One thing that the pandemic has changed significantly about consumer behavior, is how they shop these days. It’s not about them shopping online more than they used to, but they are using multiple channels to do it. Making social selling an important factor in marketing your products.

Social selling is growing in popularity, but its growth is not limited to the B2C sector, it is growing in importance in the B2B sector as well. And now even B2B ecommerce brands are using social media to promote their expertise, services, and products.

Did you know that 75% of B2B buyers use social media to market products? Brands have been increasingly using social media to guide purchase decisions. Using social selling as a method of lead generation is advantageous for sales teams who are constantly looking for ways to nurture prospective customers and stay unique in this competitive market.

What is social selling?

Social selling involves using social media platforms to market your brand, sell your products, and build better relationships with your prospective customers. For instance, you will find marketing tips on LinkedIn with a more professional audience.

Over a course of time, you will build authority, establish your brand as a leading company in the industry, earn clients, and market your products without using advertisements.

People might get confused between social selling and social media marketing. Social selling focuses on building relationships that are more personal while social media marketing includes targeting a broader audience.

Let’s understand some ways to start social selling.

Tips to start social selling

Now that you have a better knowledge of social selling, how it is different from social media marketing, and how it works, it’s time to move to some tips that will help you get started.

Highlight your strategy

The first step in starting anything is social media strategy. Create a solid strategy, identify your ultimate goals, and give your activities a clear path. If you wish to get more leads, you need to ask yourself questions like:

• Who is my ideal audience?
• Where can I find them?
• What value can I bring?
• Which channels will suit my goals?

Embed Instagram social media feed on the website

Use social media aggregator platforms like Taggbox to embed social media feeds on the website. Suppose you have a robust Instagram profile, you can create widgets using these platforms and embed Instagram feed on the website to display authenticity, online presence, and the fun side of your brand.

Optimize your profile

To become more credible in the market, you need a business profile. It should state what you offer and people should immediately know what you do, and how can you help them. While designing your profile, you need to ensure that you have a high-quality image of your logo as a profile picture, add a banner on LinkedIn and Twitter, have a description that sums up your brand, and provide your website’s link.

Bring more value

When you are marketing your product, the social selling approach takes a subtle turn. Your content should not outrightly promote your brand, product, or service. How would you feel if someone only posts ads on social media? To build trust and boost interest, ensure that your content brings value.

Make meaningful connections

Try posting content from your blogs, studies, videos, and research. While this type of content is valuable, you can also start conversations. Pose a question relevant to your audience and get their feedback. Use current events or something that is buzzing on social media, ask questions or join in on other conversations to pose as an expert. To do this effectively you can make use of a community management tool or software.

Consistency is the key

Take out time to be active on social media. If you publish content and engage with your users for a day and hide for the next 3 days, it will make them lose interest. It would also impose an unstable impression and they won’t be trusting you anymore.

Social selling works because it’s a slow process. Brand user relationships are not built overnight. It may take months until you start seeing noticeable results. Stay consistent with your posts, engage with them regularly, start conversations, and keep a steady flow of valuable content.

Keep yourself updated on trends

Social media is constantly packed with new and unique content, and keeping up with current trends can be overwhelming. While looking for topics you can throw some light on from your account, avoid being someone who jumps on topics just because they are trending.

Make sure that your research is thorough and relevant. Even if a topic is slightly related, you can mold content to make it look relevant while providing valuable information to your followers. You can also embed videos in your posts to get better engagement and impressions.

Conclusion

Now that you have a better understanding of what social selling is and how to start selling through social media, you have better opportunities and can grow your brand. Selling on social media is quite easy and does not make a big impact on your marketing budget.

With certain social media management tools, you can give a majority of the burden to them and focus on important tasks. Moreover, you get a better online presence, get more leads, improved conversions, and much more.