How does social media get you sales?
[Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Australia]
How does social media get you sales?
In this Facebook Live, I address the question of “How does social media actually get you sales?”
Here’s the 3 things
#1. If people in your social network know what you do, they can be an army of people referring you business!
#2. It accelerates people being able to know, like and trust you!
#3. It actually ‘buys’ you time because you don’t need to repeat yourself all the time in one-on-one meetings.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: “How does social media get you sales?”
This is one of my favourite places that I used to come to growing up actually. Coming to watch the Broncos play.
Today’s topic is, how does social media actually help you get sales?
And I’ve been having a few meetings this week whilst I’ve been back in my hometown of Brisbane, and some of the things that have come up have been along the lines of a lot of people complaining or saying they don’t have the time to do social media. And also if they do have time, well I tried it for a week, and it didn’t lead to any sales or anything else. So how does it actually work? So I just wanted to address a couple of these things whilst it was on my mind.
#1: Social media is ‘social’ so don’t ‘sell hard’
The first thing to keep in mind is that social media is social, so you’re not always looking to use it as a tool to be selling. And if you’re interested in this sort of stuff, give it some likes, tag a friend. Type yes in the comments if you’re interested in getting access to some of my marketing templates. But with social media, the name of the game isn’t always to be selling. That said, it can actually lead to sales quickly and long-term as well. Now if you think about it, how many people have you got in your Facebook, and Instagram, and LinkedIn network?
How many people are in your network?
Often on average, I think it’s about 300 but for most people that I seem to come across, it’s way more than that. Also think about, how many of those, say 300 people, actually know what it is that you do? Because if they do know what you do, then you could easily have an army of people referring your work, but if they don’t know what you do, then there’s all this value that you’re potentially leaving on the table. Because you will have seen it on Facebook or on LinkedIn, people will actually do a post and say, “Does anybody know a good mortgage broker? Does anybody have a real estate agent that they can recommend?” And basically if your friends and your contacts know what it is that you do, then they can easily refer you.
Think about the power of that. People are turning to social networks first. It’s always trust the recommendations from a friend. And if your network, if your peers, if your friends know what it is that you do, then you can very easily have a whole bunch of people being your eyes, and your ears, and your marketing team, and your referral team sending you leads.
SIDE TANGENT: King Wally Lewis
Now you can see behind me here, King Wally. He was my hero growing up. Probably still is. Wait, we’ll get a bit more of a view of him for the international viewers and friends that might be watching this. There we go King Wally. Suncorp Stadium was called Lang Park when I was growing up, but actually I think it’s Lang Park because the ground they play on in Suncorp Stadium’s the stadium around it, but maybe someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that’s the case.
#1. Stay top of mind and connected with your network
Anyway, that’s how social media leads to sales. That’s one of the ways social media leads to sales. If you’ve got all those people, eyes and ears referring your work, that is a good place to start. Now it doesn’t have to be over-the-top. You don’t have to even do sort of videos like this.
I know that’s something I’m experimenting with, but basically it doesn’t even have to be too in your face or too over-the-top. It can just be like a photo of you at work or an article maybe that you’ve written that you share on your Facebook page, or it might just be a photo, or a post, or something talking about your line of work.
If you’re a yoga instructor or a personal trainer, why not just take a couple of photos in a yoga setting, or in a fitness setting, or whatever else, and so you’re staying top-of-mind, and you’ve got all these people able to refer your work when they are asked socially or via social media.
#2. Accelerate trust with social media
Now the second way that social media helps with sales is that it’s a good way for people to get to know, like, and trust you. Because I’m in internet marketing, or I prefer the word online marketing or digital marketing, I know that there’s a very low level of trust with people who are involved with online marketing because many people that have gone before us may have set the bar really low.
Now I know this is the case too with real estate agents, or mortgage brokers, or other types of professions that people don’t intrinsically trust, and they don’t exactly want somebody hassling them all the time. Because salespeople often, whatever you’re selling, have this reputation for just hassling you and wearing you down with phone calls and follow-up and nobody really wants that.
But if you can turn it on its head and become the person that’s actually like a trusted advisor and the go-to person because they actually communicate with you, and turn up, and share staff that’s valuable to you, and doesn’t hassle you necessarily, and doesn’t follow you up, people often want to know what you’ve got to say, but they don’t always want to pick up the phone and call you because then all of a sudden you become a prospect, and they badger you, and hassle you, and want the sale. So people turn to Google. They turn to social networks because they do actually want to know the stuff you’re talking about, but they don’t necessarily want to be hassled.
