The social web can be a good way to draw attention to yourself and attract new customers. There are a few points to bear in mind so that you don't come across as pushy when social selling, but instead appear trustworthy and helpful. In this article, I'll explain the basics and the most important steps.

As a freelancer or agency, you need a reliable stream of new orders. This is true even if you make most of your money through maintenance contracts and similar recurring income. It would be perfect if there was a place where you could casually present yourself to your potential clients so that they automatically take notice of you.

And, yes, this place really does exist and it is called the social web or social media. In this respect, this article could already be over: Open Facebook, offer your services and bang, business success. In the meantime, you can sit back and relax and ...
Unfortunately, it doesn't work that easily. There's one catch in particular: it's called "social" media and not "sales" media for a reason. Your potential customers are on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram in order to

• Staying up to date on interesting topics and people
• To avoid boredom or
• To distract yourself from more important tasks

A sales pitch usually doesn't really fit into the concept. Nevertheless, the balancing act known in specialist circles as "social selling" can be successful. I will now explain how this works.

What is social selling?

With social selling, you use your presence on social networks to increase your profile and show that you are trustworthy. This only leads to sales in the long term. If you're still looking for the right social media platforms for your business, start by reading my articles Social media for businesses and Social media platforms in comparison. There you can find out more about who LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube & Co. are really worthwhile for.

In this respect, social selling is similar to content marketing: among other things, it also serves to make potential new customers aware of you and gradually bring about a positive change in their minds. In both disciplines, it is also important to understand and adopt the perspective of your customers.

And just as content marketing does not focus on marketing, social selling does not focus on selling. It's confusing, but unfortunately we have to live with these terms.

Social selling explained step by step

Step 1: Decide on the right platform

When it comes to social selling, the business network LinkedIn and special LinkedIn marketing are usually not far away. This also seems very logical, as it is primarily about business matters. LinkedIn also offers you many opportunities to get active: This ranges from simple posts and detailed articles to groups, videos and livestreams and, more recently, newsletters.

LinkedIn has also introduced a "Social Selling Index": Here you can find out how well you use the network on a scale from 0 to 100. If you are logged in, you can get the evaluation here. In my opinion, you should not take the result as the absolute truth. But it is suitable as a suggestion for your activities.

At the same time, social selling does not automatically mean "LinkedIn". As indicated above, the customer perspective is very important. And that means at this point:

1. Where do you find your potential customers?
2. Where is she open to (also) getting to know your professional side?

Depending on the business field and target group, the answer may even be TikTok. Incidentally, you can often find out which platforms and networks are suitable from social media monitoring: After all, this is where you can see where people are talking about you and your offers. It can be a good idea to be active there yourself - and not just for the purpose of social selling.

And another thought: people prefer to deal with people. This is also true in the B2B sector. That's why, depending on your target group and business field, it can be a good thing if potential new customers also see your private page from time to time. This is another argument for not only thinking about LinkedIn when it comes to social selling or occasionally posting personal things on LinkedIn.

Step 2: Build an appealing profile

Before you get started with your social selling content, you should optimize your profile on the social network of your choice. Because as soon as you gain attention, more and more people will look here to see who they are dealing with. So make sure that these interested parties get a good impression of your services or what your agency has to offer.

LinkedIn also has advantages here, of course, as it gives you so many options to present yourself: You don't just show your CV here, but can also highlight certain content and customize many other things.

On most other platforms, you only have a few lines of "bio" and a link. A major hurdle can be getting to the heart of you and your offers with these limited resources. After all, firstly, you want to appeal to your intended target group and secondly, you want to stand out from your competitors.

So you have to invest a little effort here. In my opinion, it's worth it because your entire public image will benefit from this clarity. Once you've done that, you'll also need a good profile picture and a supporting cover photo. Then you are well prepared for the time being.

Step 3: Create an idea and topic plan

Now it's about answering the question: "What should I post about?" Some people just come up with topics off the cuff. That's great, but it doesn't work for everyone. You may also produce a lot of waste.

Especially if you are not used to publishing something about professional topics on a regular basis, you should create an initial list of ideas. This is about things like:

• What questions do your customers ask?
• What problems do you solve for them?
• Which requests are you most often confronted with (and which of them would you like to receive more often than before)?

It is important that you also keep an eye on the interests and needs of your potential customers at this point. Because I'm sure that if you're well versed in your professional field, you'll quickly come up with lots of topic ideas. But which of them are relevant for your customers and which are only relevant for you?

