In this article:

1. How to Become a Social Media Expert
2. The 7 Levels of Social Media Mastery
3. Social Media Mastery in More Detail

Go Up These 7 Levels To Become A Social Media Expert

How to Become a Social Media Expert

If you have not figured social media strategies yet, you’re definitely not alone. Social media has become such a hot topic in the digital marketing word that everybody’s talking about it, but most people still don’t really know how to leverage it effectively.

XANT President and Founder Ken Krogue spent years researching and testing social media strategies for businesses. He has identified seven levels of social media mastery that will help you increase awareness and inspire others to take action.

Krogue describes these seven levels in an article titled “How to Be a Social Media Missionary” on Forbes. In his article, he likens true social media success to evangelism, citing high-profile evangelists such as Guy Kawasaki, Lindsey Stirling, and LinkedIn’s Koka Sexton.

The 7 Levels of Social Media Mastery

Level 1: Core

Krogue outlines seven steps you can take to create a solid social media core to build on, including defining your purpose, forming a plan, and completing your profile. He also offers tips for sharing real content on your social media accounts – on your Instagram stories, YouTube channel, live videos, and more – that will resonate with your audience as well as build engagement by making thought-provoking comments.

Level 2: Coach

Once you and your team understand the required social media skills, it’s time to practice them until you perfect them. Krogue says a coach sticks with something until it is mastered, no matter how many times the learning process must be repeated.

Level 3: Curate

Organize other people’s content in a way that allows your audience to gain maximum benefit from it. Shape the story so that it’s easy to follow and people remain eager to see what happens next.

Level 4: Contribute

Create your own original content based on your expertise. This is how you establish yourself as a thought leader.

Level 5: Campaign

Pull everything together in a way that inspires people to take action. You can use Krogue’s famous CLOSERS model to design effective campaigns.

Level 6: Collaborate

Entertainers often collaborate on projects, like YouTube videos, to leverage one another’s brands and reach larger audiences than they could reach on their own. Steal a page from the entertainer’s playbook and team up with somebody who has a bigger — or different — audience than you do. It’s a win-win.

Level 7: Consult

Once you have proven that you can perform the first six levels of social media mastery, it’s time to help others succeed with social media, too. It also helps to know the do’s and don’ts of social media marketing to reach level 7 mastery.

Social Media Mastery in More Detail

As most people struggle to get past the 6 core skills, let’s look in more detail at level 1: (Core) for more social media mastery insight.

The 6 core skills and basics of social media mastery are: –

1. Complete (7 P’s)
2. Content (6 B’s)
3. Community
4. Connect
5. Comment
6. Call to Action

Skill 1: Complete.

Use the 7 P’s to ensure you master this skill.

1. Purpose – outline your purpose and ask yourself why you use social media.
2. Platform – select your platform, for example, Facebook for personal use, and LinkedIn for business.
3. Plan – do some research and find how-to guides, top tricks, etc. for more social media mastery.
4. Prepare – gain knowledge and experience from experts to prepare your resources.
5. Prioritize – prioritize your resources and categorize connections, for example, groups to follow on Facebook.
6. Profile – Match your profile with your purpose and combine your plans so far.
7. Persist – continually work on your plan daily or at least weekly.

Skill 2: Content.

Create content for your profile, which can be done by following the 6 B’s:

1. Bio – let everyone know who you are.
2. Background – why should people believe in you?
3. Backstory – this is the deeper content of your history.
4. Beliefs – why are you unique and what are your opinions?
5. Bridge – provide common links to make new connections.
6. Benefits – why should people follow you?

Skill 3: Community.

What is a community? A community is a group of people with common experiences or interests.

Consider joining communities from as far back as you can remember and move to your present, then you can plan for your future. For example, family, friends, work, school friends etc. What common interests do you have with these communities that can support your social media?

Skill 4: Connect.

Connect using existing relationships, and don’t connect to people everywhere just ‘for the sake of it’.

Skill 5: Comment.

Make thoughtful comments to interact, using open questions or requesting feedback.

Skill 6: Call to Action.

The easiest way to do this is to ask a question or provoke a response.

This blog post provides a brief summary of the ideas Krogue discusses in his Forbes article. Read the full article now.

Do these seven levels of mastery help your aim to become a social media master? How are you planning to use your social media channels in your business? Share your thoughts below!

Up Next:

• SOCIAL SELLING | A BASIC GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS
• 4 BEST PRACTICES FOR INCORPORATING TWITTER INTO YOUR PROSPECTING SEQUENCE
• SHOULD ONLY 14% OF LINKEDIN CONNECTION REQUESTS BE PERSONALIZED?

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on September 30, 2014, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

RELATED: Social Selling | A Basic Guide For Beginners

In this article:

1. The Act of Kindness in Social Selling
2. Social Selling Definition
3. How My Small Gesture Meant a Lot to Someone
4. Give so Much They Can’t Ignore You
5. Specific Actions to Get You Started
6. One Surprising Psychological Secret
7. Kid Tested, Mother Approved
8. Social Selling with Social Media
9. The Law of Reciprocity and Social Selling: Additional Tips

The Law of Reciprocity in Social Selling

Law of Reciprocity Definition: A principle of returning a favor to someone who has helped you before.

This simple law in social psychology is something you can apply during your sales process. Plus, it adds a touch of genuineness in your connections with potential customers.

The Act of Kindness in Social Selling

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop

It is indeed true that the act of kindness in humanity is like the law of reciprocity, which also applies in social selling. I will discuss it thoroughly in this article to help you learn more about this principle.

Social Selling Definition

Before anything else, let’s start by defining what exactly social selling is.

What is Social Selling? This is the part of the sales process where you build relationships with your prospects.

Social selling hinges on how the prospect develops a trust and bond with the salesperson. With social selling, salespeople feel less like robots peddling goods to actual human beings looking to help.

How My Small Gesture Meant a Lot to Someone

Early in my career, I worked as a copywriter at a marketing agency. I met an account manager who wrote surprisingly eloquent emails.

One day, while browsing the bookstore, I spotted some writing books in the bargain bin. The next morning, I left a couple of these books on her desk.

Soon after, her husband landed a job at ESPN, and she moved to Connecticut. Years passed, and I lost touch with her.

Until out of the blue, I received an envelope in the mail from my old friend, Lori Paulenich. It contained an autographed picture of Chris Berman, the legendary ESPN sportscaster and my childhood idol.

I had forgotten about the books, but Lori had not.

My small gesture meant a lot to her because it gently nudged her toward her dream of writing professionally.

She is now a senior communications strategist in the financial services industry, and I could not be more proud of her.

This is just one of many times in my life when I have been deeply touched by the incredible power of the universal law of reciprocity.

If you’ve ever felt a strong desire to repay another person’s kindness, you probably understand the value of this international law.

To master social selling, you must first learn to leverage the law of reciprocity in an authentic, ethical way.

When you practice the principles outlined in this article, you will quickly be amazed by how many doors or career services it will open for you.

Give So Much They Can’t Ignore You

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar

Steve Martin, the beloved comedian and actor, famously said, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

In social selling, that translates to:

Give so much they can’t ignore you.

Be so kind, so helpful, so thoughtful, so useful, and so generous with your talents, your resources, your network, your time, and your praise that people cannot help but notice you, like you, trust you, and yearn to see you succeed. This is what givers gain.

Effective social selling begins with the fundamental belief that your real job is to bless as many other lives as possible.

Social selling involves winning people’s trust by showing them you are willing to help them without an expectation or asking for anything in return.

That’s the beauty of the law of reciprocity in business. It works best when your generosity is genuine.

We’re not talking about a quid pro quo agreement where everything is negotiated upfront.

