Social media can be an effective means of following trends that affect your sales.

Take for example the members of one NBA franchise’s sales team, who followed Twitter trends during the draft to see what players were generating the biggest buzz. During season ticket sales calls, they capitalized on certain players’ popularity to increase their season ticket sales.

As the NBA team discovered, social media, even for the purpose of selling, must be a two-way street with customers. Researching what your customers perceive to be benefits about your product and using that information as a selling feature can increase your sales. Here are other reasons why social media can be an effective sales tool for your company:

• You can have public conversations that let all your salespeople hone in on trends and excite others to join the conversation.
• You can solidify your brand identity for your customers. Your content and interactions should look and feel the same across all different platforms. Consistency of messaging is key.
• Your customers will feel like equal participants in the conversation when you keep your content personal and local. Corporate policy should set the direction not the content.
• You can help the buyer become informed. Social media selling is best practiced as Sales 2.0 with a focus on the customer not the quota.

To use social media as a sales tool you must first make social media part of your routine. Let’s examine that phrase for some important lessons that can lead your business to successful sales.

Part of – Social media should complement other selling activities you already have in place. It does not need to eclipse traditional marketing channels such as publicity and advertising.

Your – This personal pronoun functions as a clue, signifying that you need to develop a personal relationship with your customers and prospects on social media platforms. Without developing a personal relationship, your messages won’t connect with your customers and you may miss what matters most to them.

Routine – Routines happen only when you do the same thing each and every day.The NBA team’s salespeople didn’t check Twitter just once; they tracked the conversations over months. After they gathered the initial data, they reached out to prospective season ticket purchasers with direct messages. If you’ve only experimented with social media before, challenge your company to expand the opportunities for these tools and use them every day.

Social media selling can help you find new prospects, engage with current customers and push the sale. If you need a game plan for reaching customers through social media, Checkerboard can help develop strategy or build custom platforms.