Social selling is a term that is becoming more and more popular every day. Although the method has been known for at least a dozen years, I have the impression that only now is social selling really beginning to strengthen its position and provide concrete sales support. What is social selling? Simply put, they are sales activities carried out in social media. Do they have anything to do with the FPs? And how! That is what I would like to write about today.
The more specialists you have, the more tips you need for effective social-selling measures. And although there can be a lot of broad definitions, the experts agree on a few rules. Would you like your social media to support your sales and be really effective? Good morning! It is time to take care of your image. And if there is an image, it is also PR. In principle, in this case it could be called SR, because in the end we are talking about social relations, i.e. building relations in social media, which are one step ahead of social selling.
Why?
I will give you a little secret. Adding a quick hit to friends on Facebook, watching on Twitter or contacts on LinkedIn will not bring you any results. Just as you won’t be able to send blind messages like this: I’m happy you’ve accepted my invitation to join my friends and now I’ve got a great deal for you. Do you know what I’m doing with such messages? I delete them, and the delicatessen who serves me such spam, add them to the blacklist, removing of course from the circle of friends, contacts, etc. No, this is not social selling, let alone SR/PR.
Let’s start from the beginning.
Relationships.
Before you start building them, answer a few basic questions:
who are my customers?
where can I find them?
what are the problems?
how can I help them solve the problem?
Do you have it? It’s great. If your customer is the owner of the e-shop and you work in a company that provides excellent tools for automating activities in e-commerce, your answers could look like this:
e-shop owners, whose annual revenue oscillates around X USD
online: LinkedIn., Facebook, Twitter? Forums and industry groups? Blogs? Web services? Offline: Smaller and bigger events?
There are at least two ways to define the problems: the first one involves the use of Internet monitoring (you check which topics and where your target group is talking about) and the second one is more laborious – you can add to several thematic groups and simply track what problems are being addressed in e-commerce. Do you have it?
consider whether you are able to solve the problems of your target group
Did I say anything about the sale somewhere in the above points? Does one of these involve sending hundreds of messages that force someone to do something? No.
Two keywords: image + relations.
If you already know the problems of your target group, you can start building your image. The best and most effective way will be a strategy based on building the image of an expert. Do you already see how social selling connects with PR?
Start creating content that responds to your target group’s concerns. It can be a short journey, longer articles, whitepapers, reports – check out what works best in your industry and what works best for you. Educate your clients, but also get involved in the content they create. You’ll quickly find out that the people who watch you on your social networks will start to see you as an expert and look for you and your content themselves. At some point you will notice more and more comments under your posts, and over time more and more messages in your mailbox. Customers will start talking to you. This will be your time to establish a relationship. And with the passage of time for sale.
You already know why social selling and PR go hand in hand?
The chance that someone will buy something from you as an anonymous person is… none. Well, you would have to be lucky. LinkedIn’s research shows that 92% of buyers will be interested in a conversation if the seller is an industry-renowned leader! How, is it worth taking care of your image and starting to build relationships in social media? Well, clear! Without PR there can be no effective social selling.