Social Selling Action Plan For Microsoft Partners. Prepared For The Channel Marketing Alliance January, 2018

Transcription

1 Social Selling Action Plan For Microsoft Partners Prepared For The Channel Marketing Alliance January, 2018

2 How To Use This Action Plan Successful sellers and marketers are using social sites to gain access to decision makers, build meaningful relationships faster, and drive positive business outcomes by sharing relevant content via social networks. Collectively, this process is known as social selling and it is having a major impact for individuals and companies alike. We have created this document to help you on your social selling journey. In the pages that follow, we have detailed five crucial steps for effective social selling at your organization. Within each, we have also highlighted specific keys to success and best practices recommended to help you maximize your results. 2

3 Revenue Focused ^ Your 5 Step Social Selling Action Plan Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Step Two: Build Your Network Step Three: Gain Social Insight Step Four: Strategically Publish Content Step Five: Engage With A Purpose 3

4 Key Point: Fish Where The Fish Are Focus your efforts on the social networks that have the most activity for your geolocation and line of business. Helpful Tips for Choosing Your Network Strategy: Focus on top performing networks for B2B (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+) Review content in each social network your are considering to ensure it is relevant Start by focusing your efforts on 2-3 social networks Map your buyer persona to determine these networks Review your efforts and adjust your strategy as appropriate 4

5 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Key Points: Your social media presence is your introduction to buyers 81% of individuals are more likely to engage with a strong, professional brand This is NOT your resume Focus on turning your social profiles into lead generation tools 5

6 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Key To Success: Polished Branding 85% of people look at your profile images first, before anything else Polished Branding Checklist: Professional-Looking Headshot Extended Header/Background Photo Maintain Consistency Across Networks 6

7 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Helpful tips for uploading a professional profile image Choose a recent photo or take a new one Stand in front of a neutral background Ensure there is proper lighting Wear solid colored clothing Stand slightly askew Aim to capture only your shoulders and head Not your full body Smile! 7

8 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Your profile imagery is often your first opportunity to make a positive impression. LinkedIn Profile Photo Specification Checklist 4MB Maximum Total Size File Formats Accepted: JPG, GIF, and PNG At least 200 x 200 pixels and a maximum of 500 x 500 pixels LinkedIn Background Specifications 4MB Maximum Total Size Ideal Pixel Size: 1400 x 425 Twitter Profile Photo Specification Checklist Up to 500 x 500 pixels File Formats Accepted: JPG, GIF, and PNG Twitter Header Photo Specifications 1500 x 1500 pixels File Formats Accepted: JPG, GIF, and PNG 8

9 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Key To Success: Optimized For Search 93% of B2B buyers are using social media search in the buying process. Your social accounts will appear in search results if they contain keywords that match a users search. Recipe For Social Profile SEO (pages 10-12) Identify Profile Keywords Optimize Profile Areas Track Your Results And Refine Your Efforts 9

10 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles First, identify your keywords Keyword Identification Exercise Choose 2-3 keywords that help describe how your products and solutions solve a business need or add value. List your keywords below: Before you optimize your profile, note how many people viewed your profile and how often you have shown up in search results. (Metric is shown on left side of home page on LinkedIn). 10

11 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Next, optimize select areas of your profile to contain those keywords LinkedIn: Custom Headline (example below) Summary Skills and Endorsements Experience, Education, Organizations, Interests Twitter: Username Profile Name Biography Location Twitter Profile Image Name 11

12 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Finally, track your results and refine your efforts After one week, note how many people have now viewed your profile in the past day. After optimization, my profile was viewed times in the past day. Refine your profile as needed, increasing your keyword density and focusing on refining the other areas of your profile such as adding connections and earning endorsements which will help you rank higher. 12

13 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Key To Success: Showcase Unique Value Update areas of your profile to demonstrate the value that you help provide to others. Display Your Unique Value Through: Custom Headline (example on page 10) Detailed Summary/Bio Professional Portfolio Documents Content Publication 13

14 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Key To Success: Refine Your Settings LinkedIn Profile Settings Checklist Make Your Profile Public 1. When logged into LinkedIn, go to: 2. On the right hand side of the page, ensure that you have selected Make my public profile visible to everyone 3. Check all of the boxes under what you want to appear, as shown here (bottom right) Set your Public Profile URL 1. When logged into LinkedIn, go to: 2. Click the blue pencil icon under Your public profile URL (top right) 3. Enter text to appear at the end of your URL. Your text must be 5-30 characters (letters or numbers) and cannot include spaces, symbols, or special characters 14

15 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Key To Success: Refine Your Settings LinkedIn Profile Settings Checklist (continued) Refine Your Notification Settings 1. When logged into LinkedIn, go to: 2. You will see options to adjust which s you want to receive from LinkedIn. Ensure the radio dial next to Notifications is on, then click the down arrow next to Details under Notifications 3. Adjust the radio dial next to each area you want to edit your notifications for 4. Complete the same process for other Network Updates and Group Updates from within this section 15

