Social capital – game on!

In my last blog I wrote about having a social media detox. It was time. It was well needed. Now I'm clearer in thought than ever about its value when it comes to selling. Social selling and social capital is what it's all about!

I don't need to tell you that the game of sales has got harder….but I'm going to!

It has! We're living in a digital era now. Technology and social media have changed everything.

We like, we follow, we subscribe and we link up. We post, we tweet and share – day in day out! We're oblivious to what life was like pre social – before. We're all inundated with messages and distractions. We're more busy than ever and never have there been fewer hours in the day to get our jobs done.

Urgh!

We're being told to “listen” and to share content so we can know our prospects and clients better and improve the relationships. We're being told to get friendlier and to express our vulnerabilities – to aid connection. We're online telling our stories and the world is taking note.

Much has changed, but also … much has not.

So, I’ve got a CRAZY question for you…and it relates to social selling.

How often do you go on social media for prospecting and selling? I'm talking about the 3 biggies for social selling – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – not quite the full Monty, but not too far off.

I know you're active on there, and I'm guessing that you're on certain platforms more than others (as they're fun) for quite a lot of your day. Obviously you're on them to drive your business forward. I know you wouldn't dream of being on there just to see what everyone else's doing. Or, even to”socialize” in the hope that your connections might buy from you. That would be plain silly!

So give it a moment, and think about it…

How often do you go on your social platforms? My guess is that you're on there at least 3 times a day if not more, for about 30 minutes, right?

Social Capital

Now I'm going to tell you something that quite frankly blew my mind. IBM reported that each additional relationship to your network is worth $948 to you (i.e. 100 relationships are worth $95,000! Now that's not quite enough for an Aston (my favourite car) but that's enough to buy a Porche!)

This is your social capital. The value of your network. It's a bigger asset than it ever was!

So if this interests you, watch my latest video where I reveal 6 tips to help you build your social capital and put your social media efforts into a social selling context – even if you're selling B2B.

It's time to delight your prospects, clients and customers, but I'll reveal more in a mo.

Cue video

Now I want to hear from you…

Tell me your story. Are you using social media to sell? If so, please share your stories and experience here and let us know what's working and what's not.

Thanks for participating!

With love and gratitude – as always,

P.S.

Finally, if you know someone who'd LOVE the insight from this post, please send them a link. You’ll find solo entrepreneurs, consultants and yes, even sales and marketing managers who manage people who'll be interested to hear about this.