Social Selling Explained: A Guide to Social Media Selling for 2023

Social Selling – You may have heard of this but don’t quite understand what it means.

Think it’s the same as social media marketing? (Spoiler: it’s not.)

Or maybe you think it’s just a social media ad? (Spoiler 2: Not either. It’s completely different.)

In short, social selling allows your business to focus on social media business prospects, build relationships with a network of leads, and increase social media sales. With the right approach, social selling can replace the terrible practice of cold calling.

If you haven’t already incorporated social selling into your funnel, you’re likely to lose business to more experienced social media competitors. But once you’ve finished reading this guide, you’ll have all the information you need to change it.

In this post we:

• Answer the question: What is social selling?
• Explain what a social selling index is.
• Share 4 reasons why your business should care about social selling.
• Outline tips and tricks for selling on social media.
• List 3 main social selling tools.

Let’s get down to business.

What is social selling?

Social selling is the practice of using a brand’s social media channels to connect with potential customers, connect with them, and generate leads. The tactic can help businesses achieve their sales goals.

Think of social selling as modern relationship building. Actively engaging with potential customers on social media can help you become the first brand a potential customer looks at when they’re ready to make a purchase. And it can replace outdated relationship building and sales strategies like cold calling!

What social selling is not

Social selling certainly isn’t just about bombarding strangers with unwanted tweets and private messages. This is spam. Do not do that.

Social selling isn’t just about adding new contacts to your list. It’s about making those interactions meaningful and presenting your brand as a solution to a problem. When you do this, you are more likely to gain trust and loyalty.

For example, natural skin care company SoKind uses the basic principles of social selling in this Facebook post. They clearly outline how their product solves the problem for moms. Emphasizing the value of products helps the brand to naturally attract the right target audience and drive sales:

Are you already into social selling?

Probably! If your brand has a Facebook business page, LinkedIn page, or Twitter profile, or is active on any other platform, you already know the basics of social selling.

If you want to learn more about social media selling, take the Hootsuite Academy Social Media Sales Certification course:

What is the Social Selling Index?

The Social Selling Index (SSI) is a metric used to measure the impact of a brand’s social selling efforts.

LinkedIn first introduced the concept of SSI back in 2014. LinkedIn SSI combines four components to determine a score. It looks to see if you are:

1. Building a professional brand with a well-managed LinkedIn profile.
2. Finding the right people on the platform.
3. Share relevant, conversation-inspiring content.
4. Building and strengthening relationships.

To find out your SSI score on LinkedIn, sign in to your account and go to the Social Selling Index dashboard. Treat your assessment as a starting point to start improving your social media sales performance.

4 Reasons Your Business Should Have a Social Selling Strategy

If you’re still not sold (see what we did there?) through social selling, here are 4 reasons why you should give it a try.

1. Social Selling Works

Don’t take our word for it. According to LinkedIn Sales Solutions internal data:

• Companies that rank high in social selling create 45% more sales opportunities than brands with a low social selling index.
• Companies that prioritize social selling are 51% more likely to meet their sales quotas.
• 78% of social media companies sell more than non-social media companies.

2. Social Selling Helps Sales Professionals Build Real Relationships

A recent Forbes article states, “87% of business event professionals have canceled events due to the pandemic, while 66% have postponed events.”

Networking and relationship building have moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now is the perfect time to prioritize social selling.

Social selling creates opportunities to build brand awareness and connect with new potential customers on social media where they are already active and engaging in conversations. Using social listening tools allows your sales reps to go one step further and identify potential customers who are already talking about your business, your competitors, or your industry.

This means that you can reach out to an audience that is already interested in what you have to offer and establish a genuine connection with them by offering useful information at the right time. Authenticity creates trust, which in turn can become customer loyalty.

3. Your customers (and potential) are already engaged in social buying

In the last six months of 2020, 25% of Americans aged 18 to 34 made a purchase through social media. In India, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, roughly a third of people aged 18 to 34 have made purchases through social media over the same time period.

Source: Statistics

Considering the sheer number of people who are currently using social media, the potential of brands for social selling is huge:

• 4.2 billion people around the world are active users of social media.
• In 2020 alone, social media platforms reached 490 million users.
• This is an increase of 13.2% – in 2019, the growth rate was 7.2%.