Let people surprise you with their imagination. What they come up with when they apply positive reciprocity will probably be 10 times better than anything you would have requested.

RELATED: 10 Social Selling Books To Help You Close Deals In Digital

Specific Actions to Get You Started

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

How you bless other people’s lives will depend on your interests, abilities, resources, and talents.

If you really want to make a difference, just show people you have faith in them. Make it abundantly clear that you believe in their abilities.

That’s the single most powerful thing you can do for another human being, and it won’t cost you a penny.

Amanda Holmes says her father, the late, great sales and leadership visionary Chet Holmes, exuded more passion for his clients’ dreams than anybody else ever had in their lives.

That was one of Chet’s secrets to connecting with people and helping them rise to new heights.

Examples of specific actions you can take include:

1. Stalking Them

If you want to do something meaningful for other people, you must first learn what matters to them. Start social selling on social media by following their social accounts, set up Google Alerts for their names, and pay attention to the content they share and the people they interact with.

Take notes on their favorite sports teams, industry topics, professional achievements, and hobbies.

2. Giving LinkedIn Recommendations

Highlight the personal and professional traits they aspire to embody and the goals and dreams they strive for every day. Align your comments with their most cherished values and goals.

Who do they want to be? How do they want to be seen?

Tell the world they are already these things. This is a good step in building LinkedIn social selling.

3. Sharing Their Content

Find something they have written or a piece of news coverage that features them. Share this content on LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social sites.

Tag them in your posts, so they know you’re sharing this stuff.

4. Send Them Relevant Information and News

If you see an article they might find highly relevant and useful, shoot them a link with a personalized note. This is a great way to stay in touch with somebody – and provide value – without killing too much time.

5. Encourage, Congratulate, and Thank

Send people notes of encouragement, congratulations, and thanks. Former Campbell Soup CEO Douglas Conant wrote 30,000 thank-you notes in a 10-year span and credits this practice with helping to re-engage employees and revitalize the company.

6. Provide Introductions

Introduce them to others in your network they might like to meet.

Don’t wait for them to ask or request from you. Be proactive in your action.

7. Offer Referrals

If you really want to make an impression, send somebody a business referral without asking for anything in return. I promise you they will remember that.

8. Sending Meaningful Gifts

The emphasis here is on meaningful. The dollar value of the gift is irrelevant.

In fact, if you send somebody a gift they consider too expensive, that might actually make them feel uncomfortable. It’s way better to zero in on a gift that aligns with their interests, goals, passions, and values.

Let’s say you find out your friend has just won a major industry award, and you know he’s a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Send him a hand-drawn caricature of himself in a Steelers jersey being doused with Gatorade.

Any time you can make somebody laugh or promote positive emotions on someone while simultaneously boosting that person’s confidence, you are making a huge emotional impact and influence that is hard to forget.

Crush a Pinocchio-themed piñata with your bare hands. Just kidding. Just wanted to make sure you were still reading. #booyah

9. Helping Someone Close to Them

What if the people you’re trying to reach are too busy and too fortressed for you to do them a favor? That’s easy.

Just find somebody they know, like an assistant, partner, colleague, confidant, friend, spouse, yoga instructor, or hair stylist. With a little creativity, you can find a way to positively impact any person on the planet.

10. Doing a Good Deed Daily

The important thing is to form a habit of doing good deeds every day. Then, you won’t have to think so hard about your choices and actions.

They will just become a natural part of your routine.

One Surprising Psychological Secret

Don’t hesitate to seek advice and also share what you’ve learned to other people.

“Ask for money, get advice. Ask for advice, get money twice.” – Pitbull

Avanoo CEO Daniel Jacobs moved to San Francisco with no money and no connections. He started sending cold emails to Fortune 500 executives in hopes they would mentor him in his career development.

He mentioned he admired specific actions they had taken or traits they had displayed publicly.

Many of these incredibly powerful, successful, busy people responded to his emails, saying they’d be happy to share what they’d learned.

The president of NBC, who became one of Jacobs’ mentors, told him that he agreed to meet with him because everybody else always asked for money or a job, but Jacobs had asked only for advice.

Oh, and by the way, Avanoo now counts NBC among its marquee clients. How’s that for a kawinkydink?

Why would I include this story in a discussion about the law of reciprocity? Jacobs didn’t do these execs any big favors, and, in fact, he asked them for something.

This story illustrates a key psychological principle that will make you a more effective social seller: people enjoy feeling useful.

Super successful people often harbor an intense desire to repay the universe for their good fortune by sharing their wisdom with the next generation.

They remember how hard they worked and all the mistakes they made, and it excites them when they see an ambitious youngster who reminds them of themselves when they were learning the ropes.

The world is full of Mr. Miyagis just waiting to teach you how to wax on and wax off.

Seek them out. Ask for their advice.

Make them feel useful.

You’ll learn lessons — and form friendships — that will pay dividends for the rest of your life.

Social sites, like LinkedIn and Twitter, make it easier than ever to find and communicate with mentors.

Kid Tested, Mother Approved

“That’s nice, dear.” – My mom

Giving and receiving good books is a family tradition. When I was in high school, my mom gave me her used copy of David Dunn’s “Try Giving Yourself Away.”

Dunn recommended writing letters to congratulate people on their accomplishments and thank them for their contributions.

So, being the nerdy, obedient boy I was at that time, I sat on my bed with a huge stack of Christmas cards and scribbled 300 personalized notes to my classmates.

I tried my best to say something unique in each card that would make my friends feel special – and make them smile.

I referenced past conversations we had shared, the movies we had watched together, or cool things they had done on a sports team or the drama club.

But, I never thought it was a big deal, and I never expected any of them to even mention receiving one of my cards.

The outcome? Throughout the Christmas break, I was overwhelmed by greetings of good cheer at the gym, in the grocery store, at fast-food restaurants, and everywhere else I went.

My close friends loved their handwritten cards. That much could be expected, I suppose.

But, what really surprised me was how students I didn’t know responded. People who had never before spoken to me tracked me down in the cafeteria or the hallway to express genuine gratitude for their cards and this kind gesture.

A couple of months later, my classmates nominated me for Mr. Bonneville, an annual competition at my school patterned after the Miss America Pageant.

Mr. Bonneville included a popular vote. After organizers counted the votes, a faculty member told me I had won.

I commented that it must have been close.

Without hesitation, she replied, “I never said it was close.”

The law of reciprocity strikes again.

Social Selling with Social Media

Nowadays, a lot of salespeople look to social media for networking and to establish a better connection and build trust with a potential customer.

Although half of the term of social selling is the word ‘selling,’ what you should focus more on is the first part.

Make sure you have good engagement on social media. You can do this by:

• Creating engaging and relevant content for your social media page/s
• Joining relevant groups that your target market is in, and participating actively in them
• Connecting directly to some of your prospects
• Engaging with posts or content related to your brand, whether created by you or not

The Law of Reciprocity and Social Selling: Additional Tips

Incorporating the law of reciprocity into your social selling strategy can be useful if you know what to do. To help supplement your knowledge of this selling technique, here are some tips you might be interested in following:

1. Reel Them In Before Trying to Build a Relationship

Before you take your relationship with a prospect to the next level, you should first make sure you do your due diligence. If you try and establish a connection with your prospect too soon, then you’re going to get outright rejected.

You have to first establish yourself as a person they’d be interested in. This is where the Law of Reciprocity comes in.

2. Always Do Your Research

Supplementing your actions with knowledge is always a good idea, even when social selling. The Law of Reciprocity is a look into human behavior.

Do your research on the psychographics and demographics of your target customer. By doing your research, you’ll have a better starting point when connecting with your prospects.

