Social Selling – The most helpful tools for long-term customer commitment
Corporate Influencer
Posted 22 Sep 2020
Social selling has become a successful method of acquiring and retaining new customers over the last few years. Social Selling has not only replaced the previously used method of cold acquisition but has also overtaken it greatly in terms of success rate.
In our last article on Social Selling, we discussed the approach behind the principle.
In this article, we will introduce you to useful tools that will make it easier for you to handle social selling in your company and ensure long-term customer loyalty.
You might also be interested in this: How to use social selling for your own lead generation.The key principles of Social Selling.
Social Selling is the utilization of your online business profiles, which can be used to actively build a network of people with similar industry interests and to share and discuss interesting content with them. The goal of this method is to win customers or to bind existing customers by providing them with valuable information. Likewise, potential customers gain valuable insights into the company’s expertise and build trusting relationships with industry experts.
Are you interested in more detailed information about the goals of social selling? Read more in our blog post.
If you focus your customer acquisition on the principle of Social Selling, it quickly becomes clear how time-consuming this approach can be. With researching and formulating suitable and targeted content for your follower base, interacting with the community, measuring success, and regularly adjusting your content. This results in a wide range of different task fields.
Several tools can help to simplify these tasks and increase the reach and interaction on individual posts faster.
Examples of social management tools:
With Sendible, all social media profiles can be managed through one platform. Social media monitoring and management tools allow users to manage and schedule social media posts all at once. Sendible also provides the option to plan and set up posts across platforms and link your e-mail account to the system.
Sendible is suitable for small to medium-sized companies.
Hootsuite is an option for those who want to dive deeper into the subject of Social Selling. With numerous add-ons, from social listening and content recommendations to notifications when your company is mentioned, Hootsuite offers all possibilities to successfully integrate Social Selling in your company. Depending on the add-on, there are additional costs you need to pay. We recommend you to discuss your needs and goals with your marketing advisor before using Hootsuite.
Due to the customizable add-ons, both small and large companies can use Hootsuite.
Buffer is a minimalistic and simple solution for companies that want to get familiar with social media planning and social selling.
The solution offers all of the features you need to systematically manage and analyze your social media channels. Additionally, Buffer offers the tool, Pablo. With Pablo, you can create and share visual graphics for your channels.
Employee advocacy plays a key role in Social Selling because the company’s employees are established as brand ambassadors on social media. The goal is to give the company a personal touch, show expertise, and position the company as a thought leader.
To keep the results of your employee advocacy strategy at a glance and to be able to provide all relevant information quickly, there are also useful tools that make it easier to establish your brand ambassadors.
LinkedIn Elevate is an extension of the social business network, LinkedIn. With the use of Elevate, relevant content in social media can be seen and shared faster and easier by your employees. Cross-posting will increase the reach of individual posts. Content can be shared not only on LinkedIn but also on Twitter.
As Elevate is only available for companies with 80 or more employees, it is geared towards, medium to larger-sized companies.
Oktopost is a 3-in-1 solution which is exclusively designed for B2B companies. The solution allows the posting and scheduling of social media posts and sharing those among employees to generate reach. Oktopost also offers the possibility to create social media campaigns directly on the platform.
Sociabble is a tool that combines features like content generation, tracking, and a learning module. Through the playful concept, employees receive scoring points depending on the actions (shared or liked posts), which are reflected in a ranking. Small quizzes increase the employees’ knowledge in the field of Social Selling. The concept improves employee commitment and motivation. Also, every employee has access to their dashboard that shows social media performances. For the company, this results in a central platform where the whole performance is visible.
Social Selling is a sustainable possibility to establish new and long-term relationships with customers, as discussed in our last article.
But even this long-term strategy needs time, know-how, and continuous evaluation to achieve success.
Many tools can help you to save a lot of time and deliver results faster. When it comes to choosing a tool, it is helpful to get advice from marketing experts on which provider suits your company.
If you are interested in the use of social selling and want to know which tools will work best for your company, we are happy to help you find out.
Melanie Kehl
Marketing Assistant at HBI Helga Bailey GmbH – International PR & MarCom
Melanie Kehl has been in charge of HBI’s internal marketing activities since 2017. As a student in the field of online marketing, she is responsible for the implementation of SEA and SEO campaigns, setting up landing pages, and writing articles.