Source: Global Digital State 2021

In addition, many of these users use social platforms for brand research. Simply put, these users are preparing to buy.

Source: Global Digital State 2021

4. Your main competitors are already selling through social media.

Using social selling means staying competitive. Other brands are active on social media, interacting with potential customers on popular social platforms. According to Statista: “It is estimated that in 2020, 25% of e-commerce businesses worldwide planned to sell their products on social media. ”

Now let’s look at the numbers:

• 200 million Instagram users visit the profile at least once a day, and 81% of Instagram users explore the products and services on the platform.
• 18.3% of American Facebook users made a purchase through Facebook in 2020.

Source: eMarketer

• 70% of YouTube users bought a brand’s product after seeing it on YouTube.
• 96% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn for organic marketing. Facebook is the next most popular platform used by 82% of B2B content marketers.

(That’s not all! We’ve put together a post with over 140 social media stats that matter to marketers in 2021.)

What are the best networks for social media sales?

In short, it depends.

Your choice should depend on your target audience and your approach to social selling.

Twitter and Instagram are great platforms for customer engagement. They offer tools to respond to customer inquiries, and these are the usual virtual spaces where communication happens naturally. Simply put, they are great for building relationships.

For example, Destination BC creates new connections with users and builds relationships by actively commenting on user posts:

And Left On Friday responds to comments from users and influencers to continue the established relationship:

LinkedIn, on the other hand, is a more formal business platform ideal for B2B companies looking to identify and connect with business decision makers. Here, businesses can contact potential customers directly to try and build a professional relationship:

In fact, according to LinkedIn:

• 89% of B2B marketers turn to LinkedIn to generate leads.
• 62% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn generates leads twice as fast as the next most effective social channel.

In other words, use whatever social platform your audience prefers and whatever platform your brand can use all the time!

Here’s how to get started on three popular platforms:

3 Steps to Building a Social Selling Strategy on LinkedIn

1. Earn trust

If you have a good relationship with your connections, ask them to confirm or recommend. They are published on your profile and can help you instantly gain the trust of new contacts.

Here is an example of the many testimonials about the profile of explorer and storyteller Brené Brown:

As a brand, make sure your profile highlights experiences that are relevant to the prospect or client, highlighting how you’ve helped previous clients reach their goals.

You must also only share information and content from trusted sources and maintain a professional tone in all your activities on LinkedIn.

2. Expand your LinkedIn network

Use LinkedIn’s search feature to expand your network by looking for reciprocal connections with your existing contacts.

You can also join LinkedIn groups related to your industry to connect with peers and potential clients.

3. Use the LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Sales Navigator, LinkedIn’s professional social selling tool, can help you improve sales prospects with personalized messaging and better understand your performance with in-depth analytics.

3 Steps to Social Selling on Twitter

Twitter is a great network for listening to social media. You can create Twitter lists to monitor content from specific groups of people. Here are three key Twitter lists you can use to start social selling online.

1. Existing clients

Use this list to keep a close eye on your existing customers and keep an eye out for the opportunity to reply to their tweets or like them. This will help you keep your brand in the spotlight.

However, don’t overdo it. Make sure your customer interactions make sense: only like tweets you really like and only comment when you have something of value to say. And make sure to stay relevant—your customers don’t need your brand to interact with personal updates.

2. Perspectives

As you identify potential customers, add them to your personal list. But don’t interact with them with the same sense of intimacy you would with existing customers. Instead, keep an eye out for requests for help or complaints about your competitors. This way you can respond with a helpful comment (and the exchange can serve as organic social proof for other potential customers).

3. Competitors

Adding competitors to your personal list allows you to follow them without actually following them. This can help generate ideas for your own social media sales efforts.

2 Ways to Start Social Selling on Facebook

Be sure to create a Facebook page and then use these strategies to start selling on social media.

1. Interact with other companies

Easy to connect with likes, comments and shares. But take it one step further: if you create thoughtful, valuable content, it’s more likely to be shared, increasing your brand’s reach. Your Facebook page can be exposed to a whole new audience as other businesses share and like your content.

2. Engage with your followers

Always respond to follower comments and mentions of your brand. Also, when composing your own social media posts, include questions to spark conversations with your audience – they don’t have to be directly related to your product or service to be effective!

