Social selling is becoming popular in most industries such as website hosting, graphic design, freelance writing and design, hospitality, consumer electronics, and internet service providers. It’s considered, highly used by B2B businesses. Though some of the listed industries above are B2C.
What is Social Selling?
Though, there is this growing confusion between what social sales are and social marketing. The truth still remains that both words or digital terms are opposite to each other. And both accomplish opposite results.
First, let’s look at what social selling is about;
Social selling is the use of social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, to build an individual customer relationship, social listening, sharing of content. With the endpoint of closing sales. It can take place online as well as offline.
While social marketing is the use of online and offline techniques to reach marketing professionals or prospects.
How to Increase the ROI of your Company’s Social Media Interaction
The first customer’s habit you need to know is – Customers tend to purchase from a buyer there have spotted the same similarity as theirs.
What that means is that to increase the Return On Investment of your company’s social media interactions. You need to set a team that mines and leverages your ideal customer’s data. To create connections that lead to more sales. Such customers’ data gives insights on what your ideal customers like. The data can be used to entice them with a compelling and evoking call to action that triggers buying from you.
But you need to know that the primary aim of gathering potential customers’ data to leverage connections for social sales. Is to first build a relationship through increased engagement and then speed up your sales.
Note; though there is this general view that social media platforms are not the big lead generation channels. Not to talk of closing sales. Many say it’s exclusively for awareness creation which rarely narrows down to purchase.
The good news is that recent research by sales for life showed that enterprises that use social selling lands a high ROI than those that don’t.
Reasons for Brand Interaction
It’s discovered that companies that land a higher ROI. I had to answer the question of why potential customers engage with brands on social media channels, and when.
One thing stood out, which is – companies that provide excellent customer support through social media channels were having the highest brand interaction. Followed by a focus on customer’s inquiries or questions. The third is relationship building. Fourth- positive reviews. Negative reviews. social selling had no brand interaction.
4 Key Knowledge of the Present State of Social Selling
- Sales via social media channels is still an untapped future digital selling opportunity.
- Compared to traditional lead generation, social selling brings about user interaction, exposes user information. This leads to better connectivity and reaches more potential customers following your ideal customer.
- Sales through social media platforms are more time saving with the help of social tools than any other selling methodologies.
- Companies moving into social selling now stand better chances of closing more genuine social sales.
Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Pinterest