What, Exactly, is Social Selling?

What is social selling?

Social selling is exactly what it says, which in itself is pretty good sales practice, i.e., social selling is about leveraging the reach and immediacy of social media to strategically connect with and, hopefully, establish relationships with those inclined to buy your product or service.

The practice of connecting via social media for business purposes is no longer “new”, particularly on LinkedIn. But it's common for B2B businesses to be coy about selling on social media. Now, however, concerns about social selling are disappearing and more companies are embracing social media as an important sales channel.

The problem is, many who attempt to use those new social channels are not doing so very effectively, and others are not using them at all, which is even worse.

Sales teams who cling to traditional norms like cold calling are perceived as just that, “cold” and disengaged. Those who use similar techniques, but associate their goods with a face, name or brand via social media are far more likely to find an audience. We all like a friendly face, even if we might be ready to buy. But a warm social media encounter keeps that door open for when they do.

That’s why it’s crucial to use your social media channels to their maximum effect, and by that we mean, in part staying engaged.

Following are few tips on how we do it, and how we think you should do it, too.