It’ll give you a better idea on what they need or want from a connection. In this way, you’ll know what they really need and what you can offer them.

For example, your prospect needs guidance in your particular niche. By creating high-quality content on your social media pages, your prospect will see you as an authority they can turn to for guidance.

Keep giving them high-quality content without expecting anything in return just yet. Once you‘ve proven yourself valuable and relevant, they might reciprocate and connect with you or accept your invitation to connect.

3. Note That Social Selling Is a Constant Process

Engaging with your audience isn’t something you should only do every once in a while. It’s something you do regularly, otherwise, you’re going to lose their attention.

Social selling is a part of your selling process and not an afterthought you do only when you want to.

Engage with your audience as much as possible. Be a constant presence in their journey.

When you show genuine interest in other people, they naturally become interested in you, and they will go out of their way to do nice things to help you win and succeed.

I hope the principles and strategies in this article will inspire you to take your social selling to a whole new level. Keep the law of reciprocity in mind, and do small things for others without expecting anything in return.

You might just be surprised at what kind of connections and opportunities these small acts of kindness open up for you.

What are your experiences with the law of reciprocity in helping others succeed? Share them in the comments section!

Up Next: 

• How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing B2B Social Selling
• How To Fit Social Selling Into Your Cadence Strategy
• How To Be Remarkable, Memorable And Compelling In A Remote Call

Free eBook: Cold Calling Is Dead, Thanks To LinkedIn

Learn to use LinkedIn for pre-call research that increases appointment rates to 16.7%.

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Related Content:

• LinkedIn InMail And Email Secrets For A 60% Response Rate
• 31 Twitter Tips, Tools, And Best Practices
• LinkedIn Social Selling Tips From Top Social Sellers
• Creating Epic Content On A Shoestring Budget

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on November 25, 2015, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

Gabe Larsen dives into why you should take the time to personalize your LinkedIn connection request, and teaches you how to send a connection request on LinkedIn. Keep reading to find out more.

RELATED: Social Selling and the Law of Reciprocity

In this article:

1. The Right Approach to Social Selling: LinkedIn Connection Request
2. LinkedIn Connection Request Etiquette: How You Can Personalize Your Response
   1. Make It About Them and Not About You
   2. Make Use of Referrals
   3. Seek Adviser Help
   4. Congratulate People
   5. Mention the Competitor

How to Customize a LinkedIn Connection Request

The Right Approach to Social Selling: LinkedIn Connection Request

Every day I spend 30 minutes on social selling. For this task, I mainly use LinkedIn.

I told myself before that each person who connects with me will get a personalized note or some sort of personalized interaction back. Frankly, I’m a little behind on this commitment.

I went through my 990 LinkedIn connection requests, which by the way, doesn’t mean I’m popular. It only means I’m behind in responding to these requests.

Yet, I noticed that most of these people haven’t taken the time to introduce themselves properly and tell me why they want to connect with me. To be honest, it’s such a small effort.

Of the 990, only 142 managed to include a personalized note with their connection request. That’s only 14% of all the connection requests I received.

How did we get to this practice of not making an effort to write a LinkedIn connection request message?

If you remember the movie Hitch, Will Smith’s character Hitch Hitchens approaches tabloid reporter Sara Melas (played by Eva Mendes). He personalized his approach, unlike the other guy before him.

That’s why when he left, she realized she wanted to interact with him more.

Social selling requires the same kind of approach. If you’re connecting with people on LinkedIn, you have to commit to it.

I know this is already overused, but it takes such little time.

If you connect, or if someone connects with you, take the time to personalize your response because I promise you, it’s worth it.

LinkedIn Connection Request Etiquette: How You Can Personalize Your Response

There are several ways how you can construct your LinkedIn connect script without sounding impersonal. Below are some tips you can use to help personalize your response on LinkedIn.

1. Make It About Them and Not About You

If you can find a topic to bring up, that makes all the difference. This could be something you have in common with the person, or something you think may interest them.

Once you find this, use it to personalize your LinkedIn connection request note.

2. Make Use of Referrals

Using referrals for better social selling

Referrals are always fantastic. You can have a mutual connection or somebody credible and valuable to the person refer you.

Use that in your intro, and it’s going to make all the difference.

RELATED: Social Selling | A Basic Guide for Beginners

3. Seek Adviser Help

This is a technique I use religiously. I use LinkedIn to source and schedule my podcast guests, so I regularly send messages to thought leaders and experts.

I normally start with, “I was able to check your LinkedIn profile, and I think you are someone my podcast listeners will learn a lot from. Any chance you’d be willing to guest on my podcast?”

I use that as an intro to have a conversation we can take into the sales cycle.

A lot of people ask why I host a podcast. The main reason why we have the Sales Secrets podcast is to build pipeline.

Using LinkedIn connection requests to ask people to help me out on my podcast makes a huge difference.

4. Congratulate People

This is always a good one. If someone changes their job or they’re hiring and you see a topic you can bring up in your note, use that for personalization.

5. Mention the Competitor

If you want to be a little vaguer, you can bring the competition in. Personally, I don’t mind reaching out to people and starting off with, “I was just talking to John Doe at Company XYZ…”

That’s always a great way to spark conversation.

There are lots of ways and opportunities for you to write LinkedIn connection request introductions that will lead to personalized conversations. When you connect with somebody, write a quick blurb introducing yourself and your purpose for connecting.

You should also make it a goal to spend time writing personalized messages back to people who connect with you. Those will go a long way.

You can also use technology to help you do this. We’ve actually got this awesome feature built right into our Playbooks product, which you can check out here.

Remember, LinkedIn can be powerful. Take a little bit of time writing a personalized LinkedIn connection request — it makes all the difference.

Don’t forget to apply the LinkedIn connection request etiquette you’ve learned, and you’ll be all set to make quality network connections.

What other best practices do you apply when it comes to social selling? We’d love to learn from you in the comments section below!

Up Next:

• 10 Social Selling Books to Help You Close Deals in Digital
• The 9 Best Sales Prospecting Tips and Techniques You Can Do Now
• 7 Sales Techniques That Actually Work

RELATED: The 7 Levels of Social Media Mastery

In this article:

1. Twitter Often Overlooked for Prospecting
   1. Set Up Your Twitter Profile with Prospecting in Mind
      1. Profile Picture and Background
      2. Handle
      3. Bio
      4. Stay Active
      5. Use Twitter Cards
   2. Be Proactive and Find Prospects
      1. Use the Right Hashtags
      2. Keep Up with Buzzwords
      3. Engage with Recommendations
   3. Engage and Build Relationships – Don’t Sell
      1. Engage with Influencers
      2. Build Your Twitter List
   4. Analyze and Refine Your Process
2. Keep It Omni-Channel

Best Ways to Use Twitter for Business

Twitter Often Overlooked for Prospecting

Email’s popularity as a prospecting channel is no secret. The Radicati Group estimates that we sent 281+ billion personal and professional emails per day in 2018, and 89% of marketers say that email is their primary channel for lead generation.

In contrast, only 12 out of every 100 sales executives use Twitter for business conversations. But, just because Twitter is often overlooked for prospecting doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. In fact, PipeCandy calls it “the best channel” they’ve found so far for one-on-one conversations with prospects.

If you really want to make sure you’re covering all the bases with your prospecting sequence, don’t ignore this important channel. Twitter is a great way for businesses to get leads into their sales funnel if they know how to do it right.

Sales Prospecting Definition: This refers to the first stage in the sales process that identifies prospects or potential customers. Its goal is to build a database of customers and communicate with them to convert them into current clients.

Here are four best practices to use Twitter for business and for incorporating it into your prospecting sequence today.

