Ultimate Guide to Social Selling the Inbound Way with Proven Tips

When you hear the term “social selling” what comes to mind? No doubt it’s the spammy, cold messages that come into your inbox from LinkedIn or X every day. And if you’ve discounted it as a way to generate leads, we get it. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Social selling can be an extremely effective business development tool.

Roughly 87% of sales professionals are already successfully selling on social media, and 59% of them say their companies are selling via social more than ever. It simply isn’t a flash in the sales pan. And, chances are, you may already be doing it yourself, you just don’t realize it.

So what is social selling the inbound way? Before we answer that question, let's answer this one: What is social selling?

Social selling is leveraging your social network to find the right prospects with whom to build trust, nurture relationships, and ultimately achieve your sales goals. With more than 5 billion people using at least one social media platform, your target audience is at your fingertips. Social selling takes this opportunity and runs with it.

Social selling the inbound way is using social media to get prospects to come to your business, rather than you having to actively reach out to them. It's all about having meaningful conversations with the right people at the right time in an enjoyable format. 
Social selling isn’t a magic bullet to hitting quota; it’s an enhanced way to do what you’ve already been doing and get more effective results.

Social Selling Strategy

Just like any other part of your marketing, using social media for sales requires a strategy. It's not just broadcasting and pushing your products and services on the daily.

Scott Tower, Director of Sales at Proposify, says,

I think generally, social is really underused in sales. I think the most low-hanging fruit is when you're in-cycle, connect with the people you're going to be talking to, the people who are going to get involved in the transaction later. Why not reach out to them early on? Make that connection. Then if you're having trouble looping them into the deal, that's another channel you can use. It's the easiest thing to do.

That's good advice, but before you start sending connection requests, remember that the traditional golden rules of selling still apply to social. You need to understand your sales lead and their business challenges, you need to have a solution that can solve their challenges, you need to be able to recognize a good lead from a bad one, and you need to be able to articulate why your company is the better choice.

Beyond posting, “Hey! Check this out!”, social media selling strategies are about finding ways to authentically engage with people on social media who have a problem that you can solve, or a solution you can sell.

The key is to allow people to engage with your brand on the platform of their choice.

Social Selling Platforms

You know them as social media platforms, but when you put them to work for you, they become social selling platforms.

Social Selling on LinkedIn

When it comes to B2B social selling, LinkedIn is probably the first platform you think of. Others like Facebook and Instagram are usually more focused on B2C while LinkedIn is inherently set up to make social selling for B2B easier.

Not only that, LinkedIn social selling is a breeze with tools geared specifically to sellers.

Build Your Brand

Most people put up some of their resume on their LinkedIn profile and call it a day, but if that’s all you do, you’re really missing out on a huge opportunity to build your brand. Expand on the summary section right under your name. Tell people who you are and what you do, include your unique selling proposition and testimonials. Add any and all kinds of media to your profile: interviews, podcasts, articles, videos, etc.

Posting your resume and work experience isn’t just about trying to land your next job opportunity; it’s about establishing your expertise and credibility. Prospects are researching you as much as you’re researching them. You need to make it easy for them to learn about you and want to engage.

If you’re rebranding or starting a new business, LinkedIn provides the opportunity to test your message. If you already have an active business, it allows you to promote your new book, event, product, service, etc.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

If you’re in sales and marketing or are a business owner, you need to have a Sales Navigator account. It’s a powerful tool that allows you to identify the person who’s your ideal lead, and then provides many ways to engage with them. Sales Navigator helps you find exactly the right people and build relationships with them.

With Sales Navigator, you can start generating a private list of potential leads by searching company, industry, location, title, company size and more. This is why it’s extremely important to have clearly defined customer personas, and know who your ideal buyer is. As the saying goes,

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Sales Navigator also provides valuable intel on what’s happening with the prospects in your list. Did they get a promotion, change jobs, release a new product, publish an article? Information that can help you find an authentic, value-driven way to start a conversation.

Once you have a list of some quality prospects and you’ve done your research on them, you can either ask someone you have in common to connect you, or reach out to them via LinkedIn InMail.

Now, before you cringe at the thought of all those bad InMail messages you’ve received and ignored, remember the difference with your messages is that you’re going to do them right.

