Do you know that more than 50% of revenue across 14 major industries is generated through social selling?
Social selling refers to generating leads, developing relationships with prospects, and increasing conversions through social media platforms.
Well, most companies are familiar with the definition, yet their strategy fails at giving them results. Such companies with a weak social strategy are likely to lose their customers to tech-savvy entrepreneurs.
Let’s go through major social selling mistakes that lead to minimum or no results, followed by tips to improve.
You don’t track your existing social selling efforts
Do you often go through insights and other relevant data to see what works best for your website? Monitoring this data is crucial to identify the areas that need more attention.
To successfully modify your entire strategy, timely monitoring of this data is of utmost significance. Even in the case of excellent performance, there is always room for improvement.
By analyzing the insights, you will get information regarding the areas of your website where your visitors spend most of their time. Using this data to send a personalized message improves the possibility of getting a response.
This makes your outreach campaign super-specific based on what your audience needs. You get the hang of your warm leads and the type of content they interact with the most.
This is an example of the results of social selling efforts on LinkedIn. After analyzing these results, you can modify your content strategy accordingly.
Not monitoring relevant conversations
Are you aware of how your existing customers talk about you on social media? What if customers are highly dissatisfied with your current web design and development efforts? Maybe they had a poor experience with your product or service. Or they had a good experience but have fruitful suggestions for you.
Sometimes you miss out on essential areas that could make your product stand out in front of competitors. But your end users can always point it out. Furthermore, while reaching out to them, you can mention how you took their suggestion and made specific improvements.
Brand loyalty starts with listening and giving importance to your current customer base. Sometimes people rant out on social media when their issues aren’t answered on the app or website. Make sure you take into consideration all such conversations. Also, tackle these customers patiently and quickly.
Not joining relevant LinkedIn groups
How can you expect your business to grow if you hardly interact with the people in your niche? There is nothing better than a community of like-minded individuals who will entertain your thoughts and suggestions.
Even if they are not into your offering, they might end up recommending you to people who are. It’s crucial to keep talking about what you do and how you can provide value to others.
You will also come across many SEO experts in these groups. Learning from these people is crucial to the long-term growth of your business.
Here is how you can successfully become part of relevant LinkedIn groups:
- Start with making a list of industry-specific keywords.
- Type the keywords in the search bar and send a request to join the groups that interest you.
- Introduce yourself once your request gets accepted.
- Be highly active in conversations and do not hesitate from asking questions or giving your opinion.
- Listen to the members' problems and see if any of your services can help them.
- Keep them updated with a new product launch or other happenings in your business (remember that these are interested individuals).
Looking for prospects on the wrong platforms
It’s crucial to know where your potential customers spend most of their time. How can you expect to close deals if you are searching for prospects on the wrong platforms?
Let’s say your prospects are mostly found on Facebook. But is there a specific private group where they are highly interactive? This research will help you excel further in your business by effective social selling. Target all the right platforms and listen before you provide value.
Pro Tip: Get the myth out of your head that only LinkedIn is great for making business connections.
Developing and maintaining a connection on Twitter is much easier. You don’t have to wait for the other person to accept your connection request. You can easily connect and interact with people of higher positions in a company.
In the end, people are interested if you provide value. Invest your time in searching relevant hashtags for Twitter. Furthermore, keep a close eye on the conversations happening in your niche.
Not providing consistent value to your audience
Let’s say you have a great social base to get started (you followed and got accepted by well-known individuals in your industry).
But you hardly appear on social channels, and people barely recognize you. Here are a few key points to focus on:
- Create a posting schedule and stick to it. Consistently posting relevant content will help you stand out (even if it’s three posts every week).
- Too much self-promotion will make your audience lose interest.
- To create fun and interactive posts, follow influencers to stay updated.
- Lastly, use hashtags that will help you improve your reach.
Your entire goal is to provide value to the people who look up to you. Talk about trending news headlines in your industry, tips, tricks, hacks helpful to your audience.
Even when talking about your products or services, make sure you focus on HOW they can help your audience. To make people listen, learn to speak from their perspective. Being too salesy will get you removed from their profiles.
Focus on showing rather than telling (success stories)
People know that no individual talks badly of their products and services. The things you claim about your business are just words until you back them up with proof. Sharing customer success stories is crucial to proving your claims and developing trust amongst the audience.
Take a look at some of the benefits of sharing customer success stories.
Let’s now move forward to the right ways of sharing your success stories with your audience:
- When sharing your success stories, use numerical figures or mention a time frame to show credibility.
- When someone writes an excellent review of your product, it's time to showcase the same on your social channels.
- Try to add pictures of your customers or clients followed by the results you helped them in achieving. Too many anonymous positive reviews only lead to doubt in the mind of your audience. Being clear about WHO and HOW you helped will develop trust.
- Another great option would be to interview the concerned person and share it with your audience.
Lastly, compelling words do play an important part, but they must be accompanied with proof.
Summing up
To conclude, social selling is more than posting one post a day to hyped-up social channels. Make conversations, handle complaints, provide value, and reap the benefits. In the end, you will definitely see improved results from your efforts.