1. Set Up Your Twitter Profile with Prospecting in Mind

Set yourself up for success by making sure every aspect of your Twitter profile is leveraged to your business advantage. Here are a few key tips for setting up and maintaining your profile.

Profile Picture and Background

Keep your profile photo professional with a simple headshot or your brand’s logo. It’s also a good idea to create a custom header for your Twitter profile, giving you an additional branding opportunity.

Every month or so, change your header to reflect whatever is going on at your company, whether you’re running a sale or promoting an upcoming event.

Handle

Your 15-character Twitter handle (your @name) is how prospects identify and remember you, so make it count. (Your handle, or URL shortener, becomes your URL, too, making this name even more important.)

Don’t use numbers – they tend to make people think of “spam” – but do pick something that’s as close to your company’s name as possible. That way, you’ll be easy to find.

If you’re not 100% sure what you want your Twitter handle to be, go ahead and pick something anyway – 319 people sign up for a Twitter personal account every minute, so reserve a name now even if you might not use it later.

Bio

Rather than just a rote description of your company, use this space to show your target audience of what you do and how you can help them. It’s also essential to include a link to your website – after all, for most companies, that’s where the sales happen.

You can consider including your location and business hours, too, if relevant.

Stay Active

It’s critical to keep your Twitter business account active, especially for your ad campaigns. Life is busy, and posting on a social network is often one of the first things to fall through the cracks.

Posting a blog post consistently is absolutely essential, though — valuable content makes people trust you, which in turn makes them more likely to buy from you.

To maintain active social media accounts with the least amount of effort, take advantage of a scheduling tool like Hootsuite for your campaign. Every Monday morning, spend 15 to 30 minutes to schedule your tweets for the week, and you’ll be good to go until the following week.

Pro Tip: Hootsuite also makes it easy to track your analytics.

Of course, you still need to engage with your Twitter followers. But, even just 15 minutes a day of responding to comments and searching out new prospects or potential customers through social platforms can make a huge difference to your future sales.

Consider engaging with your followers first thing each morning so you don’t forget.

Use Twitter Cards

Another way to improve your usage of Twitter in your prospecting sequence is to use Twitter cards.

How can this help? It’s simple.

These Twitter cards with your business’ customized ads and images will help you page standout. Every time a follower retweets your post, the Twitter cards also follow the post.

Sure, you can share tweets about your products, but if people don’t see it, it may not gather as much as if a card was attached to it.

2. Be Proactive and Find Prospects

Using Twitter for prospecting

Use the Right Hashtags

As a public forum, Twitter is one of the most ideal tools for social prospecting for business owners. You can listen to what people are talking about in real time and identify their interests, honing in on those who are interested in your product or service category.

One way to do this is by searching popular hashtags of trending topics that are relevant to your small business. For example, if your company sells running shoes, spend time reading through hashtags like:

• #running
• #marathontraining
• #morningrun

What you need to keep in mind though is to not use just any kind of hashtag. You need to know which ones you should use to reach a wider audience.

Use one to two hashtags with the most engagements for your Twitter page to reach more people. To figure out which hashtags to use, consider the following:

• The number of retweets of tweets containing the hashtag
• The number of views it received (for videos and clips)
• How many times the hashtag was used
• The replies tweets with the hashtag got

Keep Up with Buzzwords

Similarly, you can also search for popular industry buzzwords that professionals or influencers use to connect with peers and use those to identify potential prospects. Just remember that buzzwords (and hashtags) are constantly changing, so keep on top of trending keywords and search them frequently.

Event hashtags are another path to potential prospects. If you search for popular events or conferences in your industry, odds are you’ll find plenty of professionals in your target audience.

These are key prospects to hone in on.

Don’t forget to observe your competitors and see who they’re interacting with. Look for people in your city who are having conversations around your industry or service and then focus on organic growth to generate leads.

Once you’ve discovered where your target audience hangs out, join discussions and make yourself available. Be on the lookout for buying signals, such as complaints about a competitor.

This is another reason Twitter for business prospecting is ideal.

Engage with Recommendations

You can also search for phrases such as “looking for recommendations” or “need advice on,” which makes it easier to engage at the beginning of the sales cycle.

Remember, there’s a reason Twitter is the second among the leading social media platforms used today, and why 87% of companies have incorporated it as part of their content marketing mix – active users like it, and they use it. You should too.

You can’t expect to make sales unless you go where your customers are. If you play your social media cards right, other pages will be suggesting your business for those queries.

RELATED: Are You Social Selling or Just Being Salesy on Social Media?

3. Engage and Build Relationships – Don’t Sell

Once you have your prospects, engage with them. Don’t just start tweeting at prospects when using Twitter for business prospecting.

Instead, ask and answer questions. Retweet their tweets. Follow them.

Give them relevant or helpful information when they ask for it. Get to know them, and become a familiar voice in their social world.

Engagement leads to sales.

If a prospect is following you, try sending a direct message after an appropriate interval. Mention one of your interactions, or otherwise make it personal.

Share email addresses or phone numbers, then include a link to something of value that’s tailored to them – an offer, an article you think they might enjoy, or a resource they might find helpful.

Ask them questions to get the conversation started.

Whatever you do, don’t jump into sales mode right away. Instead, find out how you can be helpful to them or solve a pain point.

Treat your prospects like real people, not just numbers.

After all, sales is all about building relationships, so use Twitter to build relationships at scale. “The goal of using Twitter isn’t to sell something at the very second you tweet,” says Ginny Maneo of Hubspot.

“It’s to set the relationship groundwork with prospects. It’s to establish trust with them, so they feel comfortable returning your phone calls or chatting through emails.”

You can build that trust by establishing yourself as an expert, enhancing brand awareness. The Twitter content you produce or share should demonstrate your industry expertise while also offering value.

That content will help you build relationships, and when the time is right, you can leverage those relationships to your advantage to grow your business.

Engage with Influencers

If you’re just starting your social media presence, gaining followers is important. Aside from organically growing your Twitter followers, connecting and interacting with influencers can help increase your following.

Get Twitter followers fast by looking for people within the circle of your potential customers and engaging with them. If you want a wider reach, look for influencers with a certain number of followers.

Not sure which ones you should be following and engaging with? Use tools to help you with an advanced search.

Awario helps you identify influencers in the niche you want and shows you which ones have the most Twitter followers or the most engagements with their own networks.

Aside from listing their follower count, this Twitter followers tracker also analyzes Twitter mentions, keywords, and content across other social media platforms. It ranks influencers based on their engagements so you can decide if building connections with them will benefit your business.

Build Your Twitter List

If there are pages or people you want to keep track of, build a Twitter list. You should also make this list public so your followers and other people who will visit your Twitter profile will see it.

You can set up your profile to follow only the pages on your list or set it up alongside your general timeline. This way, you won’t miss any updates from these pages.

If your profile is newly created, you may not know who to include in your list yet. In that case, you can check public lists on the profiles of influencers you follow, especially if they’re part of your target audience.

You can also keep track of competitors this way. You should check on the public lists that added your page as well.

4. Analyze and Refine Your Process

Analyzing and refining twitter prospecting results

Analyze what you’ve learned about your audience and how they communicate with you. Look at how much of your website traffic is from Twitter and whether your Twitter leads are turning into good sales opportunities.

Then, put that insight to good use as you continue interacting with more prospects and move toward closing sales.

Eventually, as you get further down in the sales funnel, you’ll want to move the conversation with your prospects from Twitter to email (or some other off-platform channel). This more personal, direct approach will help your prospects continue to move toward converting into customers.

Make sure you’re adding the insights you’ve gained about each prospect to your CRM.

Keep It Omni-Channel

Twitter is a great tool for finding, approaching, and building relationships with potential prospects. It allows you to be a helpful resource while also establishing a positive presence for your brand.

