How To Sell On Social Media

When you think about social media you probably think of cat memes and the photos of your best friend’s birthday party. But social media isn’t just for being social.

These days also it’s about social selling.

Social media is a powerful force that puts potential employees, clients, and customers at your fingertips. It is quite literally the gateway to the world for brands and businesses.

All you have to do is build strong relationships and establish trust. And that is essentially what social selling is about.

What Exactly Is Social Selling?

Social selling is about using social media to find, understand and connect with potential customers. It’s a convenient way to develop meaningful relationships with customers. By nurturing these relationships customers will immediately think of your brand when they’re ready to make a purchase.

If your business has a social presence on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn you’re already doing the basics of social selling – even if you’ve never used the phrase to describe your social interactions your audience

However, it’s important to note that social selling doesn’t mean you should spam people with direct messages or tweets. That’s a sure-fire way to lose customers.

The trick to successful social selling is waiting for the right moment to assist your audience. By joining the conversation when you’re needed customers will see your brand as caring, helpful and valuable. This will go a long way in creating strong relationships.

How To Get Started With Social Selling

Social selling is a great addition to any digital marketing strategy. If you want in on the benefits of social selling here are a few tips to help you get started.

• Do Your Research

Understanding is at the heart of every good relationship. Take time out to get to know your prospects – be it an investor, employee, client or customer. The key to building a long-lasting relationship lies with understanding who people are. Social media platforms make it easy access to vital information about people which enables you to decide who to connect with. As such, identifying and learning about your target audience becomes simpler.

• Build Your Network

As we mentioned earlier, social selling is about building relationships. And to do that you need to work on building your network. This is done through social interaction like content creation and by interacting with your audience. The best way to keep track of your progress is by setting goals so that you are committed to a certain amount of engagement from the beginning. Search for industry-relevant hashtags and keywords on social sites to find conversations relating to your brand. The next step is to find the right moment to join the conversation, offering your unique blend of expertise, insight, and assistance. By contributing to these conversations and adding value to the network and start to build relationships

• Be Authentic

Once you’ve identified the people you want in your network, you can start to engage with them. A good starting point is finding common ground and using it as a way to start a conversation. It’s easy to make a connection with people if you’re being your authentic self. This is true for brands and businesses too. Use your brand’s unique voice when responding to questions and comments.

• Nurture Relationships

The key to selling anything (in a physical store or on social media) is to strengthen your relationships with prospects. By forging strong relationships you’re able to engage with people in a manner that builds trust. And people are more willing to spend money on a brand they know and trust. It’s worth noting that to nurture relationships effectively you need to be authentic at all times.

• Create The Right Content

To effectively sell on social media you need people to visit your pages. This requires content that your audience will find appealing. The rules of content creation remain the same for social selling. Create content that is largely original, engaging, valuable and fun. Next, you need to figure out the frequency of your posts. If you’re posing on Instagram, two posts a day may be sufficient. But if you’re using Twitter, it may require up to six posts a day. This depends entirely on who your audience is and what formats they use.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

Want to get more information about social media marketing? Check out our Social Media Marketing Course for more details.