What is Social Selling?

If you're in B2B sales, at some point, you've probably considered Social Selling. If you're already using social media platforms for selling, you're probably wondering if you're doing the right things. So, let's take the mystery out of social selling once and for all and dive into what social selling is and what it isn't!

Social Selling allows your business to zero in on business prospects on social media and builds rapport with a network of potential leads.

It’s a modern way of building relationships and connections — a seriously powerful sales tactic.

You may already be doing social selling intuitively but haven't committed to doing so routinely, so we’ve put together this crazy-long post covering everything you need to know to really nail the social selling game!

What Social Selling is really all about

It's the practice of using a brand’s social media channels to connect with prospects, develop a connection with them, and engage with potential leads.

Social selling can be a powerful tactic for helping businesses reach their sales targets—think of it as modern relationship-building! If your brand has a Facebook Business Page, a LinkedIn page, an X (Twitter) profile, or is active on any other platform, you’re already engaged in the basics of social selling.

Any business can use social selling. Whether you’re a big corporation or an independent entrepreneur, whether you’re selling electric cars or handmade chocolates, social media can be an incredibly useful tool for nurturing relationships with prospects.

What Social Selling is not

Social selling is not social media advertising. It’s not social media marketing. That's a whole other story! It’s the practice of nurturing relationships as part of your sales funnel. Think less pitching and more conversations.

It might seem obvious, but social selling is not just a marketing activity. While marketing may provide helpful content, salespeople (and other business leaders) must be social sellers to build relationships with prospects online.

Social selling isn't about bombarding strangers with unwanted Tweets and DMs. No one appreciates receiving messages like that, so it's best to avoid it altogether.

Additionally, social selling isn't just about growing your contact list. To effectively leverage your social media presence for sales, focus on quality interactions over quantity.

Ensure your engagements are meaningful, showcasing your brand as a problem-solving solution. Building trust and loyalty through genuine connections increases the likelihood of converting your social media connections into valuable sales opportunities when the timing is right.

What are the Four Pillars of Social Selling?

The foundation of successful social selling lies in four key pillars:

1. Establishing a professional brand presence: Share valuable content and position yourself as an authority in your industry.

2. Building a robust network of potential prospects: Target the right individuals to connect with.

3. Engaging your audience with insightful content: Consistently post and share content that sparks meaningful conversations.

4. Cultivating relationships: Foster trust with decision-makers and create lasting professional connections.

Does Social Selling Work?

So we now know what social selling is and that it can be broken into 4 essential parts.... but is it worth your investment in time and effort? The effectiveness of social selling speaks for itself. According to internal data from LinkedIn Sales Solutions:

Leading businesses in social selling generate 45% more sales opportunities than brands with a low social selling index.

Companies prioritising social selling are 51% more likely to meet their sales targets.

A whopping 78% of businesses that embrace social selling outperform those that neglect the power of social media in their sales strategies.

Social selling empowers your B2B sales team to cultivate genuine relationships. By leveraging social media platforms, your team can seamlessly connect with potential customers already active and engaging online. Social listening tools take this a step further, enabling your reps to pinpoint leads discussing your brand, competitors, or industry.

While 22% of audiences seek content from their favourite brands on social media, the majority are there for connection: 23.9% share and discuss opinions, 23.4% make new contacts, and 21.7% seek like-minded communities and interest groups.

This allows you to engage with an audience already intrigued by your offerings, establishing genuine connections and providing valuable insights at the opportune moment. Building trust through authenticity can ultimately lead to customer loyalty.

Social Media Audience

Your audience, both current customers and potential leads, are actively participating in social commerce. With the vast number of individuals utilising social media platforms, the opportunity for brands to drive sales through these channels is immense:

Social Media Platform users grew from 4.72 billion in January 2023 to 5.04 billion in January 2024, an 8% increase of +320 million users year over year.

27% of internet users turn to social media for inspiration and shopping ideas, with 26.2% specifically looking for products to buy.

49.2% of global social media users log on to discover brands and consume content.

An impressive 77% of individuals find new products through social media platforms.

Optimise your profile

Optimising your social media profile is crucial for creating a strong online presence. Here are some tips to help you optimise your social media profiles:

1. Profile Picture: Use a clear and professional profile picture representing you or your brand. Make sure it is high-quality and easily recognisable.

2. Cover Photo/Banner: Utilise the cover photo/banner space to showcase your brand or personality. This is a great opportunity to communicate what you or your brand is about visually.

3. Bio/About Section: Write a compelling bio that describes who you are or what your brand does. Use keywords relevant to your industry to make it easier for others to find you.

4. Contact Information: Ensure your contact information is up-to-date and easily accessible. This can include your website, email address, phone number, and other relevant contact details.

