build a relationship and reach your sales goals with your target audience.
As Hootsuite explains it:
“It’s the modern way to develop meaningful relationships with potential customers that keep you—and your brand—front of mind, so you’re the natural first point of contact when a prospect is ready to buy.”
It allows you to build your brand’s trust in a non-intrusive way as well as really get to know your clients. And it really pays off – LinkedIn research states that 78% of social sellers outsell in comparison to colleagues who don’t use social media.
There are, however, several nuances to being an effective social seller, as social media etiquette has changed over the past few years.
Here are examples of how to use social selling effectively:
Prospecting
People hate spam and cold messages. The trick to successful prospecting is to connect with someone in a friendly manner without trying to sell your product or service immediately. Try liking one of their new posts after connecting instead.
Furthermore, pay attention to what your connections are saying.
Informing
After you’ve made your connections start informing them with interesting content relevant to their buyer’s journey.
LinkedIn and Twitter are both great outlets for sharing your company’s original content and other industry news articles that your prospects will find interesting.
There is no limit on what you can share providing the content adds value to the conversation. However, there’s no faster way to lose interest from a prospect than sharing irrelevant and self-promotional content.
Brand awareness
Sharing posts about your company culture is also a great way to make your company a more attractive option for potential candidates.
Listen to what your customers are saying about you and in general. Knowing what your target market is talking about helps you keep aware of what your audience is interested in, and presents you with even more opportunities to get your brand out there.