3 Tips with Social Selling Strategies for Business
Social media is not thought of as a place to sell products and services, but rather a community where businesses and customers can connect, solve problems, add value, and build trust.
So why the use of the term ‘social selling’?
This concept is the result of interacting on your social networks rather than a direct sales tool for business. Customer service and social media maven Marsha Collier makes a great point in a recent article on PureMatter:
When a business interacts with their customers and followers on places like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Instagram it’s important to communicate in a way that meets the needs of your market and creates word-of-mouth marketing. This is the pathway to sales, and a by-product of meaningful communication.
In fact, 98% of sales professionals place a high value on building relationships as a part of their new business strategy according to entrepreneur, Ross Simmonds on Business2Community.
In the world of social selling it’s the customer that holds the keys to success for businesses and even big brands like Best Buy, Target, and Starbucks. A response on social media can spread very quickly, which directly impacts sales. Whether this is positive or negative it is good practice to follow your conversations and respond in a timely manner like this example from a recent tweet from a customer at Starbucks:
Along with great images, video, and content your brand will greatly increase its chances of positive feedback and sales while engaging in communication with your audience. Sometimes negative banter needs to be taken off of live social media, such as into a direct message or providing a helpful email or telephone number. But for the most part your business will start to see a difference in the way people respond just by interacting with them.
Part of a successful social selling strategy is an established sale page either directly on your business website or through a service like LeadPages. Links on your social networks can lead directly to these pages without selling to your audience.
Here are three top tips to encourage sales on social media for your business:
1. Offer eye-catching content – This is the top dog of any social selling strategy and it starts with great research for your business’s target market. Depending on your niche this could include infographics, how-to videos, tips, free reports, the latest news for your industry, and more. Find out what appeals to your audience and build on that with the right hashtags for each topic. While setting up an automatic schedule of posts and tweets is good, always be checking your active networks for feedback, shares, and questions.
2. Be selective in your social networks – In order to maximize your time and be able to communicate more online it is a good idea to be focused on the social media channels that work best for your business. Some companies thrive more on Twitter than on Facebook, while others focus more on Instagram and YouTube. Go where your audience is flocking and start engaging there.
3. Offer help and expertise – Your business can greatly benefit from showcasing the best you have to offer in the form of helpful ideas, content that solves problems, instructional presentations, ect. If you have a B2B for example, share content that can help build the businesses you are connected with and offer news and insights that are unique to your industry, and have not been previously covered or have a different slant.
Social selling can be a rewarding process when your business uses its networks to listen, engage, and share information that draws in more loyal followers and customers. Use analytics tools to measure the conversations and learn what to improve upon. Facebook and Twitter in particular already have these available or you can sign up for an account with services like Buffer and Hootsuite to track your interactions. When your business puts people first in social media the sales are sure to follow.
Susan Gilbert
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