Social media selling (or social selling, for short) is about establishing genuine, long-term relationships via social networking. These relationships could be formed with potential investors, employees, co-workers, other businesses, customers and more. While they occur naturally between you and your fans, you’ll need to rethink your strategy when you’re ready to expand your reach. Social networks like Facebook are more than happy to help you reach a larger audience, for a price, of course. It’s often worth the small fee, however, as social networking touches as much as 75% of all internet users. That is exactly what makes social selling all the more powerful, and a viable strategic tool to help you sell more.
Social selling revolves around spreading a word of mouth campaign about a specific product or product line. When it comes to buying, consumers often rely on peer’s opinion, the most. Ads may be losing their power to attract the consumers’ attention, but personal product recommendations or peer endorsements are something people rarely ignore.
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Social selling, however, poses a big challenge for eCommerce marketers.
The fact is that social media platforms are not venues for direct transactions. Social media users are online to interact with friends and aren’t necessarily in ‘buying mode’. What social media platforms do best, however, is help you reach out to potential consumers, making them aware of your company so they can ultimately discover your products. The goal is for them to love you and then share your products and promotions with their friends, as well. The success of social media selling lies in a) understanding your prospective customers or clients, b) finding a common ground to initiate conversations and build connections, and c) deepening the relationships.
