How to Use Social Media to Make Sales

Source: http://bit.ly/10bxMmK

What is Social Media?Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as:

“A group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.”•Social media marketing- the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites.•Social sales-Process of helping social buyers become customers.

Most Used Social Media Networks

• “Facebook makes the world open by letting people stay connected with friends and family, discover what’s going on, and to share what matters to you.

• “Twitter is a social micro-blogging network that limits 140 characters to openly message and communicate with anyone or brand.”

• “Pinterest in an online pinboard. Organize and share things you love.”

• “LinkedIn connects professionals to make them successful.”• “YouTube offers greater reach of both popular and hard to

reach audiences with solutions to engage them in authentic, meaningful video ways.”

Why Social Media Networks Are Important

1 billion+ monthly active users as of December 2012 and 618 million daily active users on average.

500 million total users, 200 million monthly active users, 400 million monthly visitors, and 400 million tweets.

48.7 million total users, average time spent on Pinterest per visit is 14.2 minutes.

200 million members worldwide available in 19 languages with over 2.8 million LinkedIn company business pages.

1 billion monthly subscribers worldwide, 1 billion views a day on mobile, and over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month.

*Over 200 social networking sites out there!

Join a Community and Build a Persona

• An integral part of the sales process is getting to know your prospects and establishing relationships.

• Turns out that social media can help you accomplish this.• Show your network that you’re a trustworthy resource. • Create a persona that’s likeable within that community.• 3 most successful social drip marketing networks are 1:1.

Trends, open architecture, lists,

#hashtags, retweet, favorite, reply, mention, DM

Groups, professional connections, discuss,

endorse, recommend, like, business news,

messages, inbox, mention

Story, personable, facebook chat,

messages, targeted advertising, like, tag,

comment, groups

Social Sales Funnel

Blog Website

Social Media Honeycomb Services

Determine the Best Way to Connect With Prospects

• Facebook: Best business to connect with consumers and telling personalized stories through images. Ability to use Facebook Advertising for targeted demographics with small budget.

• LinkedIn: Is the appropriate platform for sales of business-to-business services to connect with professionals or discuss. Advertising for targeted demographics with small budget.

• Twitter: can be used for all kinds of sales based on keyword researches, topical twitter chats, following new people and “warm-up tweeting,” open architecture, and lists. Paid options such as Promoted Tweets, Trends, and Accounts are an effective way to draw in new followers and even target your competition.

*Have an email signature and business card including social media networks.

• Friend, Follow, or connect with profiles that match your clients.• Conduct searches on social networking sites or resources like

socialmention.com to find people who are talking about your industry or are using related keywords.

• Join event groups and associations on Linkedin. For example:• IAEE-International Association of Exhibitions and Events• GSAE-Georgia Association of Association Executives• SGMP Georgia Peach-Society of Government Meeting Planners

• Then comment on their posts, “retweet” them, answer a question, or share something they say.

• By contributing to their conversation you add value to their network and in return they may engage back with you.

Build A Relationship• Salespeople must develop relationships more than developing

leads, because good relationships will turn into leads.• Engage in meaningful conversations with content posted.• Once you develop a relationship, you can tell the prospect

how our service might be something they want or need.

Engage in A Conversation• Social intelligence: ability to put ourselves in somebody else's shoes and see

the world from their perspective.• The real value of social media is that it can boost our social intelligence.• “Here are some solutions to your problem, maybe our service can help.”• Contribute to a conversation they are already having with their social

network and share content that they will find useful.• Make everything shareable with social media plugins.• Give thanks when necessary and reward referrals.• Engage in weekly conversation twitter chats. For example, event planners

engage in chats like #eventprofs, #speakchat, #engage365, #assnchat, #luxchat, and #weddingmarket.

Influencer Marketing• Allows you to reach your

influencers who ignite word-of-mouth advocacy programs for your brand.

• Concept is to focus on those individuals and leaders who may have 1,000’s of Facebook friends, 1,000’s of Twitter followers, are a news figures, or are celebrities.

• These people do something to cause an action or behavior change in a significant number of people that favors the brand we represent.

Deploy Social Media as a Service• Help people use social intelligence and make recommendations.• Deliver services worth recommending (general contractors, rooms).• Hear someone give a problem=SOLVE; See a question=ANSWER.• Give yourself an opportunity to send a relevant response, then you

are truly engaging. Reply to people talking about events.• A happily engaged customer=a perfect lead.

Your Posts• Keep it Short under 100 characters if possible.• Be Visual: Photos get a 100% more engagement.• Ask for what you want and post daily for consistency.• Find the best time to post and then stick with that time.• Have a variety of posts: provide professionalism and personal

interests or hobbies.• Make posts that are shareable, give advice, warn, amuse, inspire

and amaze… don’t be boring.• Do not focus on pitching until you have built a relationship by

educating, helping, or engaging in a conversation.• Add links to your website and shorten them using

https://bitly.com/.

The “Cheat Sheet” 7 Steps to Social Sales

Every Day in 15 minutesAsk one person you talk to in a day to “Would you please like the our Facebook page to stay connected with us? We are providing services to better relationships with people for our new social media program. I would greatly appreciate it!” a status, connect with someone, retweet, or follow someone.Post an intriguing piece of content for your target market.Respond to any past messages and continue the conversation.Engage with someone new in a social conversation like #eventprofs on Twitter or ask a question in a LinkedIn Group.Monitor a social conversation and filter out the “noise” to hone in on what's relevant, take notes.Provide customer value by participating in the right conversations, right time with the right intelligence from insights and notes.

Formulas to Measure Social Media Benefits Per Month

12) Sales Value - Social Leads (One-Time or Life-time Value):

GOAL: Grow Revenue, Generate Leads, Acquire New Customers

_____(#) qualified online social leads identifiedX _____% lead-to-customer conversion rateX $_____ (AOV) average order value________________________________= $ Lead Sales Value (Single Purchase)

Example: Estimated 100 qualified leads routed to sales teams with a typical lead-to-conversion rate of 4% at an average order value (AOV) of $2,500 = $10,000 equivalent converted lead sales value (single-purchase)

14) Sales Value - Social-Aided Conversion:

GOAL: Grow Revenue, Boost Conversion

( _____% new conversion rate − _____% old conversion rate)/ _____% old conversion rateX $_____ average # monthly products sold X $_____ average product sales value__________________________________= Increased Sales Value

Example: Estimated conversion rate increase from 2% to 3.5% with an average 100 monthly products sold at $750 = $32,142 more in monthly product sales

What is the ROI of Social Media?Grow Revenue Reduce Costs Improve Satisfaction

• Leads• Conversion• Sales• Customer

Retention

• Advertising (ad impressions, clicks, traffic)

• Content (articles, reviews)• Media (videos, photos)• Resource staffing• Market Research (surveys, focus

groups)• Product Development• Public Relations• Communications

• Survey Feedback Score

• Positive Sentiment/Complaint Count

• American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

• Perfect Orders• Returns

Questions?

Tweet me at @BenjaminKepnerConnect with me on LinkedinCheck out my blog at http://bkstrategic.com/

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