You can build a following and engage with quality potential leads, eventually moving the conversation over to other channels.

These leads may choose to visit your website, Facebook or Instagram pages, and other avenues connected to your business.

Adding Twitter to your prospecting sequence can be incredibly beneficial, but remember, it’s just one step in the process. The best approach is an omni-channel one.

With these four Twitter for business tips, you’ll not only increase lead generation but also build good and trusting relationships with your market. Just remember to always create trust with your prospects, and everything else will follow.

Have you utilized Twitter for business prospecting? How was your experience? Tell us in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• Why Social Media Is Overrated For Lead Generation
• 3 Deadly Mistakes Uncovered in Social Media
• How To Create A Cultural Transformation For Your Inside Sales Team

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April 22, 2019, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

RELATED: 9 Common Yet Avoidable Mistakes in Sales Prospecting Emails

In this article:

1. What Is LinkedIn InMail?
2. LinkedIn InMail Sponsored Messages
3. LinkedIn Sales Message Template
4. Why Use LinkedIn Paid Advertising
5. Cold Calling vs Social Selling: What’s Best?
6. Where LinkedIn Fits Into Your Sales Cadence

Build Your Pipeline With LinkedIn InMail

What Is LinkedIn InMail?

LinkedIn InMail is becoming a preferred medium for sales communication. And it makes sense—with around 500 million users, it’s the best professional network you can use for B2B sales.

However, merely sending a sponsored LinkedIn message randomly isn’t enough anymore to build a sales pipeline.

Sales reps are so convinced of the power of social media for selling, that some say cold calling is dead, and you should just switch to social selling.

You can see the battle between social selling and digital prospecting play out in this webinar we did with Mario Martinez from Vengreso.

What is digital prospecting? This is a method used to attract new people into becoming possible customers. This is done by assessing digital profiles similar to existing customers.

As always, there’s a middle road to success, and we know this because we tested it. How then can you maximize email and messaging to improve your sales cadence?

Read on to see how we at XANT worked on a social selling campaign using LinkedIn InMail to generate leads and build pipeline. More than that, we are giving away the secret ingredients to getting social selling right.

LinkedIn InMail Sponsored Messages

For this experiment, we were trying to get qualified prospects to attend a regional trade show in Austin, Texas. The first thing we tried was LinkedIn InMail sponsored messages to a list of LinkedIn users.

We targeted users from companies with over 1,000 employees, with the titles of VP and above in sales or business development roles, and where available, we had the information on the size of their sales team.

I think this is the number one tip I can give you for using LinkedIn InMail for lead generation: get very, very granular when choosing your target audience. This means knowing your target persona:

• The region/geography of your audience
• Company size (usually based on product-market fit)
• Title or function/department (target decision-makers, so the higher the title the better)
• Industry where they operate (depending on your company or product niche)
• The size of their team (if available)

Be sure to work with various audiences and write down every single test you create. You should also include information on what was successful and what failed.

Tracking results will make it easier to tweak your audience and messaging accordingly. Note the response rate for potential candidates you sent InMail messages to.

Here are the results we got from our LinkedIn InMail sponsored messages:

• We sent 1,330 messages and had a 53.8% open rate and a 17.8% click-through rate
• We had a 0.52% registration rate to our event from LinkedIn messages

LinkedIn Sales Message Template

Below, you can see the LinkedIn InMail template we used for the campaign. The invite was sent on behalf of one of our senior sales reps, so make sure you also get your sender right.

Usually, if your message comes from a person who already has a relationship with a prospect, it will be more successful.

Using LinkedIn InMail templates will help you send messages to more people, but try to make more personalized messages for each prospect.

These are the dos and don’ts of making personalized content when you send InMail messages.

• Do: Be polite, considerate, and brief in your messaging—just like how you would be with a phone call or other communication medium. You need to respect the prospect’s time.
• Don’t: Start with ‘bro’ or some other formula that’s clearly meant for your college roomie. Prospects don’t appreciate getting too familiar on a sales message.

If you have a large audience, you can use several subject lines and several images or template options to test out. See what works best and constantly iterate.

Subject Line: I’ll be in Austin, Let’s Connect

Hi %(First Name)%,

I’ll be in Austin on May 31st, and I’d love to connect! I’m actually putting together a small luncheon https://lp.www.insidesales.com/FieldEvent-Awareness-FieldRoadShow-0518_RegistrationLandingPage.html?a=scl025 for local sales and business development execs that day, and it would be a great opportunity for us to network and get to know each other.

Ten-X will be hosting us, and I’ve organized a few speakers to share what they’re doing to build pipeline and address sales challenges through AI.

Here’s a link https://lp.www.insidesales.com/FieldEvent-Awareness-FieldRoadShow-0518_RegistrationLandingPage.html?a=scl025 to more info about what’s going on.

Let me know if you can come!

-Nick Alejandro
My Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-alejandro-26b6191b/

nick.alejandro@www.xant.ai

[Button Text: RSVP]

Why Use LinkedIn Paid Advertising

LinkedIn sponsored messages are great, but usually, they are no good on their own. To really ‘click’ with your audience, they need to know who you are and what you’re offering even before you ever send them a message.

While we sent out our InMails, we ran some paid ads to make sure we’re top of mind for our audience. Once they’ve received the email, they’ll be able to know who you are and what you’re offering them.

Running paid advertising on social media platforms can be an effective tandem for the LinkedIn InMail messages you’ll send to your prospective clients.

We had a few rules for building out our social advertising message, so keep these on your list:

• Keep the message simple and to the point
• Use bright colorful imaging that speaks to your target audience
• Have a clear call to action and make sure it relates directly to your objective
• Highlight the benefit of taking you up on that offer (free item or discount?)
• Don’t forget to add the place, date and time

We had 16,403 impressions, with a click-through rate of 0.81% and an engagement rate of 0.84%. 

While these engagement rates for paid social ads don’t look like anything amazing, they are well above the industry averages for B2B social ads, which are standing at 0.33%. Compared to the other campaign’s click-through rates, paid advertising ran in tandem with InMail in LinkedIn looks more promising.

You can also run several ads to complement the personalized emails you’ll send to your prospective clients. The more ads they’ll see, the better the chance for them to find a product or service they’d like to buy or engage with. This will result in better lead generation for your campaign.

Here is just one of the ad variations used to promote our event:

RELATED: Lead Generation: Google PPC Drone Advertising

Cold Calling vs Social Selling: What’s Best?

Social selling is not the answer to everything sales. Neither is cold calling, I’m afraid, although it does perform better when you look at the numbers.

When considering cold calling vs social selling, we see a 5% success rate vs 2%. However, they both have their place in a well-thought-out sales communication plan. At XANT, we are always doing a bit of everything and testing out what works best.

This is because the more communication methods you use for your sales outreach, the higher chance you have of contacting your prospects.

Unfortunately, most salespeople don’t effectively use communication methods in their sales cadence:

• Inbound salespeople stop at just sending one email — 31.6% of all cadences
• 26.5% of outbound salespeople just do a single dial before giving up

This is unacceptable and it has to change.

According to our research, for inbound sales, the most successful cadence was Call – Voicemail – Email repeated between 6-10 touches.

For outbound salespeople, the most successful cadence was four phone calls – one email – and another phone call.

Using three communication methods has the highest rate of success at a 25.1% chance to connect.

Where LinkedIn Fits Into Your Sales Cadence

If you’re looking to learn more about social selling and cold calling as well as voicemail and other sales communication methods, I would advise downloading our “Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence,” which has a lot of eye-opening data.

We also added some killer tips on how to refine your sales strategy by using varied communication methods and various sales cadences.

