Social Media Selling Isn’t About The Art of Selling, It’s About Helping

There’s very little art of selling in social media. That’s not what social media is for.

That doesn’t mean buying doesn’t happen on social media though.

The buying that does happen on social media is a consequence of being in the right place at the right time for the right person.

Social media selling has nothing to do with selling but rather connecting customers with the right message.

It’s about fitting into their life by helping them envision the life they want (easer, better, more stylish, etc.) through your product or service.

What goal are you trying to help them reach? If you can help a customer reach a goal social media will work for you.

Before you’re able to understand how social media works for small business, you have to reframe it.

Reframe Social Media

Before you can ever reach your full potential on social media you first have to ditch the social media selling mass communication mentality.

Social media isn’t about mass communication. Blast communications won’t give you any return on social media, just wasted time.

Social media needs to be reframed as 1 on 1 communication where you make personal connections with customers.

You’ll be able to develop relationships with customers who will then be more trusting in you.

That means a customer from social media who you’ve built trust with will likely be a customer for life. They’ll also spend more than any of your other customers.

A company with great customer service is a company that will retain customers better. There’s no better place to deliver great customer service than on social media.

Not only will you be showing how great you treat customers but it’s also public!

When you talk to a customer on email or chat that communication is private. When the customer interaction is on social media it’ll all be public.

Reframing social media from mass communication to making a personal connection will also help you rethink social media selling.

Rethink Social Media Selling

No selling happens on social media just like no selling happens when you go to networking events.

Social media isn’t about selling but rather it’s about helping.

Every time you try to take a customer out of their element and bombard them with a self-serving message you risk creating a bad relationship.

When you think of social media as a place to help people and create conversations you’ll start seeing where the potential is for expanding your business.

Not only will you be able to share what makes you tick but it gives you the opportunity to open conversations.

Once social media selling becomes social media helping you’ll see relationships with customers begin to blossom.

Those relationships will be more valuable than a customer you have no relationship with.

Open Conversations

The conversations you open on social media have the potential to lead to bigger things.

A customer might find you anywhere online. If they’re interested in what you do then you’ll eventually have a conversation with them which is likely to happen on social media.

Both Twitter and Facebook have been busy building their platforms to allow people to communicate in a way that fits them.

Businesses on both platforms can easily converse with their customers publicly. Recently Facebook and Twitter have both been working on making it easier for businesses to take those conversations offline.

Facebook may also be working on a feature that gives pages the ability to post on groups. That will be a game-changer for a brand hoping to increase their brand presence on social media.

By rethinking how you approach social media and shifting your thinking from social media selling to social media helping you’ll achieve results.

It will open up conversations as you join Twitter chats and join into real conversations in Facebook groups.

The more conversations you have with your audience the more visibility you’ll get which will, in turn, expand your small business online presence.

Expand Your Small Business Presence

Your small business relies on an ever expanding online presence. This will expose you to new customers and strengthen your brand awareness.

Social media is one of the single best places on the internet to build brand awareness. It just takes shifting from social media selling to social media helping.

Helping could mean sharing helpful articles, helping people find what they’re looking for (if they’re looking) or simply reaching out.

It’s all about being available to your customers no matter where they are. Your customer doesn’t care about the social platform, they just care about reaching you and the communication that occurs.

Make sure you’re prepared to leave a lasting positive impression on your customers and potential customers with a complete and active social media presence.

To check if you’re leaving a lasting positive impression be sure to get your free personalized Online Presence Report. You can also get an optional free consultation if you’d like to talk about your presence further.