Have you ever been looking at a LinkedIn group and realize it’s simply sales people trying to sell to eachother? How do you stand out from the echo chamber as a sales professional? What tactics can you employ in social media that will help you make your number, but not get you labeled as a spammer?
It is impossible to ignore the daily impact social media has had on our professional and personal lives. And it is possible to harness its power for the benefit of your organization, however, there’s a tight line you must walk.
Is it social media or social marketing?
In my opinion, social media is the platform that social marketing, social awareness and social networking are built on. For the sales professional, social marketing and social networking are the two key elements to focus on.
Social marketing is using the tools and technology within social media to convert sales and leads. Answering a question on LinkedIn is great. But offering a “call me to talk” or a “can I email you with more information?” quickly becomes a sales pitch.
A great resource for companies that are doing it right is B2Bsocialmedia.com. They profiled Boeing’s use of a corporate blog to educate and inform potential customers of its commercial aviation unit.
Dell us using Twitter to sell refurbished computers and other equipment through it’s @DellOutlet account. According to Newsweek, Dell has attributed more than $3-million in sales to its Twitter channel.
Take a look at some of the groups on LinkedIn such as the Semiconductor – Sales & Marketing or Salesforce.com Professional groups for examples of some sales people sharing good ideas.
Social Networking is using the tools available to make connections. In the LinkedIn example earlier, the simple act of answering a question is social networking. Retweeting another person is social networking.
It is when a direct sales tactic is applied that it becomes social marketing.
How social should you be?
How social you should be depends on who you want to listen to. According to an article in B to B Magazine, executives are turning to the social Web:
Seventy-three percent of C-suite executives are using the Internet daily, Sebastian said, referring to new research Google conducted with Forbes of 500 executives at companies with sales of $1 billion or higher.
“They’re not delegating,” he said. “They prefer to do a lot of this stuff on their own.” Among the findings from the research, which will be formally released in the coming weeks include: 64% of C-level execs conduct six or more searches per day to locate business information.
Interestingly, 1 in 5 said they preferred to watch video rather than read text. Focusing on the impact of video, Sebastian said there are “1.5 million business searches daily on YouTube,” making it the second-most-visited destination for business searches, behind Google.
The fact is that the potential buyers of B2B products are on social networks and are consuming social media. The question for you to answer is how are you going to present your services and products to them?
So, how do you use it?
The best advice I can say is to be as genuine as possible. There seems to be a greater respect for those that practice full disclosure. So, if you are selling software, say so when you post a comment on a blog post. If you are answering questions on LinkedIn trying to gain leads, disclose that you represent a certain company.
Also, social media as a whole epitomizes the “garbage in, garbage out” mentality. You can only get out of social media what you put into it. So, in order to see great rewards, you must put in great effort. At first, it will be hard to see numbers that justify the time you’re spending. But, stick with it and soon you will be making some great contacts and earning some great leads.
Tags: Best Practices, LinkedIn, Sales, social media, Twitter
It is really very help ful for the social media, social marketing, social awareness and social networking. For the sales professional, social marketing is really very informative.