What is Social Selling?

Social Selling is a term that’s tossed around a lot, but not many businesspeople can tell you exactly what it means, or why it’s so good for your bottom line.

So let’s pull this baby apart and you’ll see why utilizing the concepts is such a good idea for you and your business.

Let me first say that Social Selling can and should be done everywhere, not just on LinkedIn, but it’s PERFECT for LinkedIn because of all the ways LinkedIn provides to find and contact your ideal clients, both individually and in groups.

(Ideal Clients = also called your Target Audience, but that term always reminds me of Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood – not necessarily a bad thought -- but I don’t want to be anyone’s “target,” so I avoid it – just FYI.)

Since I live with LinkedIn daily, I’ll teach you Social Selling based on using it there.

Social Selling is about building relationships based on trust with your ICs, with the goal of eventually taking the conversation offline, meaning off LinkedIn, and onto the phone or Zoom to close the sale.

LinkedIn is NOT where you sell, it’s where you build trust.

How do you build relationships based on trust? Excellent question, grasshopper.

1.        First, you must have a strong brand presence on LinkedIn.

a.       Have a fully optimized profile that showcases you as the pro you are. (I defined “optimized” for you in an earlier article here in the magazine.)

b.      Publish consistently to establish your expertise.

2.       Find your ICs through the easiest and one of the most comprehensive search mechanisms in all of social media, available to you even in the LinkedIn free membership.

(See past articles in this magazine from yours truly on how to effectively and positively reach out to members you don’t know.)

3.       Consistently publish both original and outside-sourced articles, insights, opportunities and information that are of value to your IC without asking anything in return. You may and should always provide contact information and hashtags at the end of your posts.

4.       Because you’re consistently publishing (written posts and videos) information relevant to your ICs, they'll naturally think of you when they need a service that falls in your wheelhouse because you’ve been generous with your knowledge and information without asking anything in return.

That’s the Rule of Reciprocity (people tend to feel obligated to return favors after people do favors for them – see Psychology Today, 10 Oct 2015), and it will always pay off when you’re client-centric, generous, consistent and patient.

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Debbie will answer your LinkedIn questions every week here in YES I CAN Living Magazine. Write to her at info@LinkedInBossLady.com, subject LINKEDIN QUESTION.

For further help or support from her, you can schedule a one-on-one Profile Review right on her calendar at https://LinkedInBossLady.as.me.

You can also connect with her here:

💻   https://LinkedInBossLady.com

 LinkedIn.com/in/DebbieMcCormick

@LinkedInBossLady

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