Social Selling Guide for 2024

Let’s break down the social selling process into manageable steps that can be easily implemented:

Step 1: Start with relevant social channels

Start your social selling journey by identifying and focusing on the social media platforms most visited by your target audience.

It could be LinkedIn for B2B prospects or Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for a younger B2C audience.

Example: Since SBB falls in the B2B space, I focus almost all my efforts on LinkedIn.

Step 2: Create a list of potential customers:

Based on your demographic and psychographic profiles, you identify potential prospects who show interest in your products or services or whose needs match your offering.

Remember: we invest time in these leads, so it’s essential that we focus on quality over quantity.

Create a spreadsheet or Trello Board and write down a list of potential customers or companies.

From there, find the decision maker you want to connect with!

Step 3: Connect, follow and interact with content

Once you’ve identified your potential customers, follow their social media profiles (or connect with them) and engage with their content.

By responding to messages, sharing relevant content, and offering insights, you can build rapport and build a relationship with your potential customers.

Two quick tips for this step:

• When I connect with someone on LinkedIn, I engage with their most recent message, follow them, and then send a targeted introductory message.
• There is no “fixed” number for how much you should engage with their content, but ideally you should be in a place where they engage with your content (the next step).

Step 4: Create your own valuable content

Establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry by producing and sharing high-quality content that educates, informs or entertains your potential customers.

This not only delivers value to your audience, but also encourages them to engage with your brand.

For example, I write 5-7 guides, observations, stories and opinions on LinkedIn every week.

Step 5: Nurture the prospects

There are several ways to do this, but the goal is to provide your potential customers with useful, actionable information.

Did they ask a question? Respond to their message and expand on it via a blog that you send them a DM.

Have they published an article on their website? Share it, leave a thoughtful comment and send your thoughts in a DM.

Nurturing your prospects shows them that you genuinely care about their business and are invested in helping them succeed.

Step 6: Have the conversation offline

The timing of this step cannot be overstated.

You must have taken care of them properly, or you’ll mess it up.

Remember, the worst thing you can do is try to sell them too early.

It’s not called ‘Social Selling’ for nothing: the selling part comes after building trust and building a relationship.

In most cases, these conversations arise naturally.

However, don’t be afraid to try one of these strategies to push them through the funnel.

1. Build a newsletter and get them (and other prospects) to sign up.
2. Invite them to a webinar that you think they would find useful.
3. Launch a podcast and feature it as a guest.
4. Collaborate on a piece of content.
5. Conduct an audit and provide feedback on X, Y, Z.