16 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Key To Success: Refine Your Settings Twitter Settings Checklist Make Your Profile Public 1. When logged into Twitter, go to: 2. Ensure that you have NOT selected Protect my Tweets 3. Check Add a location to my Tweets and Let others find me by my address and by phone number Refine Your Notification Settings 1. When logged into Twitter, go to: 2. Select to be notified when there is activity related to you and your tweets, as well as your retweets (right). 16

17 Step One: Create Buyer-Centric Social Profiles Key To Success: Add Materials To LinkedIn s Professional Portfolio Step 1: Choose Which Sections You Want To Upload Material To (Summary, Experience, and/or Education) Step 2: Gather Your Collateral. Examples may include: White Papers Product Descriptions Case Studies Webinar Presentations Video Testimonials Infographics Step 3: Upload Collateral To Your Profile 1. Go to your profile page 2. Under each supported area, upload a file or enter a URL where your collateral is hosted by either clicking the corresponding icon under upload or link to media (above). 17

18 Step Two: Build Your Network Key Points: 80 out of 100 representatives prefer social media data over other data lists due to its accuracy Social networks contain robust social databases. Use data to find, qualify and segment your online audience 18

19 Step Two: Build Your Network Keys to Success: Leverage Social Search and Perform Data Hygiene Boolean Search: An advanced search process that combines keywords and operators to broaden, limit, or refine a search on social. Boolean Search Operators: Quotation Marks AND OR NOT Brackets ( ) 19

20 Step Two: Build Your Network Boolean Operator: Quotation Marks Quotation marks return a search for an exact phrase. Senior Developer vs Senior Developer Senior Developer will return results containing senior and developer, but may not be in the same sentence or paragraph. Ex: Forrest Smith is a first-year developer at Google. He completed his thesis his senior year at UNC. Senior Developer will return results that contain the phrase together in that order. Ex: Josh Adams is a senior developer at Google 20

21 Step Two: Build Your Network Boolean Operator: AND The AND function will return all words in the query. Ex: senior developer AND programmer Will return results with both senior developer and the word programmer and any results that have either programmer or senior developer (but not both) will not appear. 21

22 Step Two: Build Your Network Boolean Operator: OR The OR function allows you to create a list of possibilities for which only one match is important. Ex: senior developer OR architect OR programmer Boolean Operator: NOT NOT is the command of exclusion. Ex: President NOT owner 22

23 Step Two: Build Your Network Boolean Operator: Brackets ( ) Phrases in brackets get priority over words or phrases around it. Ex: People who work at IBM or Oracle or Red Hat or Microsoft who have also reached Vice President or Director level. To combine both commands into one search, we use brackets to tell the search engine that these are separate conditions: ( Vice President OR Director) AND (IBM OR Oracle OR Red Hat OR Microsoft) 23

24 Step Two: Build Your Network Introduction to Data Hygiene Good search criteria will help yield filtered results. The next step is to help clean up those results through data hygiene. Use saved searches (both LinkedIn and Twitter) and lists on Twitter to organize your network and help you gain social insight (step #3) to help you make an empowered connection. 24

25 Step Two: Build Your Network Performing Search and Data Hygiene on LinkedIn Click the magnifying glass next to the search bar or go to Use Boolean Operators to search by keyword, name, title, company and school 25

26 Step Two: Build Your Network Performing Search and Data Hygiene on Twitter Go to twitter.com/search Use their Operator Guide, Advanced Search fields, or Boolean operators to find targeted users or tweets. Click operators under the search bar for a list of operators (right) Go to Twitter s advanced search page at to use search fields Use Boolean operators in the generic search bar Save your searches (upper right corner of search results) to access saved searches at a later time 26

27 Step Two: Build Your Network Performing Search and Data Hygiene on Twitter (continued) Twitter Lists To create a list: Go to your Lists page at Click Create New List Enter the name of your list, a short description of the list, and select if you want the list to be public or private Click Save list To add or remove people from your lists: Click the gear icon drop down menu on a user's profile Click Add or remove from lists Select which list you want to add/remove the user to/from 27

28 Step Two: Build Your Network Key to Success: Make An Empowered Connection Tips to Make an Empowered Connection Custom Connection Request Introductions on LinkedIn Tips To Get A High Response Rate: 1. Start with something personal 2. Be clear about why you want the introduction 3. Be gracious 4. Offer a way out 28

29 Step Three: Gain Social Insight Key Points: Gain insight and intelligence from social actions completed online via social listening Sales intelligence increases revenue productivity per sales rep by 17% 29

30 Step Three: Gain Social Insight Social Listening The act of listening to conversations on social sites to help you gain insight or knowledge to help you with your social sales efforts. Selective Social Listening Will Help You Become More Efficient Rather than trying to listen to all conversations online, organize your social networks to identify valuable conversations online. Leverage selective listening to be efficient with your time to gain the most value. 30

31 Step Three: Gain Social Insight Key to Success: Practice Selective Listening Where to look: Status Updates Groups Twitter Lists Social Searches What to look for: Who is talking about your industry Common questions, needs, trends Competitive intelligence Individual motivators Buying signals 31

