Facebook is a juggernaut and a phenomenon. No one has exactly discovered how to leverage Facebook for massive sales. But it has more than 500 million users and is growing by more than one new user per second.
That being the case, Facebook is a useful tool for salespeople looking to attract new prospects while staying engaged with present customers.
Your profile
The first step in using Facebook to advance your sales goals is to make sure salespeople complete their profiles, which ask for info in each of these categories:
- Education and Work
- Philosophy
- Arts and Entertainment
- Activities and Interests
- Networks
- Basic information
- Contact information
Try to create an interesting profile to let people know who you are to open up sales opportunities. It’s a good idea to include your contact information and links to where you work and your LinkedIn profile.
Keep in mind that the more ways that people have to connect with you, the more ways you can positively influence them.
Build trust
People do business with and refer business to people they like and trust. By building relationships with business contacts on Facebook, you may increase the number of trusting relationships you have.
Facebook Groups are a good way to connect with businesspeople who fit your targeted sales demographic. You can start a group around any topic or idea that is relevant to your area of expertise or industry.
A starting point may be to think about what your product or service does to solve a problem and build your group around that topic. Once you have established a group, you can track conversations and create value for group members.
Here are six reasons why you can’t ignore Facebook:
- By posting interesting content on your wall, you keep your name in front of your customers and prospects.
- As people engage with you on Facebook, you increase your brand.
- Your friends and fans have friends. The average person on Facebook has 140 friends. When people are active on Facebook, their actions often have a ripple effect. When you engage people, other people will become aware of you and your business organically.
- Communicating frequently with your customers and friends strengthens your relationships with them and gives you the ability to see whether your relationships are growing stronger.
- By using keywords strategically, you increase your visibility on major search engines, since Facebook is indexed by all major search engines.
- Facebook is about creating, maintaining and enhancing relationships with people. Keep it updated and people will be more inclined to interact with you and your company.
Adapted from “The Social Media Sales Revolution,” by Landy Chase and Kevin Knebl. Chase is a sales consultant. Knebl is the owner of Knebl Communications, which specializes in online networking.
