What is Social Selling?

1. What is Social Selling, and How Does it Benefit Me? Social Selling is an important tool which, using social networks, allows you to connect with your target audience – understand them, and cultivate sales prospects in such a way that your business and brand becomes a leader in its field, and is the first thought in a shopper’s mind when they think of the type of goods you sell. It allows you to establish and then build on relationships with your audience – turning them from interested parties, into customers. Social Selling Defined Social selling isn’t about wasting valuable time indiscriminately sending out tweets, messages or attempting to connect with everyone regardless of their interest level. It’s about identifying who your target audience is, and creating a smart strategy to connect with them using the most appropriate social platforms. Social Selling Statistics At its core, social selling can be simplified down to the idea that – if you as a business are engaging with your target audience on any level via a social media platform, then you are social selling. Distilling the concept down to its bare roots may make it easier to understand, but the power and potential behind it should not be underestimated or marginalised. Recent statistics suggest that nearly a quarter of the time a user spends on the internet, is spent social networking – and this applies to almost 75% of all internet users. In 2015 a report revealed that only 1 in 4 salespeople knew how to integrate social media into their sales process, yet 61% of groups or organisations engaged in social selling confirmed a positive impact and growth in sales. It’s not just individual consumers that you can reach using Social Selling. Business to Business (B2B) buying is also being conducted with these platforms being heavily utilised. Accenture Interactive conducted a procurement study, and found that: • 94% of B2B buyers conducted some form of online research before making a purchase • 55% used online research for over half their total purchases. • 91% of B2B buyers are active and involved in social media • 84% of senior executives use these platforms to support their purchase decisions • 75% of B2B buyers are significantly influenced by social media. These figures reveal just how potent a positive online and social media presence can be for your company. If you are not applying a social selling strategy – then not only are you falling behind, but you are missing out. We help brands enhance their online presence and create exceptional digital experiences for their customers. If you need Digital Marketing solutions – get in touch today! www.virtual-solutions.co.uk Copyright © Dawn Gribble – Virtual Solutions 2017

2. How to Make Social Selling Work for You Social Media is a tool spread over a number of different platforms, that allows direct interaction with your target audience – social selling takes advantage of this ability to connect and respond to events or inquiries in potentially real-time or close to it. It differs from Social Media Management (SMM) in that the aim of the scheme is directly to increase sales. SMM looks to the company image and increasing brand-awareness; it deals with the customer where as Social Selling deals with the custom. Optimising your business with both these complimentary approaches could allow your company to take advantage of the billions of social media users who engage with these sites every day. There is a huge pool of potential contacts available – narrowing your approach to those relevant ones is where an active SMM strategy could prove beneficial, then making use of Social Selling techniques could increase your sales. Understanding and investigating your target customer is easier now than it has ever been, thanks to the power of social media – people are far freer with their information and what they share about themselves – likes, dislikes and interests are freely and openly discussed on a variety of social media platforms. Already the use of social media will be making identification of your audience easier, allowing you to determine which platforms (such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) are the most appropriate for your business. Implementing Social Selling To fully embrace Social Selling, it is important that you appear authentic and genuine – potential customers are put off by individuals or companies that come across as disingenuous or fake; by not investing time and effort into building up relationships and rapport with your audience – you can actually do your business lasting harm, reputation after all, is slow to build and quick to destroy. It is important that the ‘social’ aspect of Social Media is not neglected – a company that does not engage with its audience will lose them. Nurturing contacts and being active on your social channels is at the core of Social Selling. This will take time and dedication, as well as a willingness to engage quickly – a 2016 survey discovered that 78% of people who made a complaint via Twitter expected an answer within an hour. It also revealed that 77% of those Twitter users surveyed felt more positive about a brand when they had been responded to. We have all, at some point or other, seen or heard stories of social media posts going viral because a staff member or business owner has conducted themselves poorly – whilst these may see a certain increase in brand awareness and the possibility of more sales, it is short term at best and extremely damaging in the long run – once the novelty of the situation wears off, people will only remember the negatives associated with the brand. We help brands enhance their online presence and create exceptional digital experiences for their customers. If you need Digital Marketing solutions – get in touch today! www.virtual-solutions.co.uk Copyright © Dawn Gribble – Virtual Solutions 2017

3. It is important that time and effort is invested into training your staff so they are capable of representing your business to its best possible advantage, and not turning your company into a mockery of its self. Investing in social selling will likely increase sales and brand awareness for your business, but it must be done smartly and professionally. Establishing a ‘tone’ for your business is one way to enable consistency – if you want to engage on a level where your company is seen as an authority, then ‘chat speak’ or perfunctory posts should be avoided. Finding and maintaining the balance between professional and friendly will allow you to engage with your audience without being seen as just another voice. Using Social Selling Strategies Once you have a solid Social Selling strategy in place, it’s important that it is maintained – posts should be regular, and responses attended to as soon as possible. If you don’t have consistency, the time and effort that has gone into cultivating followers, friends or links will be wasted. By spending time fully investigating and utilising social media platforms – or hiring professionals to do so for you, your company may have the opportunity to increase sales and its reach to potential customers. We help brands enhance their online presence and create exceptional digital experiences for their customers. If you need Digital Marketing solutions – get in touch today! www.virtual-solutions.co.uk Copyright © Dawn Gribble – Virtual Solutions 2017