5 Social Selling Hacks Which Will Help You Drive Sales and Grow Your Small Business

Promoting your business and products on social media sites means more than posting a few blogs with links to your website—it means having a comprehensive strategy.  An effective social strategy will enable you to create a bond with prospective customers based on empathy and an understanding of the problems they face and your company's ability to solve those problems.  That strategy must encompass a wide range of content, everything from informative articles and humorous anecdotes to credible product reviews and current customer testimonials. Your efforts will work best when you think outside the box.

Here are 5 social selling hacks which will help you promote your business on social media:

1.  Value Your Fans' Opinions

If you want to be successful on social media, you can't have a one-way conversation.  Think of it this way: if a friend comes to you with a problem and you jump into an endless monologue, giving them advice, telling them where they're making mistakes and not letting them get a word in edgewise, two things can happen.  First, by degrees they begin to lose interest.  Second, they become convinced you care less about helping them and more about your own opinion. 

If you care about someone, you care about what they think.  To show you care about your customers and prospective customers, find creative ways to weave their thoughts into your own.  Comment on their posts, solicit feedback, and answer their questions.  Show that your motivation is to help them, not simply to sell your products and services.

2.  Tailor Your Content (and Sales Strategy) to Customer Concerns

If you have a great product that no one wants, you're not going to see many sales.  In the same way, if you have a plan to blog about A, B and C, but your social media followers are talking about X, Y and Z, it's time to revisit your plan. 

Your content needs to be responsive and address the issues that your audience cares about at that moment in time.  To better understand what's top of the mind for your social media fans, follow the thread of their online conversations.  Speak with your sales and customer support teams to get insights on what's working for their customer contacts, and what isn't.  Bottom line: tweak and adjust your content strategy to the current problems the people who follow your business are experiencing.

3.  Find and Leverage Key Influencers

There's a reason 94% of marketers believe their influencer marketing campaigns are "effective"—it yields results.  Partnering with a key influencer in your industry helps you create credibility and trust.  The trick is to identify influencers who work with your brand.  One of the best ways to do that is using online tools like Traackr, Buzsumo, Little Bird and Klout.  These, and similar tools, have a wealth of data about virtually every industry niche. 

When you find people whose influence you think will work with your audience, analyze their reach, engagement and content to make sure it works with your brand.  Then, build a relationship with them before asking them to partner with you.

4.  Reinforce Your Messaging Across Multiple Channels

Don't limit yourself to a single social media platform.  For example, LinkedIn is good for identifying strong fits for your products and services. However, it sometimes makes sense to find those same people on other sites, like Facebook and Twitter, which are more conducive to expanding the conversation.

You should also integrate your social media messages with email marketing, content on your website, and, even consider traditional marketing methods such as direct mail.  If you push out a message on Facebook and prospective customers find that same message in their mailboxes and inboxes, as well as on your company's website, you create consistency, credibility and the sense that your business is focused and knows what it's doing.

5.  Go Undercover on LinkedIn

Most salespeople are taught to connect with prospects on LinkedIn, but they're often not taught how to configure their privacy settings.  For instance, you can connect with some of your competitors' sales team on LinkedIn and see when they make a new prospect connection.  This setting is allowing notifications about each new connection (potentially a prospect) via your newsfeed.  This gives you the opportunity to reach out to that prospect with a perfectly-timed email of your own. 

Conclusion

Successfully selling your products and services on social media requires creativity, an attention to detail, and a willingness to stop talking and start listening.  To learn more about the ways our website design, IT and marketing services can help you boost sales and grow your business, contact us today.