5. Links: Include links to your website, blog, other social media profiles, or any other relevant online platforms. This can help drive traffic and increase your online presence.

6. Consistent Branding: Maintain consistent branding across all your social media profiles. Use the same profile picture, cover photo, colours, and messaging to create a cohesive brand identity.

7. Engaging Content: Regularly post engaging and relevant content that resonates with your audience. This can help increase your followers and engagement on social media.

8. Engage with Your Audience: Respond to comments, messages, and mentions promptly. Engaging with your audience shows you are active and interested in building relationships.

9. Use Hashtags: Use relevant hashtags to increase the visibility of your posts and reach a wider audience. Research popular hashtags in your industry and incorporate them into your posts.

10. Analytics: Monitor your social media performance using analytics tools provided by the platform. Analysing your data can help you understand what content resonates with your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Each social media platform has unique characteristics, and if you are active across multiple platforms, you are likely familiar with this. While this article focuses on LinkedIn, we encourage you to explore the specific requirements and strategies that work best for each platform where you aim to enhance your online presence.

Optimise your LinkedIn profile

It is important to have an attention-grabbing headline, an impressive header image, and a detailed "About" section. The key is to regularly post content, foster engagement, and avoid excessive self-promotion.

Aim for articles with a word count of 1,500 to 2,000, ensuring your headline is specific, engaging, and within the 40 -49 character range. Incorporate images and other multimedia elements for visual appeal. Consider crafting a profile rich in keywords based on relevant research. Keep your page active and up-to-date to showcase the best aspects of your brand.

For a more in-depth look at LinkedIn, check out our Social Selling Guide

Selecting the best platforms for social media prospecting and sales

Your platform selection should be tailored to your target audience and social selling strategy. Essentially, it all boils down to identifying the platform most prospects and customers use.

X (Twitter) and Instagram serve as excellent platforms for engaging with customers. They offer features to promptly address inquiries and foster organic communication in a relaxed online setting.

In essence, these platforms excel at cultivating relationships.

Conversely, LinkedIn stands out as a formal business platform, particularly suited for B2B enterprises seeking to connect with and influence key decision-makers. Through direct engagement, businesses can establish professional relationships with potential clients:

According to LinkedIn data:

• 89% of B2B marketers turn to LinkedIn to generate leads.
• 62% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn generates leads at twice the rate of the next-best performing social channel.

In other words, use whichever social platform your audience prefers — and whichever platform your brand will be able to use consistently! As our interests lie in the B2B space, we'll focus on LinkedIn in this article

Why LinkedIn?

With 1 billion users on LinkedIn and 4 out of 5 LinkedIn members involved in driving business decisions, LinkedIn remains the number one platform for B2B salespeople to leverage all the data they need to reach out to the right buyers with the right message at the right time.

Sales Navigator

If you’re serious about social selling on LinkedIn, use LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This tool unlocks exclusive ways to find, and engage with, prospects including 2nd and 3rd degree connections who are the best fit for your product or service.  Let’s check out best bits of Sales Navigator which you can use to create targeted lists for Social Selling.

Save Leads : Interested in a lead who’s not quite ready to buy? Save your leads and follow them for updates and to see when they’re in the best position for you to reach out – like changing companies or positions. You can save leads from
a company’s Account Details page, from search results, from your Sales Navigator homepage, and from the lead’s own page. 

Sync Sales Navigator with Your CRM: Using a CRM at your company? Sync your sales navigator account with your CRM account to keep track of your conversations with all prospects. This will save you from jumping back and forth between two different sites and provide powerful insights into your reporting. It only takes a click, and you’ll thank yourself for doing it. 

If you’re a HubSpot CRM user use this link to discover how to connect your account to Sales Navigator. 

Log Calls to Sales Navigator: If you use the Sales Navigator mobile app, you can log calls, their length, and their duration. This is an easy way to recall your previous conversations straight through LinkedIn rather than a supplemental call-tracking software

Save your Sales Navigator Searches: Don’t keep reinventing the wheel. Once you develop a filtered search that you believe will consistently produce quality leads, save that search to receive periodic emails for those who have newly met your criteria. You can run or edit these saved searches at any time.

Integrate Email and Social Selling Sales Navigator: Why stop at your phone and CRM? You can sync your Sales Navigator account to your email, which produces the essentials of that contact’s LinkedIn profile alongside your email inbox. You can even save as a lead directly through an email interaction.

Utilise Shared Experience: One of LinkedIn’s best premium filters is ‘Leads with Shared Experiences/ Commonalities.’ You’ll be able to find leads more easily who have areas of professional overlap with you. For example, reaching out with a “Glad to be talking to another Uni alumni!” is much more effective than jumping right to the “Have you evaluated your online banking needs lately?”

