We know social selling works. In fact, companies that actively engage in social selling are 40% more likely to achieve revenue goals.
But what exactly does social selling look like in action?
We gathered several social selling examples to illustrate the power of leveraging your social networks to attract prospects and build relationships with potential customers.
Take a look at the social selling examples and tips in this post to get a little inspiration to help you reach your sales goals.
1. Create an optimized profile that instills confidence.
We’re quick to form first impressions when we meet someone, and we do the exact same thing when we glimpse someone’s social media profile. So make that first impression count.
This goes for all your social media profiles, especially LinkedIn.
What exactly does an optimized LinkedIn profile look like? Take a look at the social selling examples below.
Here’s what your LinkedIn profile should have at a minimum:
- High-quality headshot
- Branded cover photo
- Job title and/or compelling headline
- Company name
- Contact information
But you don’t have to stop there. Here are some other tips to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile for social selling.
- Craft a bio that details who you are both professionally and personally.
- Explain exactly what you can do for your customers.
- Optimize your profile for search by organically incorporating relevant keywords and hashtags.
- Take advantage of the pronunciation feature to help people pronounce your name correctly — or use it to introduce yourself or include a call to action.
2. Share relevant, quality content.
Building an audience is essential to successful social selling, as well as establishing your personal brand, and what you post is key.
Focus on creating and posting content that your ideal customer would find useful, relevant, and interesting. In other words, give them a reason to follow you that’s not about the product or service you sell.
You can certainly post about your product, but it’s important not to bombard your followers with continuous sales pitches. Instead, share content that’s related to your product, educates people about your industry, showcases your expertise, or highlights the need for the solution you offer.
And don’t limit yourself to sharing company content alone.
In the social selling example above, our mid-market sales director does this well by sharing a non-branded article from a trusted source that offers a solution to a common problem, as well as showcases the need for the product he sells.
So follow his example and be helpful — not salesy.
Your content can also highlight your particular expertise
And always keep your audience front of mind when considering what to share.
Regularly sharing valuable content that truly serves your followers means they’re likely to think of you — and your product — at exactly the right time: when they’re ready to buy.
3. Introduce yourself.
Yes, you’ve already introduced yourself to current and potential customers because of the very fact that you have a social media presence.
However, reintroduce yourself on occasion and help your followers — both old and new — get to know you a little better. This is also a great opportunity to have some fun and show some personality.
As you can see from the social selling example above, the most engaging introductions aren’t purely professional. Sure, talk about your sales role and even plug your product, but tell people more about you than can be found on your resume.
After all, it’s called social selling for a reason.
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4. Start a conversation.
Social selling is all about becoming part of the conversation with your prospects, which you can do by liking and commenting on posts. But one of the best ways is to kickstart the conversation yourself.
Again, what’s important to remember is that you want to engage your audience, so initiate a conversation that’s relevant to their interests. And if it’s also relevant to your product, even better. 😉
Take a look at what Derek does in this social selling example.
He understands that recruiters and HR leaders are a key part of his LinkedIn audience — and they’re also ideal EveryoneSocial prospects — so he engages them with useful, pertinent information and raises a question to stimulate conversation.
5. Engage with prospects organically.
No list of social selling examples would be complete without what may be the most basic of social selling advice: Engage.
Like posts, comment on them, re-share them. Send invites to connect. Write recommendations for colleagues and customers. Participate in groups. Raise questions. Answer questions.
Resist the urge to send a sales pitch as soon as someone accepts your LinkedIn invitation though. The goal isn’t to get your product in as many inboxes as possible and just hope for the best.
The goal is to genuinely connect and engage, regardless of where people are in the buying process — even if they seem unlikely to buy right now at all.
It’s about establishing relationships so that when it comes time to learn more about your product or make a purchase, you’re top of mind as someone to reach out to or work with.
Research shows that this approach doesn’t work anymore. In fact, connecting with a prospect takes 18 or more calls, according to Harvard Business Review, and callback rates are below 1%. Plus, only 24% of outbound sales emails are ever even opened.
So if there’s one thing you take from these social selling examples, let it be this: Simply be human.
Meet new people, have a little fun, even talk about hot sauce if you want. 🌶️
You never know where a conversation is going to lead.
Create Your Own Killer Social Selling Examples with EveryoneSocial
Have these social selling examples inspired you to see how you can take your own social selling efforts to the next level?
Then you need EveryoneSocial.
Social selling is one of our chief use cases, which is why companies like Genesys rely on us to empower their sales teams, drive increased pipeline, and get better win rates, and achieve up to 48% larger deals.
Sound like something you’d be interested in?