If you thought social media was just about being social,
think again. Today it’s about “social selling.”
Potential INVESTORS, employees, colleagues, clients and customers
are literally at your fingertips. But it is up to you to build relationships
and establish trust. And that is what social selling is all about.
Social selling is no longer optional for your business. It’s
a powerful strategy that can help sell your ideas, establish credibility,
secure funding, attract talent and win customers.
Social networking takes up nearly a quarter of all time
spent online and reaches more than 75 percent of all Internet users. If you’re
engaging with your target audience on any level via social media, whether for
business development or promoting your brand, that is social selling.
As Dale Carnegie wrote in his timeless bestseller, How to
Win Friends and Influence People, building relationships and changing people’s
thinking are the linchpins of success. Today, social selling is the optimal
tool for achieving both.
Here are three steps to help you leverage the power of
social selling:
1. Do your homework.
The basis of every good relationship is understanding. Take
time to understand your prospective customer, talent, INVESTOR, co-founder,
business partner or client. Building a relationship with this person starts
with knowing who they are.
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social sites give us
access to key information about each other. In an era when people are quick to
open up online, you’re able to discern whom it makes sense to connect with and
uncover valuable information about them, from their job to their alma mater to
their reading habits.
As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said, “People have
really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different
kinds, but more openly and with more people.” Because people are increasingly
willing to share through social media, it is easier for you to identify and
learn about your targeted customer or group.
2. Be authentic.
Once you identify people you want to have in your network,
begin to engage with them. Find common ground and use it as an entry point to
initiate dialogue and establish a connection.
Making friends is easy when you’re authentic. Like walking
into a dinner party where you know only the host, your inclination when
striking up conversation with other guests is to find a common thread. Find it,
and you’ve got an authentic conversation starter.
It’s no different on social media. Interact authentically by
responding to someone’s blog that you truly liked or give a shout out to a
recently promoted prospect. Ultimately, you’ll be in a better position to
create a tailored and authentic “pitch” with relationships already in play.
3. Nurture your relationships.
The next step is to deepen your relationships, the crux of
selling anything -- including your credibility. People want to INVEST in, work
for and partner with professionals they know and trust. Forge relationships;
don’t seek transactions. Social selling is about engaging with people in a
disarming way. It’s about giving and receiving. Nurturing relationships takes
time and calls for authenticity at all times.
This strategy generates 40 percent more qualified leads than
cold calling and allows you to build genuine connections. Companies that excel
at lead nurturing generate 50 percent more sales-ready leads at 33 percent
lower cost. Although these statistics might refer to a more traditional sales
process, entrepreneurs would be remiss not to take notice.
CONTRIBUTOR
MONICA ZENT
Founder and CEO of Foxwordy