Publish useful stuff so people can get to know you
So put useful stuff on social media. Allow people to get to know, like, and trust you, and this will go a long way to building that trust. And of course most of us know that we buy from people that we know, like, and trust, so doing basic stuff on social media allows people to do that.
Say you’re a real estate agent, people want to… I know real estate agents are nice people for the most part, but people may have this preconceived idea and if you’re the nice, friendly person on Instagram, or LinkedIn, or Facebook, or wherever, then that is going to accelerate the trust, and hopefully you’re going to be the person that they think of when the time comes to make that decision or to refer somebody else.
#3: Social media buys you time because you reach people at scale
The third way to think of social media is that it actually buys you time. This is in stark contrast to what most people think, and most people think that it is a time-consuming activity that doesn’t really bear any fruit. The reason I say it buys you time is because of this. You could be saying the same thing to different people all day, every day, and if you’re lucky, you might have 10, 15 meetings in a day if you flat chat. And often you are saying the same thing, especially if you’re a business owner, especially if you’re in a sales business development or professional services type role. You’re often telling people, “What’s going on in the market? What’s your take on this? What’s your opinion of this thing in the news?”
Answer common questions and post it online
What you can actually do to free up your time is to record a video. Maybe like this, maybe just a YouTube video, maybe just share your ideas on your Facebook page and instead of… Well, maybe even as well as because face-to-face meetings are important, so are phone calls, so’s the follow-up. That is important, especially for people who are in the market to buy from you straight away. However, there’s a whole bunch of people who are interested in what you’ve got to say but aren’t ready to buy, and you can actually share that same message via social media, Instagram, whatever, without the people who aren’t ready to buy chewing up all of your time.
Reach the people you wouldn’t normally get time to speak with 1-on-1
You can actually reach these people at scale because you’d be sharing it with your LinkedIn network, or your Facebook network, or whatever, so that actually buys you time because some of those meetings that you may not need to take or some of those conversations that you may not need to have, because they’ve already seen your video or seen what you’ve had to say, can be removed and you can replace that with more meaningful activity. As in potentially talking, when you do have that meeting, not having to cover the first 10 or 15 minutes of your personal opinion on X, Y, and Z. So if you do social media, it can actually buy you time.
Content stays online so you can refer people to your responses in future
The other good thing is it stays online, so you can refer people to it. If they ask you a question and you’ve already answered it, instead of spending 20 minutes on the phone, send them a link and say, “Look, once you’ve seen that, then let’s have a conversation, so that I can, I don’t know, add more value or whatever else.”
That’s my take on how social media can actually get you sales.
To recap.
#1. Let people know what it is that you do in a non-in-your-face, non-salesy way. People know you’re a mortgage broker. People know you’re a financial advisor or a stockbroker. Let people know through photos, or through articles, or whatever else. It doesn’t have to be over-the-top, and then you build that army of referrals.
#2. Second thing is social media helps you build trust. Many of us, me in particular, online marketing is a low trust industry. Real estate is a low trust industry. There’s doctors and nurses who are typically very much trusted, but if you have an industry that people may not trust you straight away. Social media is a great way to increase that trust and again to do it at scale because lots of people can see what it is that you’re posting.
#3. Thirdly, social media actually buys you time because you can do something once like a video like this, or a conversation, or a few ideas you might have. Because lots of people can see that, you don’t need to be repeating yourself like a parrot all day when you do have your sales conversations or your sales meetings.
You can spend that time advancing an opportunity, or a deal, or closing more deals. Whatever it is, you don’t need to be saying the same thing over, and over, and over again.
That’s a wrap on how social media gets you sales
So look, that is my marketing video for today from myself and King Wally there at Suncorp Stadium in Brissy. I loved coming here as a kid watching the Broncos. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether you like these weekly Facebook Lives where I’m just doing it wherever I happen to be.
I’ll try and pick a nice location for you. I’ve done them recently at the Gold Coast, and Brissy now, often down at Bondi, and sometimes from home, but people are telling me the ones from home are a bit boring, and they prefer these out and about ones.
So let us know your thoughts. All right folks have a good afternoon, have a lovely weekend, and leave your comments down below. Cheers.
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