Social Media
Why You Should Care About Social Selling
And why doing this the right way is so important for your business.
In 2007 Playstation launched their presence on twitter. They integrated this with their other social media accounts to expand their reach. In the last 6 years alone, they’ve grown by about 14m followers! This catapulted them to be the most followed brand on twitter with around 18.9m followers today.
But it’s not just about the followers they have on Twitter, it’s how they use it that counts. Playstation uses this as one of their selling platforms and takes advantage of the daily growth of followers they get. One of the reasons they’ve been so successful is because of how active they are on the platform.
They continuously engage fans by sharing events, trailers and gaming footage..This level of engagement helps them get more fans by peer to peer sharing and getting the follow up sales. They build a relationship with their audience and are there to remove any doubt about buying their products.
Nowadays, Social media is becoming the go to place for businesses to find and engage with existing customers and a place to find new ones! According to stats by LinkedIn, 78% of social sellers outsell their peers who don’t use social media. On top of that, these social sellers are 51% more likely to reach their sales targets.
So what is social selling? How is it different to traditional methods and is it easy to do?
Think of social selling as a softer sales approach. It’s more easily accepted and looks at more long term engagement rather than short term, hard selling.
Those days of cold calling, handing out business cards and prospecting to get a sale are few and far between. Now, buyers are asking questions, looking out for advice, getting informed and making their buying decisions — all on social media.
Now before we go further about social selling, it’s also important to be clear on what social selling is not. It’s not about bombarding random strangers on social media with DM’s, friend requests or spaming them with your products. You should not engage with this type of promotion.
We don’t just want to build our connections and follower counts either. It’s more about building relationships and listening out for the right time to talk about your solutions. It’s about finding those pressing things that your business or products can fix.
Doing this the right way is so important for your business for a few reasons.
- If you listen and pay attention carefully, you will identify leads in lots of places on social media.
Think about it, people are sharing so much information about what they want, what they need, what they don’t like in different groups and on their own profiles. This gives you the opportunity to get a real sense of someone before you even reach out to them. This gives you the chance to help them with something rather than being intrusive or cold.
What’s even better is the ability to see what common interests or common friends you might have with your leads. That’s a pretty good heads up if you’re trying to connect.
2. People are already using social media to buy.
People are already doing their research and making decisions without having to speak with someone. And because trust is still the biggest reason for someone to engage with a brand, social selling can give a brand more time to develop trust before they make a decision.
And now with the pandemic, people are engaging more with online sales people through chat in their social channels. They do this method to get answers, get clarity and confirm their buying emotives.
3. The big brands and your competitors are already doing it.
There are a few great examples of how businesses are using social selling to further their reach and sales.
A furniture company Made.com uses customer generated content to allow other potential buyers to get some confidence in buying high ticket items online without seeing it in person. The connection they make with their potential buyers allows them to build trust and then more sales. They also give their followers tips and advice on space saving furniture to help people think about them when they’re ready to buy.
Zappos which is an online shoe retailer uses social media to deliver a better customer experience. They’re customers are open to sharing their questions and Zappos are quick to answering them. They do this really well when people are facing challenges which leaves them with a great experience that is there for the public to see.
So what do these mean for you? Well it’s simple, if you’re not online through social media, then you’re missing out on business. And if you’re thinking of starting a business, then social selling should be on the top of your strategy.
Let me put it to you this way, if you have a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile or a business Instagram account, you are in some way involved in social selling. Whether you like it or not, you are involved, even if you haven’t been active in it. When people come across your business on social media, you are making an impression.
The question is, what is the impression you’re making and what are you doing to capitalize on the potential business that’s out there? The truth is, it doesn’t really matter what the answer is, they will be the reasons why you should care about social selling.
What do you think about social selling for your business? How can you make the most of the these social platforms?
