Do you use social media in your sales process?
If you answered no, or paused to think, you need to make some tweaks to your process. Social media is a powerful, free tool that, when used well, can help you drive revenue.
These are the facts: Facebook currently has over 2.74 billion monthly active users. LinkedIn is a personal branding tool with over 760 million users. Twitter has 186 million daily users and 38 million users in the United States.
That’s three free ways to connect, brand, and get your message to thousands of potential prospects. Now you know the power of social media’s reach is there. The number of users proves that, but HOW do you connect with them in a way that will drive revenue?
There are several steps that must be taken to use social media effectively in sales.
You won’t be viewed, followed, or engaged with on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook with a weak or incomplete profile. Take the time to set up your profile, and then set a reminder to revisit and update quarterly.
A strong Twitter profile will include a professional headshot, an optimized bio with your job, where you work, how others can contact you, and a list of relatable tweets. If you're using Twitter for business, we recommend you create specific groups of target contacts within a private Twitter list. This allows you to monitor activity and segment prospects.
A strong LinkedIn profile requires more detail than Twitter. You still want a professional profile photo and well-crafted bio, but you also want a clear and impactful headline. As a sales professional, include your educational background, a list of endorsements and skills, recommendations from others, and projects you're proud of.
A professional Facebook profile will include a relevant cover image with the correct size (820 x 312 px), a professional profile image with optimal sizing (180 x 180 px), an About Me section tailored to your audience, and an overall clean timeline.
Share! Share! Share! Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are platforms created around sharing with your networks.
If you share the insights of others, they're more likely to share yours. Also, don’t post more than you read. Respond and get involved in bigger conversations in LinkedIn groups, industry threads, and other thought leaders' profiles.
Communicate with and support others. Your goal on social media is to reach other people’s networks, so share, comment, and “like” to get your profile seen!
Social media is a great place to share wins!
Post about your business achievements! Share your successes and problems you have solved to relate to prospects.
A great way to leverage case study material on social media is to share a link to a case study and tag the client in the post. Rather than posting "View a new case study here >>," say something that attracts your target audience — "1.5 Million in Revenue Generated..." And by tagging the client, you also get their audience viewing the case study as well.
A few other ways to share case studies are by adding them to your list of publications on LinkedIn, sharing them with your LinkedIn Groups, targeting your lists on Twitter, or using dark posts on Facebook to reach relevant audiences.
Sharing your face with your voice is an important part of creating trust in the sales process. It’s estimated that by 2022, 80% of the content consumed by buyers on the internet will be video.
Use the opportunity of having people’s attention on social media to connect with them and build trust. Use video to share your message! Here are a few ways to use video in the sales process:
Answer frequently asked questions
How-to videos
Product videos
Testimonials
Even personal videos about what you're going today will get people engaged and make them feel a personal connection to you.
Social media is no exception to asking your audience to take action.
Tell users on your profile what to do next to move them along their buyers' journey. Click to the blog, fill out a form, read a page of your website, etc. Similarly to your website, users on social media should have an action to take after being on your profile. Some of your social media followers are your friends and current clients, so ask them for recommendations and endorsements to help “beef up” your profile.
It's time to stop making excuses for why you aren't using social media in your sales process. Start now by dedicating a little bit of time this week to step through the advice above. Share your expertise and connect your personal and professional worlds to drive revenue!