The world today is no longer the same as a year ago – the pandemic has displaced large events and speaking engagements, resulting in a loss of crucial networking and sales opportunities for brands. In this climate of embracing the online, how then can brands continue to touch base with their consumers?

This is where social selling comes into play.

What is Social Selling?

Social Selling is the process of finding and building genuine, long-lasting relationships with a brand’s consumers. It occurs online through a brand’s social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram. The main goal of social selling is to meet the consumers where they are at and provide them with valuable content by actively engaging with them.

This is especially since most of the customer experience is taken online where social media builds brand awareness and influences the consumers’ consideration to try out new products. With over 62% of buyers responding to salespeople who connect with them to share insights and opportunities relevant to them, there is a need to keep up the pace with the consumers and let them know that the brand truly sees and cares for them.

How is this different from traditional marketing tactics?

Unlike direct marketing approaches such as cold calling or on-ground promoter selling, brands that use social selling do not hard sell to their customers or expect an immediate sale. Instead, they adopt a softer approach by connecting with their consumers and gaining their trust first; generating a sale is seen as the long term bonus, while building a relationship comes first.

Furthermore, social selling differs from social marketing as it focuses on building one-to-one relationships with specifically targeted consumers, while social marketing is generally targeted at a much wider audience to increase the awareness of a brand.

Best Ways to Carry Out Social Selling

1. Create Access to Your Brand

Get on all social media platforms that your target audience is on to increase the possible digital touchpoints with your audience, especially since the pandemic has ruled out most physical opportunities to network.

Publish content on your social platforms regularly or share your own articles to establish a strong presence of your brand in the online sphere. Informative articles can also help build credibility and greater awareness of your brand as an informed leader in the market.

2. Actually Engage with Your Audience

This is where social listening comes in: find out what people are talking about your brand, why and on what platforms. Join in and follow up on their conversations by replying to their comments or responding with a like, letting your audience know you genuinely hear them. This was how we found out consumers were truly looking for efficacy and convenience in our Pokka Orange 1000 campaign.

Consumers want to connect with humans that can think and relate to them, not auto-bots. Knowing what captures your audiences’ attention is thus the best way to connect with them. For example, Mai Yu Ge was a booming sensation last year when he live-streamed and gave his audience the entertainment they asked for. While this is a great way to interact with your audience in real time, remember to pre-publicize the live-stream and inform your viewers to look out for it so it creates hype and anticipation for the brand!

3. Build Credibility

Consumers want to know that you are an expert in your field and can be trusted in helping them solve their problems. Deliver value to your target audience through educational content, advice and thought leadership articles. Even better, these information could be in the form of a game or edutainment where consumers can enjoy and gain insights at the same time.

You can also repost and share valuable content from other sources and comment on how such information is relevant to your field and your consumers. This will make the brand seem objective and aware of other perspectives in the industry environment as well.

Hence, despite its name being called ‘social’, the whole concept of social selling is actually very personal. It is about the trust and relationship between the brand and the consumer that strengthens overtime. For your consumers to develop awareness and affinity towards the brand, it really boils down to the content value and connection you provide for your consumers.

Need help with connecting to your audience? Speak to us today!.