You’re not sending a cookie cutter, spammy message. You’re sending a very targeted, human, value-laden message that will start a conversation, following all the good rules of social selling.

Social Selling Index

Part of the Sales Navigator, LinkedIn's Social Selling Index (SSI) is a metric that assesses how well you're using LinkedIn to sell yourself, and your products and services. It's a number from 0 to 100 that's calculated based on four essential elements:

• Establish your professional brand: Complete your profile with the customer in mind. Become a thought leader by publishing meaningful posts.
• Find the right people: Identify better prospects in less time using efficient search and research tools.
• Engage with insights: Discover and share conversation-worthy updates to create and grow relationships.
• Build relationships: Strengthen your network by connecting and establishing trust with decision-makers.

According to LinkedIn, the higher your SSI score, the more likely you are to meet sales targets. In fact, they cite statistics such as social selling leaders are 51% more likely to reach quota and 78% of social sellers outsell peers who don't use social media.

Those numbers alone are more than enough reason to give social selling with LinkedIn a try.

Social Selling on Facebook

Facebook is arguably the most social of the top social platforms out there. It can lean heavily on the personal side while still delivering strong ROI for businesses.

With more than 3 billion monthly active users, the power of Facebook for social selling (even B2B) cannot be ignored. The majority of those users fall into the 18 – 44 age group, so it would be a huge missed opportunity to write Facebook off as nothing more than a place for grandparents to share photos of their grandkids. It's still a relevant and viable platform for social selling.

Since some people don’t want to mix their business interests with their personal lives, setting up a Facebook business page to engage with customers and prospects can feel less invasive and more professional.

Facebook Messenger

Facebook lets you create ads where when a user clicks on it, it immediately opens up a Facebook Messenger window and allows the user to start chatting with a company rep.

Once the user starts that conversation, Facebook has artificial intelligence respond and give options on creating a sequence to engage with the lead. They can target conversations with people based on information Facebook has been gathering for years down to your likes, dislikes, everything you’ve ever done.

You can also drop a link in an email or text that opens up a Simply link to m.me/yourfacebookpagename (e.g., m.me/digitalmarketer) and it will jump straight into Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Groups

You may belong to some Facebook groups for your personal interests, like your local ultimate frisbee league, but niche Facebook groups can also be powerful tools for social selling.

They can help you build your brand, establish yourself as an expert in your industry, provide a vehicle for sharing content, promote new products or services, and drive leads.

The key about using Facebook groups, like all social selling, is to provide value to others. This isn’t the place for blatant self-promotion where you’re just talking about yourself and your company the whole time. You need to give before you can receive.

Social Selling on X

Social listening is a big part of social selling. Like in all sales interactions, you need to listen to understand what the conversations are about, and then you can strategize about how best to be part of them.

Creating lists can help you monitor what’s happening with your various target audiences, like your existing customers, your sales leads, and even your competitors.

Existing Customers

This list should help you stay engaged and in tune with what’s happening with your existing customer base.

Seeing what they’re talking about provides intel for opportunities where you can jump in to like or comment on their posts, and provide extra value. It helps keep you top of mind, just don’t over do it. You’re selling, not stalking so be authentic and judicious about what and when you respond.

Sales leads

Hopefully, you already know who your target audience is, what they value, and what they’re looking for.

By creating a private list of sales leads and prospects (you don’t want your competitors to see who you’re following!), you can keep on top of the challenges they may be facing in their business or industry so you can tailor your solution.

To create a list on X, go to your profile and click "More" in the left sidebar, click "Lists," then click the “Create new list’ button to the right of the search bar.

Then create a new list, give it a name and description, and make it private.

Once your list is created you can find users and click on the "More" menu (the round button with three dots in it) at the top of their profile to add them to your list.

You don’t want to interact with these prospects with the same frequency or familiarity as you might with your existing customers, but you do want to watch for opportunities to provide value or assistance in the face of business challenges you can help solve.

The Competition

Keeping an eye on the competition is as important as keeping an eye on your prospects. You can gain all sorts of insights about what the competition may be planning like new products or features, how they deal with support issues, and in general how they're positioning themselves on social media and in the market. A private list lets you monitor what they’re up to without having to follow them (dead giveaway!)

Social Selling on Instagram

Instagram is more than just pretty pictures (although we do love the pics!). With Instagram DM (direct message), it has become a powerful social selling tool, delivering valuable networking and lead generation opportunities.

