The dynamics of selling are changing thanks to social media, and that’s a good thing. Today’s customers know what they want and are willing to go out and look for it, often using social media to do so. That means you have access to a pool of customers who are looking for businesses just like yours.

Social selling, the art of selling on social media, is a valuable tool that you can use to attract leads, form strong connections, and ultimately make more sales. The key to social selling is to ditch the sales pitch in favor of showing your customers how useful and relevant you are. When you demonstrate your usefulness, you attract customers who want what you are selling.

It’s clear that you need to make yourself useful on social media. Here are 5 steps you can take to make sure that when your customers find you, they find unforgettable value.

1. Understand Your Own Value

If you want to attract leads, you need to get really clear on why your customers should choose you. That means you need a clear understanding of the value of your products and services. It’s all too easy to express your value in terms of “this product is well made” or “this service is excellent value for money”, or even to focus on the practical points of what your product does. Of course these all matter – if your customer isn’t clear on what your product does they are unlikely to buy it – but they are just the foundation when it comes to establishing your value.

Your customers expect excellence and value as standard. Ask yourself what else you can offer. What makes your product stand out? Start with these two points:

• What specifically does your product or service offer your customers? In what way does it solve a problem or make their live better? Keep your focus on what they want and need.
• What sets you apart from the competition? Why should your customers choose you over a similar business? Remember that a better price is not enough – what else do you offer?

Once you understand your own value, you can better understand how that meshes with the desires of your customers, and communicate that clearly to them.

2. Make A Good First Impression

The name of the game is attracting leads. Part of that is making sure that when your customers find you on social media, they immediately like what they see. Consider social media to be your online place of business. Customers wouldn’t stay in a physical location that wasn’t welcoming, with everything they want clearly posted. The same is true of your online premises.

The information you include on your social media profiles creates a powerful impression of your business, so make sure it’s a good one. A customer arriving at your social pages should get an immediate feel for who you are, and how your business is relevant to them.

Here are some things to include for a positive impression:

• A tagline or description that clearly explains who you are and what you do
• Aesthetically pleasing color choices that match your brand colors
• Your logo clearly displayed
• All information on your page fully filled out

Your customers will also expect to find regular posts from you. A page that appears active and that is educational and useful to them is more likely to entice them to stay. Last but not least, remember to tie all this together with a strong brand voice. A strong brand voice makes your business distinctive and gets your point across in a way that makes you memorable.

Aim to immediately give your customers a clear sense of your brand personality, what you do, and most importantly, what you can do for them.

3. Join Conversations

Social media is all about conversations. By joining the right conversations and showing yourself to be a useful participant, you’ll establish yourself as valuable to your customers. That means that when it’s time to buy a product or service like yours, they’ll remember you.

Talk to your followers and interact with the people who comment to you. Attract customers with useful content, and try asking some questions to learn more about them and their needs. Joining conversations starts on your own profiles, but it doesn’t end there.

Try searching for mentions of your brand on social media. If you find a conversation about you, be willing to join in. Perhaps you’ll be able to answer a question, resolve a problem, or simply thank a customer for their time and the good things they said about you. You can make finding customers outside your network easier with GrowSocially App; manage mentions of your brand, competitors, relevant keywords, and social profile’s to find the people you most need to talk to.

Making a valuable contribution to conversations raises awareness of your business, as well as showing your knowledge, expertise, and brand personality.

4. Make Your Content Count

Content is your chance to inform, help, entertain and offer solutions. Content you can share on social media includes:

• Blog posts
• White papers
• Videos
• Images
• Infographics
• Statistics or data
• Podcasts
• Lists
• Product reviews
• …and more!

The best kind of content will vary depending on your goal.

No matter what kind of content you choose, make it count. That means every piece of content should be tailored to your social media audience, and worth their attention. If your customers love seeing your content, they’re more likely to stick around and engage with your brand.

Your content can show your value in many ways. You can solve a problem, answer a question, entertain your customers, give them information that they can apply in their lives, show them how to do something, make them laugh, make them think, demonstrate your products or let them know something about your business.

5. Be Responsive and Helpful

Your customers expect quick and helpful responses when they connect on social media. Whether they comment to a post, mention you in their own posts, or take it off social media and email you, they’re looking for acknowledgement and a satisfactory response.

By replying to customers in a timely manner, you let them know that they matter to you. Be graceful when responding to both complaints and compliments. If a customer has a complaint, go out of your way to solve it, accepting responsibility and fixing the problem as soon as you can. If they have a compliment, thank them for it – engaged and happy customers make wonderful brand ambassadors.

Part of the joy of social media is the chance to really engage with your customers. Building up a good rapport and demonstrating excellent customer service promotes a favorable view of your brand. If customers like you and like how you deal with them, they’re more likely to come back for more.

Good customer service extends to new customers too. New customers don’t know your brand well yet, so make sure the impression they get is a good one. Treat every person who approaches your brand with respect and show willingness to help, and you’ll build a positive reputation that precedes you.

Social media provides a wealth of opportunities to connect with customers. If you want to attract leads on social media, make yourself useful and give them a reason to do business with you.

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