I get it. Leaders in companies are busy people.
They have endless meetings and are continually balancing the needs of many business stakeholders.
Should they really be adding social media to their list of responsibilities?
Why Leaders Need to Be Social Selling
Your sales and marketing teams NEED to be active on social media in today’s digital world.
As buyers are increasingly leveraging digital channels to research solutions and source vendors, you need to be active online to get a shot a winning the deal.
But what about senior leaders in your organization? As they are not actively prospecting or working deals, is it necessary for them to be on social media?
Yes, and here’s why.
Your social selling strategy should focus on raising your team’s visibility and authority. Your sales reps must be seen as trusted experts in your industry to find, convert, and close more business.
Senior leadership is in a unique position as a de facto authority, where they can help amplify the efforts of the sales and marketing teams. Their presence and engagement on social channels boosts their team’s credibility and increases the reach of their content across the leader’s network.
From a financial perspective, it’s a no-brainer. If your team is already doing the work (and using the resources) of creating and engaging on social media, adding your “touch” to their effort will provide leverage to their productivity.
And if your sales and marketing teams are not already active on social media, senior leadership can set the example of what good social selling activity looks like.
3 Ways Leaders Can Use Social Media
One of the biggest impediments to senior leadership using social media is simply that they don’t know what to do.
While leaders are certainly familiar with social media and the concept of social selling, they may not know what activities they can do that will help support their team.
Here are three simple ways leaders can take part in a social selling strategy:
- Connect With Your Team – Connect with all your team members on social media, especially those in outward-facing sales, service, and marketing positions. This will enable you to expand their content to your network and give you visibility into their activity.
- Share Content – Actively share content that your team is creating. This can include marketing blog posts, infographics, press releases, webinars, etc. Even better, create your own original content that you can share.
- Engage in Discussions – Join discussions on social platforms with your team, vendors, clients, and prospects. This provides another opportunity for you to engage your network and assist in the sales process.
Going beyond connecting, sharing, and engaging, some senior leadership may start leading social selling activities in their companies. By becoming a thought leader in their industry, a senior leader can position their company as a front-runner and innovator.
Suffice it to say, in today’s digital world, senior leaders should ensure they are actively implementing social channels into their responsibilities to support their team.
