By Sonia Duro Limia (Autora invitada), on 24 June 2020
If your company hasn’t yet implemented a Social Selling strategy to sell more through social media then you’re seriously missing out on a major avenue.
For a transaction to occur, a buyer and seller must come together on the same channel, obviously, right? So, think for a moment ... Where do your clients spend most of their time? Where do you find them? Companies figure out where and how they can interact with their customers, and currently, it is on social networks.
So, if you want to increase your sales and find the perfect channel for your Buyer Persona, keep reading to learn more about social selling and how you can do it.
Which Social Networks Should You Sell on?
This question is asked to me on numerous occasions because, generally, we associate social selling with LinkedIn. It's a logical union due to the very business-focused nature of this social network. But social selling has a lot of value on the other networks too.
Thus, the answer to the question above is clear and simple: all of them.
Let me explain, briefly, how you can approach a social selling sales model on each social network.
How to Use Social Selling to Sell More on LinkedIn
We all think of LinkedIn as the quintessential B2B social network. However, I, who almost lives on this platform, can tell you that this pattern is used less and less and other business-relationship models are forming, including direct to consumers, to other professionals, government entities, etc.
LinkedIn is no longer just for companies, and it much more for business in general.
Use hashtags, post regularly, and aim to build authentic connections with other members in order to aid your sales strategy.
How to Use Social Selling to Sell More on Twitter
Twitter is a good social network to complement digital actions you take on LinkedIn, although it has its limitations as not everyone likes this platform. This means that the personas you are targeting may not be there.
In terms of social selling, its open nature allows users to express their opinion on various topics in a more sincere and open way. That's good for you because it helps you get to know your client better. Twitter is a great place of brands to connect with customers, clients, and prospects in an open and direct way. Especially if someone is looking for a solution to a problem that your product or service can solve.
How to Use Social Selling to Sell More on Instagram
Instagram is a social network for branding. Since it is very informal and focused on leisure, we usually find the most human part of brands and organizations.
Dare to show it yourself, either through the day to day of your company, birthday of employees, values or, in general, your character as a company. Social selling on Instagram is a great option for online stores and ecommerces. In fact, Instagram should be a major part of your social strategy if you’re an online store.
How to Use Social Selling to Sell More on Facebook
Facebook may not be as well received as it was a few years ago, but it is still one of the social networks with the most active users, meaning this is a huge avenue for a strong social selling strategy.
In many Latin American countries it is still the favorite network of many people, meaning this could be a great platform if that is who you’re targeting.
Facebook reminds me a bit of LinkedIn in terms of structure: you have a personal profile on the one hand, and a company page on the other. This means many of the tips I'm giving you can work for one or the other, at least in a generic way.
Therefore, if you want to do Social Selling on Facebook, I recommend that you utilize your friends with whom you are interested in doing business and work to create genuine relationships and networks.
How to Use Social Selling to Sell More on Other Social Networks
Social selling can exist on all of the platforms. Here are some quick tips for some of the more niche apps:
- Pinterest: It has a high conversion rate in eCommerce and it is very useful to drive traffic to your website, which is where you describe your products / services or where you attract customers with your blog.
- YouTube: excellent for tutorials, demos and demonstrating your know-how through video.
- Snapchat: used for its fun filters, especially. If your company fits in there, go ahead.
- TikTok: keep in mind that your young audience does not have a high purchasing power, which hinders their possibility of purchase, but think that they may be a prescriber or influencer Buyer Persona (not influencer).
Social Selling Tips to Sell More
Now that you’re familiar with social selling, its time to take action. Let's look at 7 basic techniques that will help you increase sales through social media.
1. Humanize Your Brand
If you want to sell with Social Selling, show the most human side of your brand: your values, your mission, your employees, if you support sustainable development, etc.
Forget about being B2B, B4B, B2C, B2 - all the letters of the alphabet. To your client all of those letters don’t matter. What they want is to be proud of buying from a company that they are confident in. Are you that brand?
2. You Don't Have to Sell
Yes, to sell you don't have to sell. Reflect on this: do you like to be sold or do you prefer to decide what to buy?
In Social Selling it is key to apply Inbound Marketing, a strategy in which Content Marketing is the protagonist.
Prioritize the publication of valuable content on your social networks. Give your clients your knowledge, your experience. Focus on the benefits that your product / service offers and not on how fantastic you are, your good price or how very top your company is.
3. Talk to Your Client
Let me remind you of a typical topic that we say ad nauseam in marketing: social networks are networks and they are social.
They are networks because they foster connection.
They are social because they foster conversation.
If you want to apply Social Selling to sell more, it is not enough to be in them. You have to be active so that your client sees you and knows you. And that means talking and conversing. Think about it, how did you meet your partner, your friends, your colleagues, your boss, your employees? Conversing; and only then did you get to your current relationship.
I’ll tell you a secret: the online world is the same as the offline one.
4. Enhance Your Personal Brand
Personal branding is what sets you apart from your competition. We are all formed and educated in the same society and with the same values. The educational systems are very similar in all the training centers, we see the same news, the same criticisms and cultural movements.
Therefore, if you want to stand out among the more than 7.5 billion people in the world, you have no choice but to be yourself and show your client that you are different and authentic.
Make your SWOT personal and highlight your strengths in front of others. Internally, correct your weaknesses and, if you need it, do not hesitate to start a mentoring and enhance your professional career.
5. Create a Strategic Alliance Between Employee and Company
To sell more with Social Selling it is of great help that the employee and the brand go hand in hand. In the end, both parties have to get a budget at the end of the year and it is easier to get to it when you create a common strategy.
Therefore, I recommend that you design the planning of the actions of each person on your team and that you follow up on the objectives that each of you set for yourself.
Remember that the sum of the parts is more powerful than each one separately.
6. Build Trust
If I ask you the main reason why your clients don't buy from you, what would you say? If you say “price,” I’ll encourage you to dig deeper and find the real reason.
For more than 20 years I have sold transportation and logistics and now, since 2014, I have been selling sales training and digitization services. Experience tells me that you sell when you have a good feeling with the person in front of you, with your Buyer Persona. So, look for that trust by talking, showing your honesty, your worth, your generosity, your support, your humanity.
I wanted to leave this advice until almost the end because it is where all the previous ones converge. Building trust is the key to selling more with Social Selling and without Social Selling.
7. Analyze Your Results
You don't know if something works until you measure the results. Therefore, if you want to know if you sell more with Social Selling, write down the results you get with your publications. These are the most relevant, probably.
- Followers or contacts.
- Scope.
- Engagement.
- Number of closed visits.
In conclusion, I want to encourage you to really start your path and that of your company in social sales. It is not about turning your back on physical visits with your clients, quite the contrary: it is about facilitating them and forgetting about the cold door.
