What is Social Commerce?

Social commerce is the act of directly exchanging products and services on a social media network. This strategy encourages consumers to finish the entire purchasing process without leaving their favourite apps, expanding social media’s traditional role in the discovery process.

According to The State of Social Media Investment Report, executives unanimously concur that social commerce is generating a growing amount of their company’s marketing-driven income. Within the next three years, about eight out of ten business owners anticipate selling their goods or services on social media.

Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest all introduced updated social commerce features in 2020 to assist merchants with streamlining online purchasing experiences while the epidemic was underway.

8 Ways to get started with social selling

In the end, social selling is all about developing relationships. However, you must make sure you pick the appropriate network before you build them. You may then develop fresh connections, offer value to prospects, and look after leads.

You will also be able to discover how useful social selling may be for your company if you commit to being involved for at least six months without any expectations.

Ready? Let’s get going!

1. Choose the most relevant social network

It’s simple to get sucked into the latest and greatest social network, but salespeople who are active on the same platform as their potential clients are the real social selling winners. The success of social selling rests on this.

It explains why fashion industry salespeople succeed on Pinterest and why B2B sales representatives get leads from LinkedIn.

So where do you even begin?

You begin by deciding which social networks best represent your prospective customer:

Forrester Research has discovered that decision makers mostly use Twitter and LinkedIn, despite the fact that all age groups have a large presence on YouTube and Facebook.

So, use Facebook and Instagram if you’re selling goods that appeal to teenagers. Use LinkedIn or Twitter if you market your products or services to businesses and decision-makers.

Given that LinkedIn has more than 750 million users and that many of your clients already have an account there, it makes sense to consider using it as one of your social media channels.

2. Follow the right Twitter users

Utilize a programme like Followerwonk to expand your network.

You can use Followerwonk to search Twitter accounts by keyword or topic, and you’ll get a list of the top-rated Twitter users in order. For instance, “CRM,” “Sales,” and “Marketing” are good places to start your search.

Instead than visiting and following each individual Twitter user’s profile, which can take time, you can instantly follow several Twitter users by utilising Followerwonk. Alternately, you can export the user list and then filter through to the profiles that are more pertinent.

3. Make a list of businesses you’d like to follow.

Through company profiles or accounts, small businesses to major enterprises can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You may be informed about corporate news by following these businesses, such as when they receive an award (you can congratulate them) or when they ask for product recommendations (you can send them an invitation to a demo).

This is essentially the same concept that a marketer would use for their account-based marketing plan.

What you can do is:

Make a list of 10–20 ideal businesses that are active on social media, and begin following them right away. Like, retweet, and comment on their status updates when you can. It might no longer be a dream in the future!

4. Get instant notifications when prospects join LinkedIn

You can establish a search based on your ideal client’s profile using LinkedIn’s Saved Search feature, and LinkedIn will then inform you each time a new signup matches that profile. To do this, do a search using the LinkedIn search field, which is located at the top of LinkedIn when you log in, and then enter the criteria that corresponds to your ideal client profile, such as job title or industry, and press the search button.

The persons who are returned to the results at this point are those with whom you already have connections. Select the “Connections” tab from the search function, tick the “2nd” box, and then click “Apply” to eliminate your first level connections.

It is considerably simpler to meet a prospect thanks to second level connections, which indicate that you share a connection with someone.

Then, place the pointer on the page’s right side and select “Create a Search Alert.”

Next, LinkedIn will allow you to choose the format and frequency of your notifications (weekly) (email).

I’ve been inviting second degree connections more recently, and it’s a very excellent method to quickly expand my network.

However, I send the email template below rather than the customary “Can you kindly recommend me to this individual” email.

And it functions each and every time.

5. Join and participate in LinkedIn groups

More than 650 million people utilise LinkedIn.

As a platform, LinkedIn gives you the chance to network, request recommendations, and take advantage of a tonne of other options.

Within groups on LinkedIn, there are many benefits.

There are already more than 1.8 million groups on LinkedIn, which has numerous groups.

6. Connect with potential customers on LinkedIn

You’ll notice that more people will view your profile as you start to participate in groups.

Whenever someone looks at your profile, invite them to connect.

But whatever you do, avoid sending them this generic, impersonal invitation that is the default:

Try something straightforward instead, like “Hi, thanks for browsing my profile. Are you interested in connecting on LinkedIn?

This is a fantastic method to strike up a conversation with a potential client who has expressed interest in your services.

Reaching out to those in the same group is another approach to make connections with possible clients. Here is a sample connection request that I use.

7. Contribute to existing conversations about your brand

According to a study by Corporate Visions, 74% of customers go with the salesperson who offers the most value right away.

You may help here by providing value.

Start responding to what people are saying about your brand on social media to add value.

You may find conversations and learn who is talking about you on Twitter by searching for them.

Search for a keyword, navigate through the feed, and begin interacting with users by “liking” or retweeting their messages, or by responding to their recommendations and inquiries.

8. Provide value by sharing relevant content

More than 50% of B2B consumers use social media to research products and services.

Consequently, you have a fantastic chance to develop fresh content based on what people are already looking for.

What kind of material do they most frequently look for?

The solution is white papers, as they are read by 49 percent of B2B buyers when assessing a technology purchase.

However, if you haven’t yet produced a white paper, this doesn’t imply you can’t share any other kind of content.

In B2B firms today, 60 to 70 percent of material is not being used. Share a blog article from your company blog if the discussions you have sought for best practises information. You can share a webcast or product demo video if a LinkedIn group is talking about product recommendations.

This is a remarkable chance to finally align the sales and marketing teams. You and your friends can collaborate to develop and distribute material based on queries, remarks, and themes that are posted on your personal social network.

You can now share anything as long as it adds anything worthwhile to the debate.

But publishing useless and self-promotional content is the fastest way to lose a prospect’s interest.