First, selling 101: you need to find the right accounts to target, as in your target audience.
With Instagram, you can search by keyword hashtags, users, or location.
With hashtags, search for terms that are common in your industry or niche, like #podcasts or #marathonrunners, or #saassalestips.

With users, you can search for specific influencers, partners, or potential customers you want to connect with.

And, if your market is local, or you want to build opportunities specific location, you can filter your searches by city. So maybe #marathonrunners in Toronto.

Don’t get caught up in the number of followers each account has. You want quality over quantity in terms of the kind of engagement this account receives. You don’t necessarily want someone with 75,000 followers if their content is low quality, they post infrequently, and there’s not a lot of interaction between the account owner and their followers. You want active, engaged, and engaging accounts.

Once you’ve found some accounts with real potential, reach out to them via Instagram DM. But remember the rules of social selling: you need to provide value and you need to be authentic and human in your approach.

Don’t go in with cold outreach guns blazing to sell your product or service. This is about nurturing a relationship, and the DM is just the very first step. Approached the right way, it could turn into a lucrative business opportunity.

Social Selling Tips

Dig deeper with these pro tips from social selling expert and coach Evan Patterson, who was a guest on our series, The Closing Show Live.

Know That Emotions Still Rule in B2B

Evan says that although B2B social selling is more complicated than B2C because of buying committees, the two sales environments are more alike than most sellers think. At the end of the day, the sales experience still comes down to emotions.

Great social sellers display an understanding of emotions and pain points in their posts, comments and DMs.

A lot of people talk about the solution. They don’t talk about the pain. But misery loves company. Talk about why their pain and use derailing, blunt terminology about negative emotions they’ll relate to.

Hire Social Sellers with the Right Personality

The best social sellers are the type of people who can go to a party where they don’t know anyone, make a bunch of new friends, and walk away with phone numbers and plans for hanging out.

I look for people who have traveled on their own or moved to a different state or company. I look for people who are social, outgoing, emotionally self-aware, independent, self-motivated, and obsessively curious.

The best ways to find such talent? On social media, of course! Also, tell all your friends, family, and coworkers who you’re looking for. Chances are they know someone who’s the life of the party.

Support Social Sellers with Killer Community Marketers

If possible, break social selling into two distinct functions. Community marketers can build audiences, engage with them, and create collaborative content and experiences, while social sellers focus on reaching out and driving pipeline through 1:1 conversations.

For best results, a company would have both roles filled, but if that’s outside your budget, you can hire one person to handle both responsibilities.

The community marketer is a social seller’s SDR. We are warming it up for you. We are making it less cold. We’re those 16 billboards they see on the freeway before the salesperson knocks on their door.

Make Room in Your Sales Strategy for Social Selling

Companies need to accept that when you start social selling, you might have a slight dip in pipeline for a quarter as your team upskills.

Leaders also need to realize that not everything can be measured. You can’t track every DM and voice memo. Instead, you should adjust your metrics away from emails and dials and focus instead on relevant meetings booked.

Track Meetings Booked with People Adjacent to Your ICP

A great social seller is a great networker. They know how to meet the right people in order to make new connections. This means that they’ll be booking meetings with people who are adjacent to your ICP. We’re talking about your ICP’s direct reports, coworkers, bosses, friends, etc.

Don’t put strict boundaries around the quotas for booked meetings. Allow the meetings with adjacent folks to count.

This creates a supportive environment where social sellers feel like they can do their best work. And, you’ll end up booking more meetings with actual ICPs than if you were overly narrow in your approach.

Build Your Personal Brand

The best social sellers have a personal brand. So start looking at your career the same way an actor would. Everything I’ve done in my career has been on brand.

Posting on social media is an essential part of personal branding, and your posts can fuel your success. The more that people already know about you and your company, the less your outreach will feel like a “pitch slap.”

To create a cohesive personal brand, use consistent branding in your graphics, write with a clear brand voice, and keep your content within three to five distinct categories.

To convert leads from social media into paying customers, you need more than a social selling platform. You need proposal software. Proposify helps sales teams to quickly send on-brand, personalized proposals. 

Use one of our 75+ proposal templates or choose approved sections from your company’s content library to piece together the perfect proposal for each lead. Then, rely on our automated email follow-ups and client activity analytics to help you close more deals.

