How Media Salespeople Can Improve Their Social Selling with Inbound Marketing

If you work for a media company, chances are you sell some combination of digital solutions (OTT, search, social, mobile, video, display, retargeting, etc.). And chances are nearly every competitor you have is selling many of the same things!

This has been true in the marketplace for several years.

What is Social Selling?

But there’s something else that has been happening for years as well—that is social selling.

Don’t confuse the two.

Social selling is using the social business tools of the day, like Twitter and LinkedIn to brand yourself well and connect with prospects. Most media salespeople are not doing all they could be when it comes to using social business tools, so there's an opportunity for those who want to take it.

One thing that is becoming more apparent to those paying attention is that social selling is hard to do well without inbound marketing. You can become very active on LinkedIn and Twitter, but that is very unlikely to generate leads and sales. You need Inbound Marketing running in the background so you can create marketing and sales alignment, which will lead to sales.   

The inbound marketing platform is where the content lives, so when you get active on a platform like LinkedIn, one key piece of that activity is to share the content your organization is creating. This will greatly speed up the process of those with a sincere interest in your content raising their hands—essentially asking you to call on them.

If you are not doing anything when it comes to social selling, start with these 10 easy steps. And then if you want to go beyond that, click below to get 20 more social selling ideas, including those that take advantage of inbound marketing.

10 Steps to Social Selling

1. Have you done a Google search on your name to see what comes up?

2. Have you selected the most ideal version of your name to use online?

3. Are you using that name in your email signature and on business cards?

4. Do you have a LinkedIn account and are you using your selected online name?

5. Does your LinkedIn account make a great first impression with an ideal prospect?

6. Do you have a Twitter account and are you using your selected online name?

7. Does your Twitter account make a great first impression with an ideal prospect?

8. On LinkedIn, Twitter, and any other social business tools you use, have you scrubbed your personal profile of any posts or photographs that could diminish your professional credibility?

9. Have you added followers on LinkedIn in the last week?

10. Have you added followers on Twitter in the last week?

*Editor's Note: This blog has been updated from its original publish date.