Think of the infamous "added value": What you publish should be valuable and useful for the recipients. As mentioned above, your sales target takes a back seat - just like with content marketing.

At the same time, you should make sure that your ideas match your goals. For example, if you want to position yourself as a WooCommerce specialist, focus on that, even if you are also very familiar with other e-commerce systems.

All of these considerations will initially result in a loose list of ideas, which you will then use to draw up your topic plan. In this plan, write down the main issues you want to address and categorize your ideas accordingly. This is helpful so that you will still know in a few months' time which plan you used to approach the matter.

Step 4: Implement your topics appropriately

With the topic plan, you now know what you would like to post about, but not yet how. This question is mainly about the right content format: should it be a short post, a longer article or a video? The following points will determine your choice:

1. What is realistically feasible, i.e.: what you are confident of, what you have the budget for and what you feel like doing. For example, livestreams may be all the rage, but if you don't like them and don't want to get involved, then don't do it. Or: videos are great, but you would have to divert the resources for them elsewhere.
2. Which is a good way of presenting the topic. If you want to give instructions, a screencast or a series of photos is sometimes much more concise than a lengthy text. A complex topic, on the other hand, might be better explained in an article than in a video.
3. What your target group likes and expects. This can vary greatly depending on the age and person group. Look around in your subject area: What successful examples do you see? But also: Which potentially successful format have your competitors overlooked so far?
4. What is popular on the platform. If you want to achieve something on the social web, you should always look at which formats the providers themselves are currently promoting. When LinkedIn introduced the article function, for example, it was initially able to reach a lot of readers. This has since become much less common. Instead, the focus is more on photos and videos.

A final note: The question of content format is not an either/or decision. You can implement a topic in several formats in order to reach different people and be present on more than one platform. The only important thing here is point 1 from above: What is realistically feasible? It often works better to concentrate fully on one thing than to get bogged down and spread your limited resources too thinly.

Step 5: Appear regularly

After all the preparatory work, it's now a matter of actually implementing your ideas. In larger organizations, the topics and formats flow into an editorial plan. See also my tips on content strategy. The editorial plan is particularly helpful when different people, departments and possibly external service providers need to be coordinated. The plan itself specifies who posts what, when, how it should be implemented, what else is needed, etc.

If you are doing social selling for yourself or in a small team, this is clearly oversized. In this case, you should still decide for yourself or your team how often you want to be active. Set this as a reminder, as a recurring to-do or as a regular calendar entry - however you organize yourself. If you don't do this, it will quickly get lost in the daily grind. Because day-to-day business usually seems more important than a customer project that you might win through social selling in a few months - until you could really use one in a few months' time ...

By the way, appearing regularly does not mean only publishing something yourself. For example, you should also get into the habit of participating in discussions in relevant groups and leaving comments on other posts. Use the social network actively and be a positive, helpful member. This increases the chances of you being seen and discovered.

Step 6: Find elegant ways to make sales

As mentioned above, you should put flat sales tactics on the back burner when it comes to social selling. At the same time, this does not mean that you leave it entirely to chance whether you generate new leads. See the series of articles on customer acquisition or the corresponding e-book here in the magazine.

Among other things, a good transition to the next phases of your sales funnel is important. This is where the aforementioned content marketing can come into play again: This will hopefully result in good and relevant content on a regular basis that you can refer to. In addition to articles on your website, this could be white papers and other useful downloads or a (free) webinar.

Another option is to make direct contact with people who have already shown interest in you or your agency. The LinkedIn Sales Navigator, for example, can help you here - another reason why the business network is regularly cited as the number one point of contact when it comes to social selling. This paid service is basically an upgraded version of search with additional functions such as a lead list, saved searches and much more.

Ideally, there is already a relationship with a potentially interested person through your activities on the social web. This is where the terms "social" and "selling" finally come together.

More reach with helpful articles

As always on the social web, the potential reach is particularly tempting. After all, interesting and helpful posts on a social network like LinkedIn can become a viral hit. How many people you reach does not depend on your financial investment, as is the case with advertisements. At the same time, however, there is no guarantee of success and only vague recommendations.

The steps mentioned here are not a sprint. Take time to evaluate and optimize your activities. Don't forget to listen. And keep in mind as motivation that your findings from the social web can have a positive impact on other areas: You will learn more about your potential customers and can, for example, adapt products and offers accordingly.