InMarketing This Week: Social selling

Innovate > Interact > Influence

Written for CEOs, marketers and other leaders in the financial sector, InMarketing This Week is a showcase for news likely to impact them - delivered with insight on why it matters and ideas on what to do about it.

This week, you'll learn why:

① You’re missing a trick if you don’t harness your employees’ networks.

② Social selling must be authentic.

③ There are seven steps to successful social selling.

④ Technology empowers human relationships but…

⑤ …technology alone is not enough.

⑥ Your branding should always reflect your purpose and all your audiences.

⑦ Perseverance pays off.

What’s new?

As 2020 was drawing to a close, The Financial Times ran a piece about how workers who attract large followings on social media are both an opportunity and a risk for brands.

In short:

• “While major brands often clamour for attention from social media influencers, the relationship is complicated when that person is already an employee who has gained a following by sharing a glimpse into private operations.”
• “Employee influencer accounts are littered across the major social platforms. With their winning authenticity, they often perform far better than the official marketing efforts. But employee influencers do not always attract the kind of attention companies want and when companies find popular accounts, their reaction is often to shut them down, leaving fans bereft and the brands looking out of touch.”
• “Some companies are now actively looking to harness the appeal of employee influencers, while minimising the reputational risk involved. A number of influencer management companies have moved into the space to guide their efforts.”

Why does it matter?

It wasn’t that long ago that sales people were hired, at least in part, for the size and quality of their Rolodex. Social media have made it easier for all of us to maintain and grow ever larger networks - both professional and personal.

① Marketers are missing a trick if they don’t harness these networks as part of their overall efforts.

Having your employees share your message with their networks increases your reach and your credibility.

Indeed, the concept is now fairly well established under the guise of social selling and employee advocacy. This is updated marketing-speak for the old adages that ‘people buy people’ and ‘your staff are your best ambassadors”. The bottom-line is that having your employees use social media to share your message with their networks increases your reach and your credibility.

The challenge is that people are savvy and more cynical than ever. So…

② It’s critical that social selling is absolutely authentic. That means your people need to be themselves when promoting your brand. They can share your content but do so with their own angle, their own voice. The question then becomes, what can you do to maximise the impact of social selling while minimising the risk?

What’s next?

Take action

Call it social selling, call it employee advocacy, call it what you want. What matters is that you are leveraging the power of your employees’ networks and the credibility of their reputations to those networks. Both are hugely valuable.

③ Consider these seven steps to success in social selling:

• Be inclusive: Don’t limit yourself to sales people or even client-facing staff. Every single one of your employees is a potential advocate.
• Comply with the rules: If you lead a regulated firm, be sure your Marketing team engages with your Compliance people early in the process - you’ll want a firm understanding of the parameters in which you can operate when it comes to social media.
• Clarify your message: Ensure your Marketing team has made your messages are succinct and crystal clear to your own employees. They need to understand what you stand for before they’ll want to share it with their contacts. Internal communications is job #1.
• Think like a publisher: Your marketing team should be producing high-quality content that your employees will want to share with their networks - whether because it’s creative, funny or (my favoured approach) it is genuinely valuable.
• Educate: Your people will need help with social media. Their level of familiarity and therefore comfort will vary enormously. Some will need guidance with the basics, others will simply want to know what to share and where to find it. Marketing should be your firm’s centre of excellence for social media.
• Empower and trust: Because authenticity is so important in social selling, your employees need to feel empowered but you shouldn’t aim to coordinate too much, let alone dictate how they should share.
• Monitor and adapt: Keep on eye on what people are sharing, how they’re doing it and the reaction they’re getting. Some will need a little nudge one way or another. And, by doing so, you’ll learn what content resonates most.

Get help

I’m currently looking for a new full-time, in-house role but in the post-Covid age of depleted marketing budgets and remote teams with skills gaps, many organisations need marketing and communications support that’s agile, flexible, on demand and risk free. That’s why I founded WhatsNext Partners.

Whether it be as a permanent member of your team or with 'on demand' support, let me know if you need my help.

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What else?

Three other articles from the last seven days that are worthy of your time.

FINANCE

Top 10 trends to impact wealth management in 2021

④ Technology will empower human relationships in wealth management.

• Global wealth management consolidation accelerates
• Asset managers look to distribute directly to consumers
• ESG and sustainable investing takes on bigger role in client portfolios
• Advisors tackle wealth transfer issues holistically
• The financial planning process disassembles
• A renewed focus on prospecting and the rise of social selling
• Financial adviser compensation models will change
• Automated client onboarding will become more important
• Analytics enhance sales and service
• More firms will move to the cloud

TECHNOLOGY

Simple shuts down

⑤ Technology alone is not enough, it needs to be married to the right people, the right thinking and a sound business model.

• “Simple, the original neobank, is being shut down ahead of parent BBVA USA's acquisition by PNC.”
• “Simple was founded by Josh Reich and Shamir Karkal more than a decade ago, spotting an opportunity in the widespread public disillusionment with traditional banks in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis. With a strong background in technology, the Simple founders believed that they could do better.”
• “Having pitched itself as an outsider, the startup quickly became subsumed into the big banking world, acquired by BBVA in 2014 for $117 million.”

MEDIA & MARKETING

Is Graphic Design the C.I.A.’s Passion?

⑥ Although tailoring your message to each target audience is key, your branding is a much longer-term asset and should always reflect your purpose and all your audiences.

• “The CIA has unveiled a new design for its website jettisoning the formal signifiers of government authority in favour of a stark black background, offset by dots and lines that form topographical contours. The crisp lines and muted color palette suggest a minimalist branding strategy.”
• “Some have noted the website’s visual similarity to electronic music festival fliers and streaming platforms like Boiler Room. Others compared it to the look of The Intercept, an online publication known for its reporting on the CIA, as well as marketing materials for brands like Urban Outfitters.”
• “The website’s high-tech look and focus on recruitment underscores that the CIA is competing for talent with Silicon Valley.”

Quotable

⑦ Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and 1951 to 1955:

"When you’re going through Hell, keep going."

About

Written for CEOs, marketers and other leaders in the financial sector, InMarketing This Week is a showcase for news likely to impact them - delivered with insight on why it matters and ideas on what to do about it. It’s published every Sunday evening to give you a head start on the week. Read it here, or have it delivered straight to your inbox at six, before it's available anywhere else.

InMarketing is a broader celebration of marketing that innovates, interacts and influences. It's available on Twitter, on LinkedIn, and as a Flipboard magazine.