And if you think tracking several sales communication methods across thousands of customers is hard, you are absolutely right.

Engagement with prospective clients shouldn’t just stop at sending a single email or call. By sending personalized emails designed to meet their needs and interests, you’ll be able to increase generation of leads and have the chance to increase your response rate.

Sales cadence tools powered by Real Data can help you keep track of complex sales motions and automate some of the more mundane jobs in sales. See how you can make your job easier here.

Send an InMail in LinkedIn and find out how it can improve your lead generation and sales cadence.

Will you be trying out LinkedIn InMail for your sales and marketing campaign? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

UP NEXT:

• 3 Salesforce Email Template Tips for Effective Sales Emails
• Top Sales & Marketing Priorities for 2019: AI and Big Data, Revealed by Survey
• How To Align Sales and Marketing

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on June 12, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

Social Selling 101

1. 10 Social Selling Books To Help You Close Deals in Digital

Social selling is a powerful weapon in the modern sales professional’s arsenal, and many are debating if digital prospecting beats old-school methods like cold calling. The truth is, social selling is a vital component of any digital sales strategy. Millennial customers, in particular, are on social media in droves, and stats show they are also the most likely generation to buy from brands they follow.

Modern sales professionals must be fluent in social media, but for this they need training. You can obviously look to social selling courses and training, but for your solo study sessions, we’ve made a list of the best social selling books to help you master the art of the tweet.

2. How Artificial Intelligence is Changing B2B Social Selling

Social selling in B2B is no longer a novel concept. LinkedIn statistics show that 78% of social sellers outsell professionals who don’t use this medium to engage with their prospects and have a higher chance of reaching their quota. However, new social selling technology has evolved and now has the potential to disrupt social selling strategy and techniques, as well as companies that are not quick to adapt to the digital sales environment.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now penetrating every aspect of B2B sales, including social selling.

3. How to Fit Social Selling Into Your Cadence Strategy

Social selling is all the buzz right now, as consumers are moving more and more to social networks and sellers are following them right through. However, there’s a right way and a wrong way to introduce social selling into your sales cadence strategy. Too many IM’s, and your lead will block or report you. Give up too soon, and you’re bound to miss out on opportunities.

This is why I’ve come up with a game plan on how to fit social selling into your sales cadence strategy. It’s tricky, but not impossible.

4. On the Value and Future of Social Selling – With Koka Sexton @Hootsuite

Sales and Marketing departments have realized the massive potential of social networks – to connect with prospects and get a chance to make a meaningful connection. Some are better than others at using it in their sales strategy. But the future of social selling will depend solely on the value it provides to businesses – the Return on Investment (ROI). I’ve had an insightful conversation about this with Koka Sexton from Hootsuite, and here’s what he had to say about measuring social selling ROI and the future of social selling.

5. The Number One Thing That Drives Results With Social Selling

B2B companies increasingly use social selling to try and reach users on their preferred communication channels. But what are the social selling strategies that drive real results, and where should we meet users? Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter? We spoke to Cameron Brain, CEO and Founder of Everyone Social, on the Playmakers Podcast, to try and find out.

6. Social Selling Guide: Tips and Tricks to Opening Conversations Online

There’s much talk about social selling tactics these days, and although it’s not a new concept, the past two years it’s become somewhat of a buzzword. But how do great sales reps leverage social media to sell and reach the audience they wouldn’t otherwise? Larry Levine, sales expert and founder of the Social Sales Academy, gave us a social selling guide on the Playmakers podcast: “The Who, The What, and the Why of Social Selling w/Larry Levine.”

Social selling is a process where sales representatives leverage their social network to find the right prospects, build trusted relationships, and ultimately, achieve sales goals. Social media use in sales has become common practice, and the data shows it’s producing positive results for sales teams around the world.

7. The Who, The What, and the Why of Social Selling

Are you getting tired of social selling? We’ve decided to speak our mind about the truth of social selling and ask industry experts to explain the who, the what, and the why of social selling. In this episode, we debate the fundamentals of social selling with Larry Levine, founder of Social Sales Academy. We put Larry on the spot with tough questions such as, “Why is there so much data lacking about social selling results?”, “What should reps do to be successful when social selling?” and “What does social selling even mean?”

8. The Truth About Social Selling

We might have had a little fight, Koka and I. Fight might be too strong of a word, a gentleman’s disagreement is probably a better term. I started the debate with a post poking the bear, declaring that social selling was dead. I felt my argument had some merit. I debated that the word social selling is confusing and the data is lacking to prove the worth of social selling. Koka saw the article and wrote a strong rebuttal and made some strong points. Koka and I started to speak offline and we decided we’d continue the conversation on the #Playmaker podcast. Thankfully, Koka and I came to terms and realized we have more in common than we thought. It’s all captured here, check it out.

9. How to Integrate Social Selling into Your Traditional Sales Process w/Gabe Villamizar @Hirevue

Social selling can be misleading. Reps can’t just social sell. The best reps have learned to infuse social selling into their day-to-day sales process. In this episode, Gabe Villamizar talks about how he’s coached hundreds of companies to use traditional as well as new age social tactics to find, engage, and close more deals.

10. The 4-Step Social Selling Routine

As a sales leader, you know that social selling is an important part of your team’s sales process.

But one of the biggest challenges you may face is how are you going to explain social selling to your sales team from a tactical perspective?

How will you outline what social selling will look like? Check it out in this article.

11. 3 Simple Ways to Up Your Social Selling Game

A few weeks ago, our fearless leader, Dave Elkington, asked the leadership team to become more connected thought leaders in our online communities.

How does one become more connected? Wikipedia describes a thought leader as an individual who is recognized as an authority in a specialized field and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded.

Fortunately, our CEO anticipated this question and came prepared. He suggested these three ideas. As I listened to these suggestions, I looked internally to evaluate where I’m at with each. You might want to do the same.

12. Top Sales Experts Weigh In on Delivering Value Through Social Selling

Social selling is still establishing itself as a field. As a result, many sales professionals struggle to understand how it fits in the sales process and how best to maximize its efficiency.

To provide some clarity, Sales Hacker invited the top social selling experts to Sales Stack 2015. Participating on the panel were Ken Krogue, XANT founder and president, Koka Sexton, and Jill Rowley.

You can watch the entire video here and visit Sales Hacker for a summary of the panel discussion.

We hope this guide has helped you in understanding the basics of social selling. Be sure to bookmark these articles for your reading list. For more in-depth knowledge about this sales concept, keep on visiting our website, XANT!

What other social selling strategies do you know of? Share them with us in the comment section below!

Up Next: Let the Cloud Data Wars Begin

Modern sales professionals must be fluent in social media, but for this they need training. You can obviously look to social selling courses and training, but for your solo study sessions we’ve made a list of the best social selling books to help you master the art of the tweet.

Social Selling Mastery: Scaling Up Your Sales and Marketing Machine for the Digital Buyer

Jamie Shanks

“Social Selling Mastery” teaches the art of creating and nurturing one-to-one relationships with your potential customers. It also shows the means to reach customers online, where they are often doing their due diligence. The book will teach you how to reach ad engage customers online, provide value and insight and develop the relationships that lead to sales.

Jamie Shanks, CEO of Sales for Life, has built social selling strategies and training for companies like Microsoft, Intel, Xerox, Sprint, Oracle and many more and is established as one of the most respected voices in the realm of social networks. He also revealed the 5 must-have skills for social sellers on an XANT virtual summit a couple of years ago, you can see what these are here.

Sales for Life also offers social selling training and certification, in case you want to take the course.

Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers

Tim Hughes and Matt Reynolds

Social Selling by Tim Hughes and Matt Reynolds provides a practical, step-by-step guide for developing online communities, as well as building relationships and trust online. It has everything you need for social selling strategy, investment models, as well as technology platforms. The book also has tips, checklists and examples to make it easier to understand digital selling.

The authors, Tim Hughes and Matt Reynolds, are founders of Social Sales Lounge, providing social selling coaching and training.

Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling

Jeb Blount

Successful sales professionals work their prospecting muscle constantly, and social selling is just one part of this effort. “Fanatical prospecting” by Jeb Blount offers a guide to all sales channels, with social media being first on the list. The book reveals five secrets of social selling that will allow you to build better relationships, faster.

Jeb Blount of Sales Gravy has 25 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies, SMBs, and start-ups. He a skilled advisor on the impact of emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills on sales, leadership and customer experience.

Jeb has also been a guest on the XANT Playmakers Podcast, so you can hear his musings on successful prospecting here.

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World

Gary Vaynerchuck

“Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” is a guide to fine-tuning your social media strategy so that you bring down resistance from your customer and knock out your competition. Gary offers a blueprint on creating sales content which is perfectly adapted to social network channels. He also offers tips on how to adapt your content to the context of communication in order to land that much-coveted sale.

Gary Vaynerchuk is a four-time New York Times best selling author and social media expert. After growing his family wine business from a $4 million to a $60 million business, he developed and now runs VaynerMedia digital agency.

Successful Social Selling

Matt Heinz

“Successful Social Selling” offers a mix of strategies, tactics and tools for finding qualified prospects and conversion opportunities on social media. The book educates on identifying buying signals and organizing information in the social media landscape for building pipeline easily.

Matt Heinz, president of Heinz Marketing Inc, is a keynote speaker, author and host of Sales Pipeline Radio. Matt has over 15 years of experience in marketing, business development and sales experience. He helps clients focus their business on market and customer opportunities.

The LinkedIn Sales Playbook: A Tactical Guide to Social Selling

Brynne Tillman

The LinkedIn Sales Playbook by Brynne Tillman offers a guide for salespeople to understand social media and its link to traditional selling. It offers tactics for lead generation, connecting with targeted buyers, warm introductions, nurturing prospects and converting more connections to phone calls.

Brynne Tillman is an expert on social selling and is Chief Learning Officer for Vengreso, the social selling company. She specializes in helping businesses and entrepreneurs with digital sales strategies, tactics, and tools. She can also help with personal branding, social selling training, and content for sales.

If you want to hear Brynne’s thoughts on building pipeline with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, listen to our Playmakers Podcast.

The LinkedIn Code: Unlock the largest online business social network to get leads, prospects & clients for B2B, professional services and sales & marketing pros

Melonie Dodaro

It’s ideal that a seller has a good foundation of working with all social networks. However, mastering LinkedIn specifically is vital to B2B selling. Stats show that LinkedIn is by far the most effective lead generation channel of them all. This is why we’ve included another book which specializes on LinkedIn social selling on our list.

“The LinkedIn Code” from Melonie Dodaro is a great training resource for social sellers. It shows why LinkedIn is not just another social network, and how to tap into the opportunities it offers. Salespeople can learn how to connect and build rapport with hundreds of potential customers.

Melonie Dodaro is the CEO of Top Dog Social Media and regarded worldwide as a leading expert on LinkedIn marketing and social selling. If you like The LinkedIn Code, check out her other book as well – LinkedIn Unlocked.

27 LinkedIn Inside Sales Tips

Ken Krogue and Jamie Shanks

In 2012, XANT co-founder Ken Krogue partnered with Sales for Life CEO Jamie Shanks and wrote the popular eBook, 42 LinkedIn Inside Sales Tips. More than 52,000 sales and marketing leaders have downloaded this powerful resource.

The updated version of the eBook has the latest social selling secrets.

Amp Up Your Sales: Powerful Strategies That Move Customers to Make Fast, Favorable Decisions

Andy Paul

“Amp Up Your Sales” is a great guide for social sellers when customers are overloaded with information. The book shows how you can become a valuable consultant, rather than just another salesperson. Learn how to guide a potential customers to a purchase that will address their needs, even if you’re only chatting on social.

Andy Paul, the author, is a reputed keynote speaker and advisor and hosts the Accelerate podcast for professionals looking to increase profitability and growth.

The Art of Social Selling: Finding and Engaging Customers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Other Social Networks

Shannon Belew

“The Art of Social Selling” is another guide for sales professionals looking to engage with prospects in digital. Sales reps can learn how to work with content and conversations and execute sales strategies for each social media platform. The book also reveals how to leverage social trends that might influence their buyers. The book also includes chapters on how to track influencers or closing a deal on mobile.

The author has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and Public Relations she has worked in industries ranging from national franchises in the restaurant and retail industries to start-ups and mature companies in the high-tech and space & defense sectors.

Hope this helps you get started with social selling. Let us know what other social selling resources and training you have found useful!

If you want to know how the old-school tactic of cold calling squares up against digital prospecting, join the webinar with Mario Martinez and Gabe Larsen.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now penetrating every aspect of B2B sales, including social selling. To figure out how it can increase the chances of social sellers to succeed, let’s first take a look at how social selling works.

Social Selling Before AI

Best practices on social selling advise a classic sequence of activities: social sellers pick their targets, try to connect with them and then try to interact by leaving unsolicited validation (commenting, liking their content) to build rapport. Subsequently, after creating a relationship, they then try to pitch their product.

But the truth is reps are not closing million dollar deals by simply chatting on Facebook with prospects.. Even if you’re selling through  LinkedIn, it’s an uphill battle.

The good news is, the odds of connecting with decision makers and accelerating the sales process by social selling , no matter how you do it–are on your side:

• 86% of IT buyers now use social media to make technology decisions (IDG)
• Buyers using social media are more senior and have larger budgets than buyers who don’t use social (IDC)
• 53% of buyers using social media to assess new tools and technologies (Harvard Business Review)

Social media, when used properly, can influence deals.

Predictive Social Selling – The New Way of Selling

We’re talking about predictive social selling: using Artificial Intelligence to automate some of the manual and routine tasks of social selling so you can reach more targets, faster, and get the right information that is likely to influence their purchasing decision.

AI can tap into the billions of data points collected from your database, as well as the social networks and external crowdsourced data, to make highly accurate predictions about your social buyers.

How to Win at Social Selling Using AI

As I have noted before, a comprehensive sales cadence tool must incorporate social prospecting into a seller’s daily activities. But chatting up random people on social networks isn’t likely to get you any business results.

There are a few things successful social sellers do to close deals, and a few ways that AI can power up your game on social media.

Get to The Right Leads Faster

Choosing the right target to connect with is arguably the most important step in the sales process, and the one that can make or break your sale.

Artificial Intelligence analyzes billions of data points from multiple sources, while  sifting through social signals, to determine who you should contact and when and how you should engage (i.e., your prospect might be active on Twitter but not LinkedIn– AI can guide you instantly to the right medium).

Opportunity Scoring

Another use case for predictive social selling is accurately forecasting when sales opportunities will close, if they close. This allows sales representatives to focus on the right accounts and opportunities, so they don’t waste time on deals that might never close.

This score is useful to manage opportunities from conversion to close, prompting reps to take the right steps to making progress on a deal.

Increase The Chance to Connect on Social Media

Once you’ve identified the right prospects, you need to connect with them. But how do you convince someone that you are worth their time? This is where a mutual connection or referral can come in handy: Harvard Business Review states that 84% of B2B buyers begin the buying process with a referral, and over 90% of purchase decisions are influenced by peer recommendations.

Artificial Intelligence can analyze your entire social network to uncover mutual connections or even more distant connections that could recommend you or introduce you to your prospect. This can increase your connect rates up to 3X.

