Why Your Sales Team Should Use Social Media

By Amy Dowling / blogging, B2B, content marketing, social media, lead generation, foodservice sales / 0 Comments

We’ve all heard of the “pay it forward” concept and Random Acts of Kindness (RAOK). One person offers an act of kindness to another, that recipient then offers acts of kindness to a couple of other people, and the effect snowballs into a wave of generous acts spread across hundreds, or even thousands of people. Just like that time everyone paid for everyone else’s Starbucks.

So why not take the RAOK concept and apply it to your social presence?

Sure, your organization can promote content on its social channels regularly, but you’re not going to get the ripple effect if your sales team isn’t helping to share that content across their own social channels as well, which are likely full of prospects and possibly even leads.

Your social reach can increase exponentially when the network of your entire sales team is brought into the equation.

What’s more, according to a survey from IDC, 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make purchasing decisions.

How can you get your sales team on board?

Now that you’re convinced, here are a few tips for getting your sales team to use social media to share your company’s content:

Make the content interesting -- nobody wants to share dull content.
Make time (even 15 minutes per week) for your sales team to work on building their own social networks. This can include publishing industry-related content, following other industry professionals, and following and engaging with your ideal customers.
Make the creation of social profiles part of onboarding new employees. Maybe your team isn't comfortable using their existing profiles to share work-related content. That’s okay. Give them the option to create separate profiles just for work.
Make it simple. Get the HubSpot Chrome add-on to publish content in seconds across four different social media platforms.