An Introduction to B2B Social Selling through LinkedIn & Twitter

An Introduction to B2B Social Selling through LinkedIn & TwitterIn my time with VA Partners thus far, the aspect of social selling is something that caught my attention very quickly, as I believe that if done right, it has the potential to eclipse the more traditional sales tactics that have long been used in the B2B world (if it hasn’t already!). I’ll give you an introduction to B2B social selling to gain more leads.

There are a plethora of social media platforms at your disposal to get started with B2B social selling, however I believe that the most appropriate platforms for most B2B companies are Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Using Twitter

Twitter can be used to understand the types of things that your prospects care about by watching who they follow and what they tweet about or favourite.  You can retweet or favourite their posts to help nurture the connection as well (everybody loves a retweet!). Popular tools like Hootsuite can help you manage your Twitter account and create lists to segment your followers into useful categories (e.g. suppliers, customers, prospects, partners, etc.)

Using LinkedIn

With LinkedIn, you can search for relevant contacts from the organizations that may be interested in your product or service, and invite them to connect.  You can leverage the over 20 million groups on LinkedIn to join discussions and stay abreast of the issues affecting your customers and prospects.  As proven by this recent blog post from our friends at Sales for Life, you can even use LinkedIn to help drastically improve your SEO efforts. If you’re still looking for other ways to use LinkedIn for your social selling, check out this white paper we’ve created to get you using LinkedIn for Sales.

Content is King

Based on what you’ve learned about your prospects through these platforms, you can now offer them valuable information or content that will help them through your sales funnel. You don’t want to push your product or services on them through social media, you want to arm your prospect with the information they need to make a purchasing decision on their own.  The content you choose to share should be informational in nature, and not “salesy,” but it should subtly reinforce that you are the best choice for that decision.

I’d love to hear your comments on my short introduction to B2B social selling or any success stories you’ve had with through Twitter or LinkedIn.  Comment below or connect with me on LinkedIn to continue the discussion!

An Introduction to B2B Social Selling through LinkedIn & Twitter