How-to Guide to Social Selling the Inbound Way

Follow these steps to create your own social selling strategy and implement it.

Step 1. Choose the platforms you’ll use for social selling

Everyone’s heard the advice that you should hang out where your audience is.

Let’s take this one step further. You should spend your time in the platform where your ICP is in the best headspace to book a meeting after a DM conversation.

For instance, if your ICP is on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, you might decide to spend most of your time on LinkedIn and Twitter, because this is where they spend their working hours and are most likely to book a call with you.

Step 2. Optimize your social media profiles

Now that you’ve chosen your social selling platforms, it’s time to optimize your profiles.

Here are some best practices for the most popular B2B social media platforms.

LinkedIn profile optimization:

• Write a profile headline that clarifies your title while adding value to your audience

• Craft a profile description that speaks to how you can help resolve your target audience’s problems (instead of just a standard bio)

• Upload a professional, on-brand headshot (consider using a colored background that matches your branding)

• Upload a cover photo with an engaging headline and call to action

X profile optimization:

• Write a profile bio that shares how you can address your target audience’s needs

• Add a link to your contact form or call scheduling tool

• Upload a professional, on-brand headshot

• Upload a cover photo with an engaging headline and call to action that matches your URL

Step 3. Find your target market on social media

Your target prospects are out there. But where?

Use this process to find real people in your target market:

• Know the main pain points most relevant to your solution

• Search those in social media

• Find influencers talking about them

• Read the comments to find prospects who also have these problems

• Check their social media profiles to make sure they match your ICP criteria

You can also use social selling tools that supercharge this manual work with account-based intent data to help you find prospects at scale.

Step 4. Reach out to initiate 1:1 conversations

Once you’ve found your target audience on social media, it’s time to start striking up conversations.

Whenever possible, customize your messaging to each specific prospect. For example, if they commented on an influencer’s post about a shared pain point, you might begin your message by mentioning that you noticed their comment. Then, ask how long they’ve been struggling with that issue.

Depending on what you’re selling, there might be a dozen different pain points that you could use to prompt a conversation. Pay attention to which ones are the most effective at eliciting a response and continue to use them.

Step 5. Engage with prospects’ content daily

In addition to reaching prospects through DMs, you should also try comments. The comments section on your prospects’ posts offers a great opportunity to reach people who might not be responsive to direct messages.

You can congratulate them for their achievements, show your support for their content, and respond to their requests for help or resources.

Scott shares a story about how a rep used commenting to his advantage.

He got the meeting with me, but it was booked a month or two out. During that time, every time I posted on LinkedIn, guess who was in the comments? This guy, actually adding value to what I was talking about. Not selling his services, but keeping himself top of mind. I thought that was very clever to get the meeting to hold.

Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to save a list of all of your prospects and then check the feed from only that list of people. That way, you’re only spending your time commenting on their posts (instead of everyone you’re connected with). You might want to further separate your lead lists into low and high priority to help you make the best use of your time.

A word of caution, though—be wary of using AI tools such as ChatGPT to generate comments to mass post across LinkedIn. Those comments usually sound AI-generated, and people notice it right away, which means your credibility and authenticity can take a hit.

Instead, use ChatGPT and other AI tools to brainstorm ideas and get the creative juices flowing. Then, when it's time to leave comments, write them yourself and customize them for an unmistakable human touch that will build and preserve your credibility.

Step 6. Post your own content weekly

Through your DMs, connection requests, follows, and engagements, you’ll be building up a following of your target prospects. That means you have a captive audience of ideal customers. You should make the most of this opportunity by posting on your social selling platforms once or twice a week each.

If you’re not sure what to post, try hitting on these different areas:

• Behind the scenes of your role, company, and/or industry

• Career or business advice relevant to your target market

• Your hot takes on industry trends and news

• Personal learnings (such as work-life balance, confidence-building, etc.)

Step 7. Measure your success

You’ll want to keep track of your efforts so you can measure ROI and update your social selling strategy accordingly.

The best way to measure your success is to use a social management tool with analytics features like Oktopost. With their CRM integrations, you’ll be able to track which conversations led to pipeline opportunities (so you can show your boss that your time spent on social media is worthwhile).

And don't forget LinkedIn's Social Selling Index.