Many people search LinkedIn every day looking for new clients or partners.
And as you probably know, finding prospects is just the beginning of a long sales cycle.
A lot depends on how well you connect with them, interact,and bring value to their lives.
So making the right connections and building relationships is hands down the most important thing someone can do when leveraging LinkedIn to grow their business.
That’s where LinkedIn Social Selling comes into play if you want to leverage your LinkedIn game.
In today’s article, we’ll go through the 5 most effective LinkedIn social selling tips to see how they can help you connect with your prospects and create a long-term relationship with them.
Let’s dive into it!
What is LinkedIn Social Selling?
LinkedIn Social Selling is a method of leveraging social networks to generate sales leads, cultivate relationships, and close deals.
It’s a relatively new concept, but it has gained much traction and success in recent years.
This is especially true for B2B companies, which have been slow to adopt social media for business.
In fact, according to statistics, only 49% percent of B2B businesses are using social selling programs to drive revenue, even though 98% of them see the value of it.
Social selling is about building relationships and trust with prospects and customers through LinkedIn and other social media channels.
It’s about actively listening to needs and providing solutions that help prospects solve their problems or achieve their goals.
Social selling isn’t just about posting content on LinkedIn or publishing blog posts.
It’s about engaging with potential clients on a regular basis so that they know who you are, what value you provide, and why they should choose your company over others in your industry.
Using it to your benefit can help you reach your targets more efficiently.
So let’s show you how to do it.
1. Optimize Your Profile First
LinkedIn is a great tool for social selling. The key to using it to your advantage is to optimize your profile.
It’s even the most important thing when we’re talking about B2B because no one will write to your page.
But instead, they’ll look for a specific person they need within the company.
So first, you should make sure that your profile is up to date and complete.
Here are some tips for doing it properly and not missing anything:
1. Improve Your Headline
Headlines are one of the first things people see even before entering your profile. It’s what they can see in comments, search results, and so on.
You should use the headline to your benefit to make sure they identify you as a relevant person to their business, knowledge, or something else they look for.
To do that, write a compelling headline that includes your company name and a keyword related to the type of work you do.
2. Develop Your Profile Summary Section
You should use a succinct summary to highlight your strengths and value proposition.
Make sure not to use jargon or long-winded sentences since it will make your summary less engaging.
Also, use the right keywords in your personal profile so that you appear in the right search results.
You should also fill out all of the fields on your profile page, including:
- Work experience (including a current job)
- Education history (including any continuing education)
- Skills/interests
3. Add a Professional Photo to Your Profile
According to LinkedIn, just having a profile picture makes your profile 14x more likely to be visited.
Because if your profile doesn’t look professional, then why would anyone think that your business is good enough for them?
To make sure you leave a positive first impression on your profile viewers, set the headshot photo as your profile photo.
Also, be sure it has good lighting, focuses on your face, and doesn’t have a distracting background.
It will make your profile more attractive to other users.
2. Grow Your Network
Building your network is the core requirement for successful social selling, and it’s something you can’t prosper without.
It’s not just about how many people you know, but what kind of relationship you have with them.
There are two important types of connections – first-degree and second-degree.
First-degree connections are people who you’ve directly connected with on LinkedIn.
Second-degree connections are people who are connected to someone in your first-degree network.
Your main goal as a social seller is to build a strong second-degree network.
Why?
This will allow you to expand your reach and find new prospects.
To build a strong second-degree network, make sure that every time you connect with someone on LinkedIn, it’s an intentional action driven by something specific about that person or their business (not just because they’re in your industry).
So how to do that?
Make Your Connection Requests Personalized
It’s important to make your connection requests personal and relevant.
If you don’t know the person well enough to write an entire message, start with something like: “I reached out because I thought we could benefit from collaborating on [insert topic].”
Personalize each connection request by referencing something specific from the person’s profile or company bio.
Don’t use generic phrases such as “Hope we connect!” or “Let’s talk soon!”
These messages quickly become spammy because salespeople so often use them without experience.
To get your requests to a higher level you can use some of the “50 Proven LinkedIn Messages” we created for these purposes.
3. Be an Active User
By being an active user on LinkedIn and sharing your knowledge and experience, you’re giving a huge reason to your audience to follow you.
It’s important to post updates on a daily basis, and to be consistent – otherwise, you won’t get any benefits from social selling.
1. Share Content Relevant to Your Industry
The key to successful social selling is to share content that is relevant to your audience.
If you’re a marketer, for example, share marketing tips and advice.
If you’re in sales, share sales tips and advice.
However, don’t just share links to your own blog posts or articles, because it will get your audience irritated.
Share other people’s content as well.
This way, you can build up a network of connections who are interested in what you have to say without being too self-promotional.
To make it easier, you can create a schedule for yourself so that you know when new content will be posted.
You can use tools to schedule posts ahead of time so that they go out automatically at the time when they’ll get the most engagement.
Note: Use keywords in your posts for better visibility and engagement.
2. Engage With People
Social Selling on LinkedIn shouldn’t be about you, but the relationships you create there.
And you do that by engaging with others.
This means taking the time to respond to messages, comments, and asking for introductions for prospects.
Make sure your responses and comments are meaningful and show your authenticity.
You can also add value by sharing articles that may be of interest to prospects.
Use Engaging Images and Videos in Your Content
By using engaging images, gifs, and videos, you’ll attract more viewers to engage with your post, which will result in better visibility(images get twice as much engagement.)
For instance, consider using photo collage techniques where multiple related images can be showcased in a single post. They will engage your audience and tell a much better story about your brand and product.
This approach broadens the reach of your content and provides a richer visual experience for your audience.
To maximize engagement with your videos, consider implementing a strategy where you add subtitles to videos. This will simultaneously cater to those who prefer watching the video and those who prefer reading the content. The dual nature of the message leaves no potential viewer or reader unattended.
The better visibility on LinkedIn – the more prospects you’ll reach.
Pro tip: After sharing a LinkedIn post, make sure to like, share and comment on other LinkedIn posts to increase your profile’s visibility.
It will increase your profile visitors and people engaging with your content will grow exponentially.
You can also engage with leaders in your industry to build credibility and increase your reach as an influencer along with your social selling index.
4. Use LinkedIn Polls to Your Benefit
Along with sharing content and asking your connections intriguing questions, a great way to increase your visibility and attract prospects is by using LinkedIn polls.
Asking questions in a poll is one of the most effective ways to engage your audience on LinkedIn.
It’s easy to do and gives you an opportunity to learn more about their preferences, habits, and needs.
You can ask questions such as “What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing right now?“
You’ll get plenty of responses in no time, allowing you to identify any common themes that might be affecting your prospects or customers at large.
If there seems to be any confusion around a particular topic or concern among respondents, it may be worth addressing in an upcoming blog post or email campaign.
And you can easily identify your prospects and contact them directly.
5. Join Groups Strategically
Where do your prospects and customers spend the most time?
Are there any communities or LinkedIn groups they are engaging with other members and posts?
These groups are extremely helpful because they give you access to experts on specific topics and can help you find new leads to follow up with directly through LinkedIn messaging.
All you have to do is click “Show all” and find the person you want to contact.
Looks like a great shortcut if you really want to contact someone and make sure they see your message, right?
Conclusion
If you use LinkedIn strategically, it can be a powerful tool for social selling.
And it can bring a lot of benefits to you and your business.
You will reach much more prospects and have more people supporting you and your business.
And with LeadDelta capital manager, you can be more productive by viewing and organizing your network in the best way it suits your needs.
LeadDelta’s CRM view is fully customizable and allows you to tag your connections, hide and unhide them, apply filters, and sort your connections to find the contacts you need easily.
Take advantage of LinkedIn and start leveraging it.
Download LeadDelta extension and improve your LinkedIn social selling game.
