Author: Hollie Clere

Skills Your Sales Team Needs for Social Media Marketing

Does your sales team need training when it comes to supporting your social media marketing efforts? Social media training is an excellent way to get started with social media or learn how to use it more effectively within your business or organization.

When it comes to social media training, one thing that always stands out is that many salespeople don’t understand their role in helping their company succeed online.

Connection to Customers

Social media training is a great idea for anyone that wants to learn more about using social media as a business tool. This includes people who are already working in marketing roles and want to expand their knowledge of social media, but it also applies to anyone who works in sales and wants to learn how to help their customers interact with their brand on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.

Social media is powerful. It’s also the fastest growing channel for customer engagement and marketing, which means it’s only going to get more valuable in the future.

Sales teams are often responsible for managing client relationships and generating new business — both of which can be achieved through social media channels.

Relationship Marketing

Social media isn’t just about promoting products; it’s about creating relationships with customers and prospects, too. A well-trained sales team will be able to utilize social media in ways that go beyond simply pushing products onto site visitors. Your salespeople are the first point of contact for many of your prospects, and they can have a huge impact on whether or not those prospects become customers.

More Impact

It’s easy for salespeople to fall into the trap of thinking that because they aren’t using social media, it doesn’t apply to them — but that’s not true at all! Social media doesn’t just affect marketing teams; it impacts every department within an organization. In fact, according to a recent study by IBM and Oxford Economics, companies that invest in improving their digital capabilities see higher returns on their investments than those who don’t (upwards of $22 million vs $9 million).

Reputation Management

If a company has a strong presence on Facebook or Twitter, for example, this can improve its reputation among potential clients who may not have heard of them otherwise; therefore making them more likely to choose them over another company offering similar services at a lower price point.

Unfortunately, many companies don’t have the resources to hire a full-time social media manager. That’s where training comes in. With a little training, your sales team can become experts at using social media to support your marketing efforts.

Hollie Clere, of the The Social Media Advisor team, speaks on social media marketing topics and creates custom presentations, including our popular Social Media Sales Training. We are available to come to you with a keynote presentation, training seminar or workshop.

Are you ready to take your marketing campaign to the next level? Businesses that embrace social media often see greater customer engagement and increased sales. We can help your sales team set goals and achieve them. Whether you need a pitch-perfect keynote or compelling one-on-one training session, we can help you with social media strategy and execution. Let’s talk about it!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

Why You Need a Social Media Expert at Your Next Event

I’ve been around since the very earliest days of social media marketing and it’s been quite a journey. As head of my company, I’ve positioned myself as a social media expert by putting in the time and gaining the experience necessary to not only help small businesses grow their companies by using social media but also in training mom and pops, non-profits, and organizations in how to effectively market their business in these online spaces.

These years of expertise make me uniquely positioned to lead an in-depth and impactful conversation about social media marketing. I’ve led masterminds, created training programs, created community, and stood on the stage as the social media expert for various events, trade shows, and conferences. 

Are you currently planning a big event where you’d like to bring your own community together and share valuable content with them? 

Here are the reasons, I believe, you should consider hiring an expert for your next social media conference or event.

Providing Value

Every event coordinator or creator is hoping to provide enough value for their audience to make the investment in money and time worth it to their attendees. What’s more valuable than showing your people how they can make more money with their work? 

Effective use of social media marketing is a driving force for more revenue and a bigger audience and client base. Your audience just needs the right person to show them where to start.

Engagement

It’s one thing to have an audience but that doesn’t mean they are engaged or participating in any way. An unengaged attendee is equivalent to a lurker online. They are there but you have no idea whether or not they are enjoying the experience or would rather be somewhere else.

Social media marketers understand engagement. They live in a world where they are constantly needing to grab attention and convince people to participate.

If you want a more engaged room at your next event, hire a social media marketing speaker!

Bigger Impact

There are a lot of plates in the air when you are running an event. Maintaining an online presence during the event is challenging for any event coordinator. Hiring a social media expert to speak at your event is a great way to remind your audience to share their experience, images, and insights in real time on social. Often, this is the best marketing your event can do if you want to go even bigger the next time! 

The right social media speaker will pump up your guests, remind them to post, share and tag your event and even walk them through the steps to get it done. You’ll make a much larger impact during the actual event and you’ll have loads of content to work with next time!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

How to Amplify Your Small Business Impact

I am so excited about the opportunities that are available to small businesses in the coming year.

Also, I’m a little nervous since the traditional marketing methods are becoming less effective.

As a result, small businesses need to be creative and strategic with their marketing efforts.

