You’ve probably heard of “social selling,” but what exactly is it? Put another way, social selling is a sales technique that combines traditional sales methods with modern digital tools. At its core, it’s about using social media networks to reach and engage potential customers in meaningful conversations.
By utilizing social selling, businesses can precisely identify potential leads and build trust-based relationships with them through popular online platforms. That said, it’s important to note that social selling isn’t just about posting on social media platforms. There are best practices to follow to ensure your efforts are effective.
Let’s look at some of the best social selling techniques and strategies to get ahead.
What Is Social Selling?
Social selling is an innovative lead-generation technique created to assist salespeople in forming connections with potential buyers via social media platforms. Some also say it is a sales and marketing strategy that combines traditional sales methods with the power of social networks.
Utilizing the process of “social listening,” salespeople can understand what their target market discusses online. This knowledge helps them create meaningful conversations that resonate most with their audience and foster authentic relationships through engagement.
By utilizing social selling, customers and companies can transcend the typical transactional experience of sales, resulting in more authentic relationships with prospective buyers.
Through the power of social media, salespeople can now foster relationships with their top prospects in a much more intimate manner. This has created an incredibly personalized one-to-one experience beyond what’s possible on the internet alone. Furthermore, this online connection can lead to face-to-face meetings and even closed deals when managed appropriately and quickly.
4 Major Benefits of Social Selling Tools


By leveraging social selling, sellers can experience these four critical advantages for their professional or individual brand.
1. It builds trust
Trust is the foundation of any productive transaction or sale, as customers prefer to work with someone they believe in. By connecting with them and strengthening your relationship with them on a deeper level through conversation, you generate an atmosphere of mutual trust that encourages customers to feel safe doing business with you.
This can be accomplished using social media networks like Facebook and Instagram, as these platforms help create a community where people are welcomed regardless of their size or stature.
2. It Yields Long-Term Results
Social selling isn’t just about getting a one-time sale. It’s about establishing a long-term relationship with your customer. By consistently and continuously nurturing relationships with prospective customers, it solidifies bonds that will continue even after they become paying clients.
3. It Amplifies Your Reach
Social selling through social media platforms can expand your network and increase your potential reach exponentially. It will even help you develop relationships with customers who may have yet to find out about you through traditional marketing tactics.
4. It provides insights into your customer base
Companies that actively pursue social listening and conversation with their customers gain valuable insights into what drives them. Social selling is a sales tool and an invaluable market research method.
Interactions from social selling can provide companies with important information about customer desires and interests—even without significant sales results. This information can be employed to create more targeted marketing plans, devise new product designs, or refine product descriptions for maximum appeal.
How Does Social Selling Work Across Various Platforms?


Considering the multifarious approaches to social selling—as people use diverse platforms in varying ways—it is essential that your methods are adjustable and tailored to the particular platform you’re utilizing and the prospect.
To this end, here’s some valuable advice on executing social sales successfully across various major networks.
1. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn is the leading B2B social selling platform, with half of all buyers using it as a resource to determine what they will buy. In other words, if you don’t have much time or energy to dedicate to your social selling campaign, this should be your go-to outlet. Remember these guidelines while using LinkedIn to make the right impression on potential buyers and customers.
Step 1: Build Credibility
Social selling should never come off as impersonal; your prospects should feel a sense of trust in you. Word-of-mouth is the best way to achieve this. Check out groups in the same industry as your prospects and add value to the conversations. Also, keep your profile updated with relevant job titles, company names, descriptions, and/or awards.
When it comes to social selling, understand who you’re targeting. Check whether you have customers with whom you have excellent relationships. And if you see someone, request that they provide their endorsement or recommendation on your profile. It will help solidify your authority and influence among new contacts.
Ensure that the abilities you receive endorsements for apply to prospective customers, not just future employers. A potential customer may not be interested in hearing that you’re experienced with particular software (unless it’s something they want to purchase), but an employer surely would.
Step 2: Discover Connections
LinkedIn provides multiple approaches to identify potential prospects—individuals that may derive value from your product or service. Use LinkedIn’s search feature to find skills, job titles, businesses, or even industry-related topics relevant to your ideal customer profile (ICP) and those who have shared connections with you. Leveraging this information, you can use this established relationship by sending a connection request and initiating conversations.
Step 3: Join Groups
Joining LinkedIn Groups is a great way to solidify your connections, as this initiates discussions that enable you to showcase your knowledge and experience in a particular field.
2. Twitter
After LinkedIn, Twitter is another powerful social selling tool for B2B salespeople. Specifically, the platform’s Lists feature enables you to pay attention to content from specific accounts or groups. If you’re looking to bolster your sales strategy with Twitter lists, these three steps are essential:
Step 1: Find Prospects
To expand your prospect pool, search for potential customers or leads on Twitter and add them to a private list. This will prevent competitors from seeing who you’re targeting, but those on the list won’t know they’ve been selected as prospects. It’s a win-win situation. Monitor the content posted by your private list and interact when necessary. But don’t get too friendly, given that you don’t have a preexisting connection with them.
Step 2: Network with Existing Customers
A strong connection with existing customers is essential to making new sales. Utilize Twitter lists to keep up-to-date on their activities, such as what they post and the conversations they’re following. This can strengthen relationships or even open doors for new opportunities.
You can list your current customers publicly, but make sure you didn’t sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or are in an industry that requires confidentiality.
That way, potential consumers can glance at the existing brands that have already done business with you and gain valuable insight into your services. Additionally, don’t just like their tweets for the sole purpose of being polite; rather, comment when there is genuine value to be added.
Step 3: Monitor Competitors
Monitoring competitors also helps you stay ahead of the game. Create a Twitter list that includes your competitors and other industry experts or influencers in your field. Analyze their content to identify areas where you can improve your services and differentiate yourself from them. Additionally, watch for changes in their strategies so that you can adapt yours accordingly.
3. Other Platforms
Undoubtedly, there are many other social media networks to browse, including Facebook, which has almost ten times as many users as LinkedIn. Still, typically, sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit aren’t the best choices for sales-related activities. On these platforms, most users refrain from engaging with business issues, as they’re intended for discussing social issues and connecting with friends and family.
14 Best Social Selling Practices That Work

