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When thinking about Direct Selling, most individuals picture a consultant with a magazine going door-to-door, offering their products. However, with the advancement in technology and the rise in social media use, Direct Selling has gone from solely face-to-face interaction to interaction via social media networks as well.
The evolution of communication styles has led to the birth of unique marketing styles, such as Social Selling. Social Selling aims to build a bond between Direct Selling consultants and consumers that will establish trust between the two, which will ultimately lead to purchases and maybe even new consultants. However, Social Selling is not about only posting content on social media and hoping for the best, like any marketing or advertising campaign, there needs to be established rules and guidelines for what is posted and done. Luckily, we have put together some suggestions to keep in mind when implementing and strengthening Social Selling in your company.
Personalized Social Media Content for Social Selling in Direct Selling
Like your original face-to-face selling strategy, which should provide consultants with tools and content to sell their products, your Social Selling strategy should also provide your consultants with such.
Creating content such as infographics, videos, and posts for your consultants to share on their social media site can help guarantee that your consultants are adequately representing your brand. This company produced content will also ensure that your consultants are properly advertising your products as well as correctly informing consumers about each product.
Keep in mind that although we recommend that you create content for your consultants, this does not mean you should produce blanket content that will work for anyone and everyone. The idea of Social Selling is to create a more personalized and trustworthy bond between consumers and consultants, which is why your content has to work towards achieving this goal. Create content for all of the possible personas your consultants can interact with as well as all the sales funnel stages the consumers can go through so that your consultants can personalize their social networks with the content that best fits their target market. This personalization will also help guarantee that consumers do not come across cookie-cutter profiles but rather profiles that are created to help them satisfy their needs and wants.
Great Guidelines for Great Social Selling Posts
Along with providing company-created content, you should also consider providing guidelines for your consultants. These guidelines can consist of times and days to post, what caption styles to use, content-persona description, so your consultants can know which content will work best with their consumers, and guides recommending what should be posted in-between promotional material. Ideas of posts you can recommend to your consultants as a way to avoid promotional post saturation are: if your product is jewelry, your consultants can write about fashion and style trends; if you sell kitchenware, your consultants can recommend recipes, and if beauty products are what your company sells, consultants can write about health and wellness.
Other posts can consist of consultants giving tips and tricks on how to use your products, third party reviews & testimonials, quizzes that recommend products according to lifestyles, etc. Tell your consultants to post gifs, memes, videos, and posts that are not related to your product. The variety in these posts can make consumers feel like they can relate to your consultants and will most likely help fortify the relationship and build trust, two actions that can help guarantee purchases and customer loyalty.
Influencer Marketing for Direct Selling
As mentioned, times have changed, and so have marketing and buying methods. Consumers no longer rely on commercials and infomercials to decide on what to buy; they have shifted to becoming informed through research and recommendations of individuals who are recognized in a specific industry.
The individuals consumers are relying on to make decisions are influencers who are known for being knowledgable in industries such as health & beauty, technology, fashion, food, and much more. We recommend that you identify your industry influencer, study them, and encourage your consultants to take inspiration from them. This inspiration will help your consultants pave the path to becoming an influencer themselves, which will lead to success in your Social Selling strategy.
Not sure how to identify the right influencer or how influencer marketing can help your business? Read our Influencer Marketing article to learn more.
Bonus: Blogs & Microblogs
Although this is a trickier form of content, encouraging your consultants to create blogs or microblogs can help increase consumer engagement. Blogs can serve as a form for your consultants to interact with consumers by teaching, entertaining, informing, and solving problems. Blog topics can also help improve brand recognition and serve as a hook to keep your consumers coming back for more information and ultimately leading to increased purchase possibilities.
S4DS and Social Selling
Implement an effective social selling process by providing your consultants and influencer with access to a virtual office portal where they can:
- Have a replicated site that can be personalized to reflect their consumer ‘s preferred products
- Use our CRM service to obtain the recommended company-created content.
- Access our social media integration services to link their social media accounts and share updates from their personalized sites.
Learn more about how S4DS can help you implement and strengthen your Social Selling strategy here:
Related Content:
https://www.s4ds.com/blog/top-5-social-selling
https://www.s4ds.com/blog/direct-selling-social-selling-practices