Sales reps use social media as an alternative way to connect with their target audience, get connected with other professionals in the industry, keep up to date on the latest industry trends and educate themselves on how best to sell products or services. However, in this hyper-connected world, social selling isn’t yet a prominent technique to generate sales. 

This blog explains the concept of social selling, Social Selling Index, and why it could be the pillar of the sales system for B2B businesses – The concept revolves around building brand reputation and awareness by sharing valuable content, promoting your business’s culture, and helping potential customers get to know you.   

What is Social Selling?

Social selling emerged as an art of connecting with prospects on social channels to nurture them and build long-lasting relationships. This sales technique enables teams to use social media platforms to engage with customers, prospects, and partners in an ideal way to market their products and services.  

What is Social Selling Index?

The Social Selling Index (SSI) is an index created by LinkedIn that ranks the activity of users on social media sites – it allows you to measure your own activity and compare it to others. The SSI takes into account all the actions a user could take on LinkedIn, including updating their status, uploading a profile photo or cover photo, sending messages, creating or responding to group discussions, commenting on a post, and uploading or sharing a file.

You can view your own SSI at any time by clicking on “View/Edit Profile” in the upper right-hand corner of your LinkedIn homepage

Reasons for businesses to care about Social Selling

Social selling is a strategy that helps businesses connect and engage with customers – an approach mandatory for building relationships and driving content marketing. But do all businesses need social selling?

Here are a few reasons why your business should care about social selling. Social salespeople work in a variety of ways, but they’re always working to build relationships. They might use different tools, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook, to connect with potential customers.

1. Social selling works, especially on LinkedIn 

LinkedIn Sales Solutions has released data that shows businesses that do a good job of integrating social selling are more likely to create more sales opportunities by 45%. Businesses which prioritize social selling are 51% more likely to meet their sales quota. 78% of customers say it is important for brands to interact with them on social media and offer relevant product information.

2. Social selling helps your sales team build real relationships

Nothing sells a product like word of mouth. And with social selling, your customers can talk to other potential customers on their own terms through live chat and forums. It’s no surprise that the reach and impact of social media are growing rapidly—impacting everything from B2C to B2B businesses. In fact, organizations responsible for digital transformation are driving $63 billion in revenue because they have increased online conversations and interactions using social channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

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

In the last six months of 2020, 25% of Americans ages 18 to 34 made a purchase via social media. India, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand all saw approximately a third of people ages 18 to 34 make a purchase via social media in that same timeframe. Considering the sheer volume of people currently using social media, the potential for brands to make social sales is huge. 4.2 billion people worldwide are active on social media. 2019 saw a growth rate of 7.2%. Plus, a lot of those users are using social platforms for brand research. Simply speaking, these users are getting ready to buy products they find interesting and appealing.

4. Your top competitors are already social selling

To stay competitive, brands use social selling. Social media is a great way to interact with potential customers. According to Statista: “In 2020, an estimated 25% of e-commerce enterprises worldwide were planning to sell their goods on social media”. 200 million Instagram users visit a profile at least once a day and 81% of Instagram users are researching products before they buy them using various social platforms.

How MarketBeam empowers companies to accelerate their social selling journey

MarketBeam helps to arm your sales force with strongly crafted content to be shared across their social networks. The sales team can connect the brand with prospects and nurture leads on a larger level by publishing strong, relevant content. Its powerful framework helps to track and monitor each lead to understand audience preferences and equip salesforce accordingly. 

3 Simple Steps to Efficient Social Selling:

STEP 1: Discover Content

Create and curate brand and industry content for the sales force. Allow them to demonstrate subject matter expertise by posting social media with a consistent cadence.

STEP 2: Scale Nurturing Leads On Social Media

Automate marketing content distribution to sales teams. This will enable them to educate and keep prospects warm and informed through social channels.

STEP 3: Measure Engagement

Let every sales and account executive monitor and measure their own engagement through MarketBeam’s user dashboards.

Equip your sales force to reach and nurture prospects every day with MarketBeam. Book a demo today.