Target Companies Better With Account Details Page: Want to reach out to a rep from a company you know would benefit from what you’re selling, but not sure who to contact? Search for that company in your search bar and head to the Recommended Leads section, where suggested leads at that company based on what you’re looking for in the lead will be produced. You’ll also be able to monitor company updates, job changes from employees and news mentions.

The Spotlight feature leverages LinkedIn data to segment your Sales Navigator search results. With Spotlights, you can easily discover the prospects who are more likely to engage with you.

Spotlights are available as a filter on the left rail of the search page for leads and accounts.

Following are some of the Spotlights filters that you can use to search for a lead:

• Changes spotlight identifies prospects who have changed jobs within the last three months.
• The Shared Experiences spotlight uncovers prospects who attended the same schools, worked at the same companies, or belong to the same LinkedIn Groups as you.
• The LinkedIn Activity spotlight shows prospects who have posted or shared content on LinkedIn in the past 30 days.
• The Mentioned in the News spotlight uncovers prospects mentioned in the news in the past 30 days.
• The Leads that Follow Your Company spotlight uncovers prospects who follow your company on LinkedIn.
• The TeamLink spotlight finds prospects who are already connected

LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups lets you join up to 50 different groups on the site, and joining has several perks.

Here are a few perks that come to mind:

• You can see what potential customers are talking about and offer a comment when appropriate.
• You can submit your own posts or articles to cement yourself as a thought leader further.
• You can send messages to other group members, even if you are not connected.

Put simply, participating in groups gives you the opportunity to learn from, interact with, and share content with potential leads in a natural and inbound way. This approach positions you as an active community member, not just another salesperson reaching out with an Email.

LinkedIn Communities

There's a remarkable harmony between social selling and fostering community connections. When they align perfectly, they pave the way to success. Why is that? At their core, sales and community engagement thrive on authenticity, building meaningful relationships, establishing trust, and providing genuine value.

 Here's a straightforward guide to nurturing community ties: 

• Engage with other's social media posts through comments
• Offer assistance in direct messages
• Support your community by lending a hand wherever necessary
• Aid someone in their job search
• Participate actively in community groups
• Facilitate connections between people
• Maintain a regular posting routine on LinkedIn
• Make it a point to reply to comments.
• Take on a mentorship role.

When you focus on helping others, something extraordinary occurs: people become more receptive, paving the way for deeper, more enduring connections.

Know your SSI Score 

Your LinkedIn Social Selling Index Score is determined by how well you meet four different criteria:

• Establishing your professional brand.
• Finding the right people.
• Engaging with insights.

• Building relationships.

Boosting your SSI isn't just about being active on LinkedIn daily; it's about making a significant impact by developing your brand and business with valuable content, meaningful engagement, and consistent growth. 

You can access your SSI score by logging into your LinkedIn account and clicking on the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage. 

Select View Profile. Your Profile level will be displayed under the "Suggested for You" section.

VECE Social Selling Framework

Like most things in sales, you'll see better results using a tried and tested framework. We're sharing our proven VECE Social Selling framework, and you can access your complimentary copy of the VECE Social Selling Framework here.

Automation Tools

Social Selling can be time-intensive. Using automation tools makes sense if you can personalise your outreach and accurately target your ICP.

Illustrated below, the VECE Framework guides our social selling efforts and is a great starting point to understand where you can achieve productivity gains through the introduction of automation and AI

We are delighted to have partnered with Trueleads, a smart LinkedIn Automation Platform that enables you to build LinkedIn campaigns that include Profile Views, Personalised Messages and Connection Requests all within LinkedIn Guidelines. You can quickly and easily integrate Trueleads with HubSpot!

The boxes in the chart below, coloured blue, represent typical automated Social Selling activities.

LinkedIn Social Selling Automation

Below: Example of Trueleads Connection Request Campaign

Summary

With the right approach, social selling can be a game-changer for your sales team. Here are a few things you'll want to remember.

• Remember to be "helpful" when engaging with your prospects. This will help you stay on track and avoid straying into "pitching." 
• Remember to use a framework, it helps you avoid getting side tracked on LinkedIn.

Lastly, don't be fooled into thinking automation and AI are for bigger companies and larger sales teams. No matter how small your team is, you can benefit from adopting smart technology, automation, and assistance from AI.

As you can probably tell, there are many, many elements to social selling! To make things a little easier for you, we've taken all the information in this blog and included it (and  also "20 Social Selling Tips to Drive Sales in Your Business" and much more) in our 35+ page Social Selling Guide which you can download here.

Related:

Guide to Social Selling by LinkedIn

20 steps to a better LinkedIn profile in 2024

Ideal Customer Profile and Buyer Personas

Helpful Links

Is the SDR role really dead?

What is the Buyer's Pyramid?

McKinsey's 7S Model To Implement Full-Cycle Sales