Stop Posting, Start Selling: The B2B Social Selling Strategies Nobody Told You About

Social selling is an essential element for B2B companies looking to gain market share. The rising use of social media platforms, changes on the part of consumers with respect to their wants and needs, and the popularity of social selling have made traditional sales methods less effective. Social selling is a sales tactic that leverages social media to identify prospects, create relationships, and engage the prospect to build relationships with prospective clients.

When you log in to a social media platform such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other online social platforms, and you find and connect with a potential client and begin to interact with people, that is already social selling! Note that social selling has become an important component of a successful digital marketing strategy in the B2B world. As per the study, 54% of B2B marketers generate leads from social media platforms.

Social selling is a tailored approach to engage prospective clients through AI-driven data acquisition and insights. Social selling leverages AI-driven data to engage with prospects who have a genuine interest in the brand’s products or services through thought-leadership type content, including blogs, videos, and podcasts, thereby generating authentic sales opportunities. 

In this blog, we will understand the key benefits of social selling for B2B companies and learn how to build a strong social selling strategy. 

Social Selling for B2B Companies: Key Benefits 

B2B businesses see numerous benefits to social selling. By establishing a solid presence on the appropriate social media channels, B2B businesses can boost brand awareness, create stronger relationships with customers, and enhance lead conversion rates. 

Let’s take a look at the major advantages of social selling for B2B companies. 

• Enhances Trust: Social selling allows B2B companies to create true relationships instead of just sales pitches. When B2B companies have conversations with their prospects, they find out what the prospects are looking for, and in the course of their content and interaction, they demonstrate their expertise. That builds trust and helps prospects begin to sort them outside just a salesperson, but as their trusted advisor.
• Precise lead generation: AI is a cutting-edge lead-generation specialist for social selling! Thanks to AI-driven tools and data analytics, companies have visibility into who their most promising leads are on social, a process that saves time and converts more people into business opportunities. Companies can keep prospects engaged today and also give prospects an awareness of where they are in the purchase journey. Sales representatives can deliver thought or industry-leading content, case studies, or success stories coupled with valuable, credibility building content for their company. Research shows that 61% of organizations using social selling see revenue growth.
• Expect Enhanced Customer Relationships – Conversations happening on social channels are inherently more human and real, allowing B2B brands to connect with prospects. When sales professionals connect, even for a moment, with prospects through social media – through intentional digital content, or by listening to needs – they build trust and credibility and create closer relationships with sales opportunities.

Note Down the Steps to Building a Strong B2B Social Selling Strategy 

Creating a B2B social selling plan involves 5 key steps. By following these steps outlined explicitly, B2B brands are able to tailor their marketing and social selling strategies to the specific desires and behaviors of their ideal target prospects – more likely ensuring success with their social selling strategy.

1. The first stage in creating a B2B social media marketing strategy is to define your audience. Defining your audience will provide a B2B brand focus on the best channels for your brand, and ultimately ensure that you are sending the right messages at the right time to the right audience. Figure out who the decision makers are in that organization that would be interested in your offering, and any potential influencers.
2. The next step is creating a quality content plan. When developing the content plan, be sure to think about the audience. As a good starting point, think about five topics or questions that individuals within your target audience may ask, and create some informative content addressing each question or topic. 
3. Social selling revolves around authenticity and building real relationships instead of just simply adding a contact. Reaching out to potential clients in your target audience on LinkedIn, or any applicable platform should be a simple interaction including a brief but genuine message mentioning you are simply interested in connecting to them. Share your experience in a post, or tag them in a post.
4. To stay current on industry happenings and updates, identify key customers, industry influencers, and prospects to follow on social media. As you engage and learn about their posts, you will become more aware of their interests and activities, and will again establish yourself as engaged and available for receipt of business when appropriate. After you have reviewed posts, try to monitor your prospects’ feed when possible. This way, you will be able to engage proactively by commenting on their post.
5. Last but not least is to consider using AI-powered social listening tools. They keep brands on top of specific people, interactions, and conversations. They help find, search, and find opportunities to connect and engage with prospects, influencers, and even competitors. They also help better understand the audience’s pain points and interests to give clarity on  how to customize engagement and sales.

IBM represents a genuine illustration of B2B social selling in action. It has utilized its blog to utilize thought leadership and has created compelling articles, case studies, and white papers covering advancements in technology, industry trends, and best practices. Interestingly, companies that do keep a blog are 13x more likely to report a positive ROI on their marketing spend.  

IBM goes a step further by sharing blog posts on its various social media channels, helping to reach and engage the company’s target audience. In this way, IBM extends its reach and creates quality relationships with prospects.

Capping Off   

The basics remain the same: people still buy from people. When building B2B marketing/social selling strategies, the challenge is to embrace the new content creation tools and ways of working without compromising authenticity. It’s time B2B companies embrace the opportunity and benefits of social selling.

Social selling enables B2B brands to shorten the sales cycle by providing visibility and extending reach while also establishing them as a subject matter expert. Most importantly, social selling allows B2B brands to create value through meaningful connections, trust, and conversations that will build sales pipeline and earn quality leads. Empower your B2B growth through social selling! Gain valuable business insights and read business articles to stay informed about B2B trends.