If You Thought Social Media Was Just about Being Social, Think Again

As a sales and marketing professional for almost 2 decades now, I’ve seen technology change the dynamics of selling over the years. Because of this I am constantly refining my strategy.

As the title of the article refers to “Being Social,” one must grasp that more in life is “selling” than we sometimes think. And some of the very best salespeople are not trained salespeople at all. They are merely advocates for a product or service they believe in, based on their heightened level of understanding.

If you thought social media was just about being social, think again. Today it’s about “social selling.” 

Social selling is an art and science. To have a successful social selling strategy, you have to engage with your customers on social media in a thoughtful, relevant and direct way that tells them how helpful and awesome your brand is.

Potential investors, employees, colleagues, clients and customers are literally at your fingertips. But it is up to you to build relationships and establish trust. And that is what social selling is all about.

Social selling is no longer optional for your business. It’s a powerful strategy that can help sell your ideas, establish credibility, secure funding, attract talent and win customers.

Social networking takes up nearly a quarter of all time spent online and reaches more than 75 percent of all Internet users. If you’re engaging with your target audience on any level via social media, whether for business development or promoting your brand, that is social selling.

As Dale Carnegie wrote in his timeless bestseller, How to Win Friends and Influence People, building relationships and changing people’s thinking are the linchpins of success. Today, social selling is the optimal tool for achieving both.

Here are four steps to help you leverage the power of social selling:

1. Do your homework.

The basis of every good relationship is understanding. Take time to understand your prospective customer, talent, investor, co-founder, business partner or client. Building a relationship with this person starts with knowing who they are.

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social sites give us access to key information about each other. In an era when people are quick to open up online, you’re able to discern whom it makes sense to connect with and uncover valuable information about them, from their job to their alma mater to their reading habits.

As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said, “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people.” Because people are increasingly willing to share through social media, it is easier for you to identify and learn about your targeted customer or group.

 2. Be authentic.

Once you identify people you want to have in your network, begin to engage with them. Find common ground and use it as an entry point to initiate dialogue and establish a connection.

Making friends is easy when you’re authentic. Like walking into a dinner party where you know only the host, your inclination when striking up conversation with other guests is to find a common thread. Find it, and you’ve got an authentic conversation starter.

It’s no different on social media. Interact authentically by responding to someone’s blog that you truly liked or give a shout out to a recently promoted prospect. Ultimately, you’ll be in a better position to create a tailored and authentic “pitch” with relationships already in play.

3. Nurture your relationships.

The next step is to deepen your relationships, the crux of selling anything -- including your credibility. People want to invest in, work for and partner with professionals they know and trust. Forge relationships; don’t seek transactions. Social selling is about engaging with people in a disarming way. It’s about giving and receiving. Nurturing relationships takes time and calls for authenticity at all times.

 4. Employee Training

Your employees are the cornerstone of this strategy! Train them well and clearly explain to them how vital this social selling strategy is for your brand and their own careers, and you’ll have an entire team of social sellers who will engage with customers and also spread your brand to their own social networks.

 In Conclusion

If you want to take your social selling strategy to the next level: Simply focus on what’s been working for you in terms of content sharing and what’s been producing the best results for your brand on social. If you discover from monitoring that content with images and attentive responses to customer inquiries works best in the late morning, then continue doing that! When you reinforce your successful efforts, you’ll generate even better results.

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my article. If you found value in the knowledge I shared please Like, Comment and Share the article so more can learn.

Joshua B Lee

Make sure to check out my other article ~ Social Selling - What's Behind the Hype?

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