There is no doubt that Social Media is a potentially lucrative sales
tool for businesses to generate leads. Having said that, Social Media is
also an ever changing, confusing and sometimes downright disorientating
channel for business. The main issues for sales and marketing people
who use social media for lead generation is having the right sales tools
to ensure prospect targeting and relevance. Most of us are adept at
tailoring our sales & marketing output to specific groups but
finding relevant prospects on Social Media remains a frustrating
occupation.
From a user’s perspective it can often be difficult to understand
people’s motivation for Social Media activity. The idea that Social
Media users flock together in easily identifiable communities is
somewhat of a myth.
Social networks are complex systems. It’s frequently said that Social
Media is an evolution of the phone book for sales people, a directory,
if you like, of potential prospects.
The truth is way more complex than that. Social Media is
fundamentally changing the face of human interaction on a vast scale.
There really isn’t a social media ‘pot of gold’ without structured and
thoughtful engagement that is targeted at relevant prospects. Using
social media sales tools to target prospects, is about precision
targeting, effective communication and relationship building. By
building efficiency into our Social Media selling activities we can
develop scale.
Social Selling
By effectively positioning our solutions we can maximize Social
Selling opportunities. The balance of power has shifted in favor of the
consumer. Consumers don’t wait to be engaged. Now it’s knowledgeable
buyers who find and qualify the product vendors. Instead of pushing
products, smart brands use social media to provide insights and add
value.
Current research tells us that:
72% of B2B buyers use social media to research a purchase.
61% of consumers listed the vendor reputation as thought leader as being influential
57% browse existing discussions to learn more about a topic before purchasing.
(Sources, Invesp, Demand Gen, 2014)
Understand what motivates our audience
Social selling is primarily about establishing relationships and
building emotional connections with our audience. Consumers who are
emotional connected to a brand are more loyal. Emotional connections
which are formed over time and stronger and more persistent than quick
wins. Social media is the most effective platform we have for
establishing emotional connections with our prospects and leads.
By creating unique experiences, by storytelling, brands can draw
consumers into their culture & values. Social media allows consumers
to feel they are being given priority access to brands. We can then
devise strategies to funnel consumers towards the actions we consider
valuable.
Relevant, insightful, and actionable content
It’s hard to argue with the view that the web has become cluttered
with garbage. The recent slew of algorithm updates are partly designed
to improve the digital consumer experience.Content that gets seen,
shared and ultimately converts must be valuable in assisting the
consumer make decisions. It must challenge any negative assumptions
consumer have about our brand and encourage favorable dialogue.
Be aware of now your content affects SEO but always promote content
that is written with your audience in mind. To develop a content
strategy that works we must make life easier for consumers.
Influence
The power of word of mouth in social selling has established an
ecosystem of critically important individuals who have decisive
influence over purchasing behavior. Influence marketing helps us
communicate effectively with social media networks to increase our
social selling potential. In the world of non-interruption social
selling, influence marketing tactics pay dividends by exponentially
growing audiences and social lead generation possibilities.
Through their experiences, opinions, research and advice, influencers
increase awareness and generate leads, they address barriers &
objections. Social influence leaders can carry our sales message by
creating and promoting brand content. They place our solutions, in the
form of products and services, at the heart of the consumer research
process. After all, social selling is a conversation, not a pitch. It’s
far better to set the tone and make strategic interventions than
constantly have to interrupt and shout to be heard above the noise.
Listen and Respond
Thoughts expressed in social conversations are enormously valuable to
marketers. Sentiment analysis provides additional context by measuring
tone.
Tapping into unprecedented levels of insight, we can;
Unearth the factors that drive customer experience and brand perception.
- Understand people’s feelings towards our brand, product or service.
- Measure the success of launches, campaigns or initiatives.
- Strategically adjustment marketing strategy.
- Identify and track reputation risk.
- Monitor and improve competitive positioning
Develop competitor insights
By monitoring our competitors social landscape, pinpointing specific
brand, competitor and hashtag mentions, we learn about the competition’s
appeal & differentiation. As a gauge of their brand, its key
attributes, we can gain strategic advantage. Social media insights
uncover the drivers of customer experience and brand perception. Online
conversation analysis affords category and product intelligence, vital
in developing successful portfolio strategies and creating new
opportunities.
Social data analytic
By having a clear understanding of consumer’s behavior we are able to
market to them effectively. By identifying key data, preferences,
relevant conversations and brand mentions we develop meaningful
insights. However, the huge number and scale of interactions make it
difficult. It’s really important for brands to use robust techniques to
monitor relevant Social Media interactions. For many sales and marketing
managers, the availability of more Social Media data has added to the
confusion because it is usually unstructured and therefore difficult to
interpret. We must develop work practices that eliminate unwanted or
ineffective consumer engagement by using social data to identify, track,
influence and nurture relevant sales prospects.
With a consistent approach to targeted engagement we can fill the sales pipeline with relevant Social Media prospects using social media tools.
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