If your social media strategy does not include social selling on Twitter you’re losing money by missing a great opportunity.

There is a lot of talk about social media marketing but not as much about social selling. If you’re running a business sales should be your primary focus, right? Marketing is about generating interest and Sales is about closing deals. You need to have a plan to incorporate the sales activities into your overall social media strategy.

Having a social media account is not the same as having a social media presence! In order for social media to generate any kind of return you must actually participate. Many people refer to buzz words such as social media and social selling without understanding what they actually mean.

The key difference between social selling and social marketing: Social selling is about cultivating a one to one relationship rather than broadcasting your message to many, it’s about the sales relationship. While both are very important tasks in this article we will focus specifically on the social selling aspect.

First, let us define what Social Selling really means. According to Wikipedia.org, “Social selling is the process of developing relationships as part of the sales process. Today this often takes place via social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, but can take place either online or offline.”

Why focus on Twitter?

With 271 Million Monthly Active Users sending 500 Million Tweets per day, Twitter can be a great source of leads. Twitter is one of the easiest platforms to reach new contacts. You can easily expand your network by getting in touch with potential prospects, existing customers, new partners, prospective investors and even find new employees. If you are wondering if Twitter may be right for your business check out some more statistics.

Here are a few ways you can tell if you are getting social selling right:

• Are you researching your prospects? Remember, cold calling is dead!
• Are you always looking for opportunities?
• Do you check out your competition?
• Do you follow up with customers?
• Do you support and engage with influencers?

If you answer yes to all the above, congratulations! However if these topics are new to you jump in and get started!

1.) Research Prospects

Twitter is a great way to identify and research your prospects in a non stalker kind of way. You can follow and engage with your potential prospects to provide valuable information about your brand and product once you understand a little more about the individual. Social selling is about developing a real relationship with your prospect. That means understanding something about them, much as you would in an introductory sales call where you listen first and then respond with helpful information.

Once you have a clear picture of their pain points you can provide the right information needed to motivate them to take the next steps. In sales your goal is always to compel the prospect through the sales funnel. Using social media you can quickly provide insights that will entice your prospect into taking the next step.

Do you research your prospects on Twitter?

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2.) Actively look for Opportunities

It’s easy to create a targeted audience by staying active in your search for opportunities. This includes looking for people to follow online and taking your Twitter strategy offline as well.

Find your potential prospects online by searching for #hashtags and keywords that are relevant to your product or service. Look for people asking questions or looking for “recommendations” in their tweets. Do your diligence by checking out their profiles. Make sure that they are active Twitter users and that their bio includes a real picture, a good description and that they tweet on a regular basis.

Promote your Twitter offline to increase your followers. Think of using your Twitter handle as you would share your phone number or email. Next time you’re at a networking event try working your @name and following people on the spot. This is a great way to start a new relationship that you can continue once the event is over.

3.) Investigate the Competition

Odds are your competition is also active on Twitter, so it is important to investigate what they are posting and who they are following to get a sense of where you can take advantage of any shortcomings they may have. Simply put see what they are doing and do it better.

You can also follow their followers to grow your own audience. Following your competitions followers is a great way to increase your follower base with an audience that has a built in interest.

Consider what type of content they are sharing to build your own content marketing strategy. Pay particular attention to content that gets a high number of retweets or favorites. This is an indicator that the content is well received

4.) Build One-On-One Relationships with Customers

Building a relationship is what social selling is all about, as you engage with your audience you establish trust. The most important social selling activity you must learn to do with consistency is to continually engage with Twitter users.

Engagement means retweeting, @mentions, favorite tweets and asking questions that are tailored to your prospect.

• Jump in with answers to questions to start a conversation. Add value with replies that actually help answer questions or direct them to where they can find more information.
• Be grateful by saying thank you to your followers or engagers. When someone retweets your content reply with a thanks.
• Be sure to retweet and favorite their content.
• Ask questions that get them talking.
• Offer to follow up with them offline to answer questions privately.

Make sure the engagement does not end once they have made a purchase. Remember in any good relationship you must continue to add value. Continued good will turns customers into brand advocates and repeat business.

5.) Engage with Influencers

Getting others to share the love for you will increase your exposure. Include industry influencers such as bloggers in your target list of people to engage with. Turn your existing customers into brand advocates. Cultivating relationships with influences that can share your content will allow you to grow your Twitter audience and increase your leads.

If you are looking to learn more about Twitter Marketing and Twitter Selling be sure to check out our Twitter for Business Training series!