32 Step Four: Strategically Publish Content Key Point: Not All Content Is King. For the best results, you must send the right content to the right person at the right time in the buying process 32

33 Step Four: Strategically Publish Content Key to Success: Ensure all content published contains key characteristics The 5 Characteristics Of Highly Effective Content 1. Relevant Text Content relevant to your audience 2. Clickable Asset A hyperlink someone can click on for more information 3. Visual Enhancer An image, video or infographic 4. Network-Specific Language Appropriate hashtags, post length, and tone 5. Targeted Messaging Mention of a user or company if applicable 33

34 Step Four: Strategically Publish Content Key to Success: Use Network Specific Language Do: Do cross promote posts that include content that neutral in language to multiple social networks at the same time Don t: Don t share a post to LinkedIn that uses a Twitter handle to mention another user Don t share a post to LinkedIn that includes shorthand or Twitter-specific acronyms Don t share a post on Twitter that is longer than 280 characters 34

35 Step Four: Strategically Publish Content Key to Success: Use Proper Hashtag Etiquette Use hashtags on all supported networks including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus to increase your reach Use the # sign before the selected keyword or phrase -- No spaces allowed Hashtags are not case sensitive Hashtags can occur anywhere in a tweet Punctuation after a hashtag will not be retained as part of the hashtag link Avoid over-tagging by using only one or two hashtags per post 35

36 Step Four: Strategically Publish Content Key to Success: Targeted Messaging Target individuals when possible through mentions or private messaging Otherwise, reach all buyer stages with a blend of content types (next slide) 6 out of 10 B2B buyers chose the vendor who provided the best mix of content for each stage of their purchasing process 36

37 The graphic to the right includes the type of content individuals most want to consume at each stage of the buying cycle. Publishing a mix of content will help you become a part of conversations in all stages. 37

38 Step Four: Strategically Publish Content Key to Success: The Rule Out of every 6 posts you publish: 4 should focus on providing value 1 should include a humanizing element 1 should contain hard sales content Remember that providing value helps you build trust with your audience 38

39 Step Four: Strategically Publish Content Key to Success: Time Management Build social into your daily routine by reserving time in your calendar each morning and/or afternoon for social sales activities Be purposeful with the time you spend. For example, each day you may: Invite 2 new people to connect Interact with 2-3 users Publish 1 piece of content Curate content from multiple sources Use tools to improve efficiency and effectiveness 39

40 Step Five: Engage With A Purpose Key to Success: Stay Alert For Trigger Events Two Types of Trigger Events: If you discover a buying signal from your social listening efforts (next slide) If you receive an expression of interest (interaction) on content you have published 40

41 Step Five: Engage With A Purpose Pay attention to buying signals laced within social conversations. Common examples of buying signals: Questions about a business problem Questions about (or frustration with) a competitor s solution An announcement of new senior management hire that indicates budget expansion Geographic expansion Questions about similar products Requests for product or service recommendations Engagement with a competitor s sales engineer Inquiries about product features, warranty, and pricing information 41

42 Step Five: Engage With A Purpose If someone interacts with your content or you find a buying signal, perform the 3 steps below: 1. Review the individual s social media profiles and gain social insight about them 2. Respond to them quickly and with value (answer their question, point them to an article with more information) 3. Engage with them and convert them offline 74% of buyers will choose the sales professional and solution that was FIRST to provide them value 42

43 Metrics To Measure Social Selling Results Vanity Metrics And Bottom-Line Metrics Profile views How you rank Keywords that led to you Network growth (social pipeline) CPM and CPC Web traffic Expressions of interest Earned Media Value (EMV) Social leads Cost per lead Lead quality Cost per customer acquisition Conversations Appointments Time to close Revenue 43

44 Best Practices For Scalable Success Content Synergy and Curation Sales and Marketing should work together! Marketers can help sales professionals by supplying corporate content that can be delivered to social networks for maximum success and reach. 44

45 Best Practices For Scalable Success Social Selling Technology Grapevine6 For Microsoft Partners Manage your social accounts from one location Access and share relevant Microsoft content Improve content frequency and efficiency Gain thought leadership Track your overall effectiveness Be social 24/7 with this mobile-first technology Learn more about the social selling technology for Microsoft Partners at: 45

46 About Grapevine6 Grapevine6 is a content engagement platform that accelerates sales and marketing efforts. Grapevine6 uses artificial intelligence to provide the content that moves sales opportunities through the pipeline in a more efficient and effective way. Grapevine6 solves the content challenges faced in deploying employee advocacy, content marketing and social selling, and works with existing sales and marketing investments to increase ROI. The social selling tool for every type of business. Grapevine6 serves businesses big and small, from corner start-ups to large financial institutions around the world. 46

47 Accelerate Your Success! To learn more about social selling or how Grapevine6 can help you supercharge your sales and marketing organization with best-in-class social sales strategy and technology visit or call us directly at (416)