by Stephanie Goodman

As mentioned in my previous blogs, partnering social media with your sales strategy is a great way to generate more leads and connect with more prospects. There are, however, parts of your personal Linkedin profile that use can utilize in order to help your company’s sales efforts. After reading the book ‘The Social Media Sales Revolution,” I’ve summarized a few points that can be valuable for sales and marketing professionals.

• Use your promotions section if you want to sell: Although posting valuable information to your customers is important (and it may happen to lead them to your company’s website) avoid making your updates too “sales-like.” Promote yourself with direction and do not over do it. Utilize the promotions section if you want to make a blatant sales pitch
• Join groups: By being a part of strategic Linkedin groups you will have greater chances of connecting with people you want to meet. Don’t begin joining upwards of 10-20 groups a day. Once again, have a direction and make sure you have good reason or motif for joining a group. IF you join one to sell, the owner of the group will have the right to remove you from it

From our experience at VA Partners, we find the following practices to bring us success:

• Stay active and make it consistent. Although it may be hard to find the time during the day, log onto Linkedin for at least 15 minutes daily in order to catch up on what is happening (i.e. articles, blog, updates, discussions, etc).
• Connect with one new person a day. This may seem like a lot, so if you get stuck, pull out your business cards and start searching for people you are not already connected to.
• Post an update to your profile at least twice a week. You are visiting Linkedin for valuable information, so you should pay it forward and be sharing valuable information at the same time. Look for articles, blog or updates that your followers or circle of connections may find useful (i.e. topics that are most related to your industry).

For more information on how you can prospect for sales using Social Media visit our website . Contact us  with any questions or further information or follow us on Linkedin for information on Sales, Marketing and Social Media.