When it came to the latest news, more than 80% of French people used social networks. This equates to almost 53 million people. But for companies, this mostly means almost 53 million consumers whose attention is just waiting to be captured by content.
But unlike a blog, a newsletter, or even “old-fashioned” sales promotion, social networks represent a channel for a company whose DNA is centered around the term mutual relationships. In other words, they meet needs that arise on both sides of the trade:
- On the one hand, consumers are looking for answers or inspiration.
- On the other hand, companies are looking for an audience to promote their offer.
This is evidenced by the hashtags #amazonfinds and #tiktokmademebuyit, which, for example, have billions of views only on TikTok, the rising star among social platforms the power of social media to persuade people to buy their users. Back in 2020, an Ipsos study found that 44% of Instagram users used the app to shop every week.
To characterize this reality, we speak of social selling. It’s both a growing social phenomenon and a fashionable specialty of digital marketing opportunity companies can no longer ignore.
So What is Social Selling ? Here are 7 questions and answers to understand the main issues.
What is social selling in theory?
Social selling is an online marketing approach that mobilizes Habits of Social Media Users to trigger a conversion (purchase, subscription, registration via email, etc.). The idea is to engage a prospect through the interactions they can naturally develop on a given social network. This strategy therefore places content creation and distribution at the heart of prospecting.
There is also a concept of horizontality between companies and their prospects in social selling, which leads them to this interact via profiles and more direct and accessible. Comments on publications and exchanges in private messages are thus two communication channels that are characteristic of such an approach.
That’s according to a 2021 SproutSocial survey 78% of consumers were more likely to buy from a retailer they interacted with on social media. And with good reason, this dimension of proximity and accessibility is an important persuasion factor.
What is social selling in practice?
Once the theoretical potential of social selling is clearly established, you need to get your hands dirty and turn the assumptions into reality. So the first thing to do is Build a social page on one platformoptimize it and start posting content related to your products or services.
But as you can imagine, good intentions are not enough. Above all, you need to work on a editorial inclination able to capture the attention of your prospects and gradually convert them into customers by meeting their needs. In the social networks, the competition for companies is tough. But with a relevant content approach, a business profile can generate real commercial traction in a matter of weeks.
If you don’t know where to start, feel free to search our blog. Here you will find tips for the various social platforms. In particular, we recommend that you read:
Although social selling is largely based on mastering content marketing, it also involves knowing how to use it sales tools Company made available through the various social networks. Especially since these tools cover more and more needs:
- Integrated Stores (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)
- live shopping
- Automation and personalization of messaging (Messenger, WhatsApp)
- Redirect Product Sheets (Pinterest Pins)
- Advanced Virtual Reality Filters (Snapchat)
In this regard, each year brings its share of novelties, as social selling is clearly a performance lever that counts more and more in the world of online business.
If you would like to take stock of the options available to you, make an appointment with us:
FREE SOCIAL SELLING REVIEW
And B2B Social Selling?
When we talk about social selling, we tend to think of promoting B2C products or services. It is normal, we have the notion that social network users are individuals who connect to them for private reasons. But it’s easy to forget that entrepreneurial decision makers are also people who use social networks, privately and… professionally.
On this blog you have already been made aware of the possibilities of social selling several times LinkedIn, the world’s leading network of professionals. Whether for Give visibility to your business page or for there Develop your personal brand strategywe have repeatedly defended the interests of Speak on Linkedin. In addition, the platform itself has developed an indicator to measure the commercial potential of its users in this area: the “Social Selling Index”.
But the web is wide and of course the various professional goals are not only found on Linkedin. Today, all leading social networks make it possible to build a B2B marketing strategy because almost every target is there.
Why do social selling as a business?
Of course, social selling makes this possible for companies generate sales (or leads as part of Services). Damien Bignon, then Sales Director of Malakoff Médéric, announced it back in 2018 :
“Tomorrow, all of our sales people will be Community Managers. »
Several years after the promulgation of this prophecy, we must acknowledge that its author was right. Today, for many companies, the commercial relationship is stretched and diluted by a broader and more diffuse process of social selling.
Why such a change? Because consumers have developed the habit of going to the search for information they need before making a purchasing decision. Ask car dealers or real estate agents, for example: they will tell you that when their prospects come to them, they are much better informed than they were a few years ago.
However, this does not mean that companies have to go through this evolution of consumer practices. On the contrary, one of the challenges of social selling is anticipating and building in contacts with future buyers trust with you.
How do you do social selling?
The potential relationships with social selling are numerous. For some companies, it’s just an extension of corporate communications that they could use on a less interactive medium (website, promotional brochure, newsletter, etc.). For others, it’s primarily a point of contact with their audience, a way to be more reactive and available. For the most ambitious in this field, it is an acquisition channel in itselfwhich has its own business goals.
In practice, social selling can support the journey of a marketing goal at every stage the sales funnel :
It is because of that the social dimension which must appear first before the sale is complete. We observe that approaching social selling with the aim of deepening the relationship with its audience and expressing values is the best way to lay the foundation for sustained performance on this channel.
How do I train social selling?
At a time when online communication is becoming increasingly important in all areas of activity, train in digital marketing is a must for many professionals. But who says mandatory passage does not necessarily say boring and boring passage.
From this point of view, the most natural solution to training in marketing techniques specific to social networks is to observe what users are doing that are getting good results. Learning how to build a good editorial line, create content and interact with an audience, nothing beatsanalyze content more advanced companies in this field.
But to get faster progress in learning, you can also contact an organization of Social Selling Training. You have come to the right place because we offer Community Management Training and Social selling training on Linkedin which allows you to quickly acquire the essential knowledge. And since we are Qualiopi certified, your OPCO can safely cover all or part of the registration fees.
A Social Selling Agency: What is it for?
Since training in social selling does not prevent you from delegating this task to experts in the field, you may need a social selling agency.
As a service provider, his role could then consist of:
- Help identify yours ideal customer in social networks
- Help you choose platforms best suited for your business
- Optimize yours profiles on the selected platforms
- define yours editorial inclination
- Formalize yours process Content creation and performance measurement
- Develop media different formats to enrich your content
- Mobilize Tool Professionals to add another dimension to your strategy
So don’t hesitate to come and tell us something about yourself if you would like us to explore together the possibilities that social networks could generate for your business.