What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? If your answer is ‘check my social media’, then you’re not alone. Today,  half of the world’s population is active on some social media platform or the other. 

And that’s why social selling has become all the rage! Sales folks across the world have started using it as part of their regular sales strategy. 

Is it the same as social media marketing? Absolutely not, let’s get that out of the way. 

Social selling is simply using social media platforms to engage with prospects directly. Social media marketing, on the other hand, is all about sharing content on these platforms to achieve branding and marketing goals.

If you haven’t already tried it out, we’ve got some amazing social selling tips lined up for you. So, get ready to close more deals!

Social Selling Tips 

1. Optimize your social media profiles‍

Gartner predicts that by the year 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions will occur on digital channels. But, if your social media profiles are outdated or incomplete, you’re likely to lose out on crucial social selling opportunities. Being more than just a digital resume, your profile is your professional reputation, catering to an intended audience.

Like Daniel Disney, Author, The Ultimate LinkedIn Sales Guide, said, “The standards of LinkedIn profiles will continue to rise and so it's important for you to make sure the standard of your LinkedIn profile meets those standards.”

What can you do? Well, you can make sure you have a high-res professional display picture, add a valuable job title that tells how and whom you can help, post recommendations for credibility, and use visual content that’ll actually help potential buyers reach you.

2. Focus on personal branding

Gone are the days when marketing held all power on social media. Today, social media has become all about following the right people. That’s where social selling comes in. 

All you have to do is become an internet personality, a thought leader, an influencer if you will. Consistently post quality engaging content, at least twice a week, about things that people will actually value. 

A LinkedIn study indicates, that social leaders create 45% more opportunities and are 51% more likely to reach quota than their peers who don’t take the personal brand building as seriously. 

So post about your first-hand experiences, your success stories, and other compelling content that’ll keep people hooked. This will build you up as a brand, enabling conversations around your product or service and in turn help you create more opportunities & close more deals. 

3. Don’t forget social listening‍

Social media marketing, social selling, and now social listening? Why are there so many terms! Believe us, we are with you. But it exists and here is what it means - identifying conversations that are happening on social media about your industry, company, product, or you. 

So, the next time a prospect has a problem, with this 360-degree view you can step in and suggest how to solve it. It’ll not only help in personalizing interactions but also in establishing and nurturing authentic relations with prospects, thereby increasing your chance of them becoming a customer.

You can use several tools like Hootsuite, Mention, Keyhole, etc to track key social media conversations.

‍4. Engage consistently

This is one of the best social selling tips anyone can give you - keep your audience engaged. That means posting useful content consistently - at least twice a week. It is more work than you realize!

We're talking about original content - insights, tips, experiences, articles, videos, etc. Anything that may be relevant to your audience and might start a conversation. Adopting this practice, will result in shorter sales cycles, deepened customer relationships, and generate higher revenue opportunities.

It doesn’t end there, of course. You have to engage with people in the comments section and comment on other relevant content so that you are noticed. This builds credibility and a bigger social media network.

5. Leverage social selling technology

‍For the longest time, there were no tools to help with social selling. Except, for Sales Navigator, of course. The tool can help you identify leads based on certain things like their industry, location, company size, etc.

But 2022 is seeing an exciting influx of tools that can give you better social selling opportunities. These include Vidyard, OneShot, Buffer, and so many more! Even Outplay’s multi-channel outreach via LinkedIn and Twitter is a great way to do selling on social. 

6. Track your social engagement

We’ve established how important consistent engagement is. But this effort will be pointless unless you track your progress. So, how do you do that? 

A simple way to start would be to track engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and shares. Basis these numbers you can determine if your content is resonating with the audience or not. If it is, you can continue following what works, but if it doesn’t you must then curate content that can get you high traction.

Additionally, there are other platforms such as Google Analytics and LinkedIn Navigator that indicates help measure the effectiveness of your branding efforts.

Parting thoughts

It’s going to get bigger in the sales world, so if you haven’t already, this is the best time to try it out. After all, 92% of B2B buyers say they’ll engage with sales reps who have positioned themselves as an industry thought leader.

So, what are you waiting for? Start your social selling journey today.