"Social media creates kinship between companies and customers and kinship equals purchase intent"

-Jay Baer

This is our last post in our social selling blog series. We've covered a lot of ground and with some luck, inspired you to begin your own social selling journey. As a wrap-up, I thought I'd share with you the three most important things to focus on when you start social selling. We've talked about these before, but I wanted to end with a summary of our most important social selling strategy points:

Social Selling Focus #1: Create your own social selling brand through the content you publish.

The breakthrough moment for me was when I understood I didn't have to write a complete blog post to be effective. I could share other people's content to make my point. Instantly, the pressure was off. In many ways, sharing curated content was a much better way for me to get a broad set of ideas into my social community. It really got exciting when we started adding video to our content mix. It made a difference to our customers and our performance metrics really went up. Also, look for content to share that's more than a blog post. Infographics, eBooks, or even industry reports are great content elements. Just be a curious reader and you'll find great content to share.

Social Selling Focus #2: Join social conversations relevant to your business and contribute

I think we're all in a "learning for life" environment and interacting with a digital social group is particularly rewarding. Joining social conversations in LinkedIn is easy. Just search the topics of interest to you and chances are you'll find several options. Being part of social conversations is a great way to source content for your own posts but it also provides you an opportunity to comment, "like," or even introduce your own observations. Like so many things, the more you put into it the more you get out of it.

Social Selling Focus #3: Build your network with care and credibility

Building your own social selling network, especially in LinkedIn, is fun. Not only do you get a chance to reconnect with old colleagues and friends, but you also get the chance to extend your network to people at other companies. When you're adding new members to your network, always remember to introduce yourself with a note and point out why you want to network with them. Providing shared values or shared experiences is an excellent way to make a great first impression. If you're really into planning and scheduling, try to connect with two new people every day.

Be patient and don't expect 100% conversions. But you'll have some magic happen.

Social selling is important for top sales teams. It's easier than you think and more profitable than you can imagine. Enjoy your journey!