This tour operator asks a question and talks about sea lions before linking the post to their business:

This strategy allows you to engage directly with your followers, build rapport, and help build your expert image.

Best Social Selling Practices

Whatever platform you use to reach your unique audience, make sure you follow proven social media selling tips. Here are 4 to keep in mind.

1. Build your brand by delivering value

When interacting with potential clients and customers through social media, it is important not to become too venal. And if your brand is new to the social media platform, don’t dive straight into social selling. Before moving on to commercial offers, establish yourself as an expert in your industry.

One way to build your brand on social media for social selling is to share interesting, valuable, and shared content. For B2B brands and influencers using LinkedIn, this can mean sharing content written by others that matches your brand:

Or it could mean writing and sharing compelling content that others find useful to make your brand (or personal brand) an industry leader. For example, Destination BC shares business content that their professional network might be interested in:

Essentially, show your potential customers that you don’t just want to get something. You are also here to give something.

2. Listen strategically and build relationships with the right people

Effective social selling means attention. In other words, make sure you’re good at listening on social media.

Use Hootsuite’s social lists and streams to track what people are saying about you, your company, your industry, and your competitors. Keep an eye out for pain points and requests that give you natural opportunities to find solutions.

You should also use your existing network whenever possible. Before approaching any of the leads you identify, check their follower and follower lists to see if you have any reciprocal connections. If you do, ask your general contact to introduce you.

3. Keep it real

Instead of writing one note and sending it to countless potential buyers, take the time to personalize your social media sales messages. This means you can:

• Confirm your mutual professional contacts.
• Refer to a piece of content that both of you shared or reacted to.
• Highlight a common interest or something else that you have in common.

In other words, be yourself. Connect by starting a real, sincere conversation!

Of course, you can use automatic like and comment tools, but they do nothing to build rapport. In fact, they can do serious damage to your personal and professional brand. When it comes to selling, nothing beats talking to a real person.

4. Be consistent

Finally, don’t expect immediate results. If your relationship building efforts don’t bring immediate results, don’t give up. Some contacts may not yet be ready to buy what you offer – stay in touch.

Follow up with new leads. Reach out to contacts you’ve previously contacted but haven’t heard from in a while. Maintain a meaningful relationship by congratulating them on their transition to a new position or company, or by engaging with content they share on social media. Be willing to offer advice or help, even if it doesn’t directly promote your product.

3 Useful Social Selling Tools

To increase your chances of finding new clients on social media, use social selling software. Here are 3 to help you get started:

1. Inbox

Whether your brand’s social selling methods include private messages, public posts (like comments), or both, Hootsuite Inbox will keep them in order.

Think of this social selling tool as a handy way to keep all of your brand’s social media discussions in one place. Using the Hootsuite inbox, you can track, organize and respond to any private and public messages your brand receives on many social platforms.

Organized social media communication is a way to ensure that no messages get lost and that everyone who contacts you gets a response.

Other useful features include:

• Handy filters that you can apply to quickly and easily find the right message thread, even if you process large volumes of messages and comments.
• Collaboration and collaboration solutions that allow you to assign messages to team members as tasks so that every request is answered by the best person in your company.
• Saved answers that you can reuse to quickly answer common questions.

Here’s more information on how to get the most out of the Hootsuite Inbox:

2. Gain

This app integrates with Hootsuite and is an effective way for your brand to expand your social media reach. In short, Amplify helps your brand increase its online visibility by making it easy for team members to share company news, campaigns, or announcements.

An employee advocacy app like Amplify can help employees feel engaged and compelled to share company content, which is a great organic way for your brand to generate new leads. This is because connecting to your employees’ personal networks expands the reach of your content.

Source: HootSuite

3. Sales department

This app also integrates with Hootsuite and is an easy way to find, edit and track new leads.

With Salesforce, you can get new customer or lead records to your app directly from Hootsuite streams. In addition, Salesforce makes it easy to find leads and qualify them. You can also add additional information to existing Salesforce records to inform future social media sales conversations.

Here’s more information on how to get the most out of Salesforce with Hootsuite:

Selling has always been about building relationships, establishing trust, and delivering the right solutions to the right potential customers at the right time. Social selling is like that too. It simply uses social media to help you build relationships, grow your network, optimize lead generation, and reach your sales goals!