Help Personalize Content to Persona

Personalization is required in most sales motions, as research shows 67% of buyers are influenced to accept a meeting if they see content 100% customized to their specific situation and see it as valuable for making a purchasing decision. But that’s not easy to do– the average B2B deal has around 6.8 decision-makers, and each will have their own pain point and need for their role.

AI can help personalize the outreach to each persona with customized templates for different products, verticals or personas.

Identify Icebreakers

Once you’ve connected with your prospect on social media, you need to create a connection by using common interests. But spending too much time finding this information is bogging down activity in sales teams around the world.

An intelligent predictive social selling system can alert you to commonalities between you and your prospect, so you can have a brilliant starting line.

AI can also watch for relevant developments with your target on social: a recent job change, a company capital infusion, or a company acquisition are all announcements on social media that can make or break your deal.

Find New Leads With Lead Recommendations

Last but not least, a good AI sales tool continually learns from the data it analyzes and evolves over time to get you new sales opportunities. By analyzing past interactions and sales transactions that were influenced by social events, AI learns the patterns of success and recommends new leads, similar to your ideal buyer profile.

Social media is ripe ground for salespeople– but the evolution of social selling technology will weed out the winners from the losers.

Looking to learn how sales and marketing teams can implement Artificial Intelligence into their strategies? Register for the AI Growth Summit. 30+ speakers from top companies will demonstrate the real impact of AI on business growth.

This is why I’ve come up with a game plan on how to fit social selling into your sales cadence strategy. It’s tricky, but not impossible, so watch the video to understand how you can include social in your daily sales routine.

How to Include Social Selling in Your Sales Cadence

I’ve chosen a sales cadence template that we regularly use with the XANT Playbooks software. I’ve modified it to include social elements and followed through every step of the cadence to show you how it works.

Attempts:

My sales cadence includes 13 total sales activities (attempts to engage with the lead), and it’s broken down into different types of activities.

Media:

On the sales media, this cadence includes: 3 phone calls, 2 voicemails, 0 texts, 4 emails, 4 social and 0 high impact mailers.

That’s overall 13 touches. This cadence is designed for someone who is working in a relational sales model, focused on bigger deals.

The sales rep will start out a bit passive, with a social interaction and with an email, and then they will follow up with phone calls, emails, and then move to calls, voicemails and social.

Spacing:

You should leave around 2 days in between interactions with your prospect, but not much more than that. The passive communication like following the lead, comments on social or email make it possible to engage with your lead often, without being too aggressive.

Duration

The sales activities span out over a duration of 12 days. It’s a little bit short on the duration, but not too bad. In some cases you will want to extend that.

Show Your Lead some ‘LUV’

One of the concepts we use with Playbooks to increase our social activities is the ‘LUV’ concept – leaving unsolicited validation. That means either following your lead or the company on social media, connecting with them without engaging further. This shows your lead some social love, without looking too sales’y or intrusive.

You should certainly include this in your social selling strategy as much as you can. The Playbooks sales software makes it easy to follow through your cadence and connect with your lead through all these different mediums, without skipping a step!

Follow a Social Selling Sales Cadence With Playbooks

Playbooks will show you all the activities you can take with your contact, in the sequence of the cadence we selected – and allow you to do actions straight from the CRM interface. Just add your contact, select your cadence and GO!

Watch the video to see how you can include social selling into your sales cadence!

Lindsey Boggs (EntailInsights) was made famous at one of the LinkedIn Sales Connect conferences, when she managed to get the highest Social Selling Index. The Social Selling Index is a score created by LinkedIn to rank a members’ use of LinkedIn as a social selling tool.

LinkedIn uses an algorithm to create the SSI score, based on four criteria

• Creating a professional brand,
• Finding the right people
• Engaging with insights
• Building strong relationships.

Now, that’s a complex equation, but there are ways that you can master the Social Selling Index and push to its highest possible value. Here’s Lindsey’s list of tips on how you can become a Master Social Seller!

Why Your LinkedIn Profile Matters

Your LinkedIn profile is somebody’s first impression, but most people will just login to LinkedIn once in a blue moon, do not keep the profile updated and do not have any activity on it. If you haven’t filled our your LinkedIn profile, you are not using it to its full potential.

“This is people’s first impression, and it’s a public resume, so think of it that way, you don’t want to have just the bare minimum on there. You want to have a lot of information, especially your accomplishments. When it comes to prospecting, it really helps determine when a prospect’s viewing your profile if they want to connect with you or not, so make sure this is a priority,” said Lindsey.

What Makes a Great LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn makes it easy to see which are the most important parts of your profile and make sure you have them filled out. Here’s a few quick wins to make sure your profile is buttoned up:

• Have a professional life photo for your profile
• Make sure you have a strong header, with information about who you are and what you offer
• Make sure you have a call to action about your company offers

Publishing Articles on LinkedIn

One of the most overlooked actions you can take with LinkedIn is publishing articles. Usually, highlighting your accomplishments in articles shows authority and gives a signal that you are really getting your brand out there and promoting it.

“If standing out and getting your name out there is a priority for you, building your brand is essential, so make sure you publish. Publishing is so important – this one article I wrote on a rainy afternoon took off, (…) and LinkedIn ultimately caught on to it, and that’s how I was able to be a guest blogger with them,” said Lindsey.

The Secret to InMail Success

Sending InMails to your connections is an incredibly useful feature of LinkedIn for salespeople. But use it unwisely, and it can backfire. Here’s Lindsey’s take on sending InMails with the purpose of selling.

“You want to send a note that’s really personalized to what you, to the person you’re prospecting, so research them. Find out what their background is. Talk about how you’ve read their article, talk about how you identify with them on X-Y-Z,” said Lindsey.

“Make sure that when you prospect, it’s personal and it’s relevant. You don’t want to start sending generic messages to people,” she added.

Lead Prospecting with LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn has become seller’s favorite tool in the last years, and that’s mostly because of how helpful it is as a prospecting tool. You can find the right people with advanced searches – and then move further to find out their hobbies and area of interests.

“Every single note I send to them is very personalized, and it has a touch of Lindsey Boggs. It’s not a generic note talking about my software, if that makes sense,” says Lindsey.

Prospecting Cadence on LinkedIn

We’ve spoken before about how important the sales cadence is to your sales process, but here’s how to apply this concept to LinkedIn prospecting. Cadence is the sequence of activities that sales reps perform in order to connect with prospects and try to build a relationship.

“You can’t just send one InMail, and if they don’t respond, you just throw up your arms and say, ‘It doesn’t work.’ You can’t do that. LinkedIn is just simply another tool to prospect, and it’s one of the best tools to prospect, so make sure that you are persistent in using LinkedIn and InMails,” added Lindsey.

Using the NameDrop Feature on LinkedIn

NameDrop is another very important feature that can maximize your chances of success on LinkedIn. If you have a mutual connection with your prospect, you should use that to your advantage.

“Ask their permission first if you can use their name when you ask for an introduction. It shows rapport, it shows you have a similar network, and ultimately, people buy from people they like, so use the NameDrop feature. I use it all the time, it’s much better to get a warm introduction than a cold introduction on your own,” said Lindsey.

Why Engagement Matters

Making sure you have engagement every day on LinkedIn should ensure that you are increasing your brand visibility, says LinkedIn. It is the number one thing you can do to increase your SSI and your chance to get more business.

“Engage and share with your Insights, engage with your current employer, engage, share their content, engage with people that you interact with on a daily basis, engage with people that follow you, write, write, write, write, publish articles. It’s been super helpful in my career,” added Lindsey.

Listen to the entire podcast with Lindsey Boggs: