b'BUSINESS PROMOTING YOURSELF & YOUR BUSINESSFOCUS- consistency creates credibilitySOCIAL SELLING - THE LONG GAMEBuilding business relationships onlineI n a fast and ever changing digitalthat are on websites you may not havebe relevant to others you share it with too.world, its no surprise that yourheard of but will be far more valuableKeep the momentum and create new next customer may very well beto you than the big mass-usage socialcontent by using a simple publishing found via online sources.networking sites.calendar or schedule to support your time output. Use one of the many great social Within that broad digital space, SocialEngage media posting tools (I like Hootsuite, but Media is one of the most key areas whereOnce you have found your targetthere are lots out there) to regularly share businesses of all sizes are spending moreaudience start to think about how youyour content and thoughts.and more time (and energy!) to find andengage them. Avoid the temptation to justThere are lots of great free content curation attract new customers.This has given rise tostart connecting and selling - we have alltools out there - Google Alerts will email the concept of Social Selling. been bombarded by the over-zealousyou links to content on any topic or key The definition of social selling is Thesales person, desperate to close you as aword you wish by setting up a simple alert process of developing relationshipsdeal that day! or two. My personal favourite is Flipboard.as part of the sales process, often viaRelationships are built over time.Followcom - tell it the areas youre interested in social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter,or join existing groups and just sit in andand it will scour the web for quality content Facebook, and Pinterest. This means farlisten to start with. Begin to pick up thethat not only is a great read for you, but from being a chance to find and sell itstone and pace of the discussions, work outagain can be part of what you share with more of an approach to engaging andwhat the key issues are and how the groupyour audience.nurturing potential customers. In practice,tend to share and discuss. Nobody likesWhatever your business focus, you see it more like Social Engagement.a gate crasher - listening is a key skill, socertainly can use these basic rules to Basically meaning a new opportunity touse this to not just understand what they areguide you to find more of the people you find and connect with prospects. interested in, but to also help you start towould like to engage and build a business Award-winning digital agency Junction hasshape your content and messages, that yourelationship with - a relationship that may a firm focus on engagement and work withthen know are far more likely to be relevanttake some time to build - social selling is many organisations on how they better useto the group or network. the long game, not a shortcut to short lived social media (and apply Social Sellingsales success. principles). DifferentiateThe media team at Junction have created a simple but powerful model to use, toAs expected, your competition will also be help ensure you and your business standusing social networking sites to sell their out amongst your competition in thisservices, so it is undoubtedly a very busy competitive, crowded and noisy space. and saturated space. However, there is always the opportunity to stand out and be THE REaD MODEL memorable. Many businesses strive to create and share Reach content that positions them as Thought Although the temptation is to use theLeaders - this is very challenging to best-known social networking sites,achieve - there are only a handful of true such as Facebook and LinkedIn, try andthought leaders for most industries. be agnostic. Think about your targetInstead think about simply being helpful. market - who are you trying to reachCreating posts and content that answer and where might they spend time online.some of the problems discussed always go This often will be the big sites, but thinkdown well. Answer other peoples postsSteve Kemish has worked in also about context - are they going onand start to position yourself and yourdigital marketing since 1998.to sites such as Facebook to hear frombusiness as relevant and knowledgeable,Managing Partner at Junction, businesses like yours? Try and researchsimply by being helpful and useful - adding which social networking sites have the bestvalue to what you say or comment on. tutor at the IDM, Associate concentration of relevant targets. There areAlongside your own content, start to curatelecturer of Marketing at some good research tools you can use forcontent too. Share articles stories andOxford Brookes University. free for this. Klear.com is one example.videos that others have written - third partyLongstanding Superbrands You could also just ask! Talk to yourorganisations that are not competitive to customers and existing network and askyou.judge.them where they tend to go online forIf these resonate with you (and yourejunction-agency.comindustry news/views. You often find eachrepresentative of the social network or industry has very specific groups or forumsgroup, you have joined) then its likely to 20'