As a small business owner, you wear many hats and even more responsibilities. But with some forward thinking and strategic planning, you can have a significant impact on your community and the world.

How can your small business make a big impact in 2022? Here are some ideas:

Build a Community

The best small businesses are the ones with a community around them. They are the ones that tell a story, build trust and have a loyal following. These communities, when properly engaged and motivated, can help you make an even bigger impact as a business owner this year. Leveraging that trust in a genuine way is powerful. But, first, you have to have a community of your own to leverage.

Become an Industry Influencer

Whether you’re a health coach or an entrepreneur selling gourmet dog food online, if you’re making money online, you’re an influencer. The concept of influencers is relatively new but growing like crazy. According to an article on Forbes, there are now over 1 million influencers worldwide, and the number is growing by 10% each year.

In an age where every small business owner can be a thought leader, don’t leave potential on the table by keeping your head down and just working on projects.

Everyone loves learning new things and gaining new knowledge. If you want to become an influencer in your industry, then you will need to create great content that people want to hear about. You don’t have to be a professional writer or journalist, but you do need to be a good storyteller.

Get Active

Be active in your community – Getting involved in local charities or hosting fundraisers can help you connect with other business owners and members of your community. These connections are the fuel for the impact you want to make. Whether you already have an idea to improve your local community, or are seeking to join others who are making waves, the first step is to get out into the world and meet people. Have important discussions about local needs and possible solutions.

Here’s the thing: we all have the ability to make a bigger impact than we think. It might not be in large, overarching ways, but that doesn’t mean our voices don’t matter. In fact, even small steps often lead to big results. And if all of us work together—in our individual ways—we might just spark some serious change this year. Which means success for you AND your community!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

How to Amplify Your Relationship Marketing

Thanks to social media and online marketing, we’re all acutely aware of the importance of online branding. There are some great tools out there for small businesses to build a brand that spreads virally across the Internet. But most brands are missing something important: a focus on relationship marketing.

Lead generation is a strategy that focuses on getting new customers, using techniques like email, cold calls, and ads to attract new clients. Relationship marketing works differently. It focuses on building existing relationships between you and your clients so they will come back to you and evolve into brand advocates.

Changing the Focus

Instead of wasting money on print ads and TV commercials, you should focus more on relationship marketing strategies. Relationship marketing means maintaining long-term relationships with your customers so they feel comfortable buying from you over and over again. When done right, it’s a lot cheaper than traditional forms of advertising, and it’s also much more effective because real people are talking about you without having to pay them to do so.

Relationship marketing is all about building trust. No matter what kind of product or service you provide, if your customers can’t trust that they’re getting a high quality product or service at a fair price, they won’t buy from you. So it’s important to build a reputation for quality and value in the marketplace. Once you change the focus from leads and sales, to building relationships – you’ll find that your business not only retains more customers and leads to more referrals, but you’ll find the additional satisfaction that comes with building a loyal fan base as well.

Be Active, Not Passive

The key to relationship marketing is creating connections and making people feel special. When you connect with people on a personal level and help them solve their problems, they will naturally want to do business with you again. This doesn’t happen when you focus all of your energy on completing projects. You have to be intentional about building and nurturing relationships for this to work.

There are a lot of ways to build relationships with your customers. In some cases, it might be as simple as thanking them for their business or offering them suggestions based on their preferences. The point is that you need a strategy for reaching out, staying in touch, and following up with your clients and customers.

Collaboration Over Competition

In our society, we’ve gotten accustomed to competing with each other. We’re encouraged to believe that we have to be better than everyone else in order to succeed. But this mindset can end up costing you in the long run because you may find yourself feeling isolated, stressed out, and overwhelmed.

The truth is that collaboration is a much more effective strategy for marketing your business. In fact, the human brain is hardwired for cooperation. We are social creatures who thrive on connection rather than competition.

Build relationships with the vendors, companies, trade shows, and competitors in your industry. You won’t regret knowing these people when you need them and they’ll all know who to refer when someone needs what you do!

Build Your Community

Create a community. In an age where everyone has an opinion and millions of people are posting their thoughts online, it can be hard to get attention. Create a place online where people can connect, share ideas and provide valuable information. No matter what business you’re in, chances are there’s an online community of people who interact on the same topic or are interested in the same product or service you offer. If there isn’t one, why not create one? Provide valuable information and people will come.

Relationship marketing leads to higher conversion rates: Studies show that businesses who invest in relationship marketing see much higher conversion rates on their email campaigns, social media posts and other online communication efforts. People are more likely to buy from those they know, like and trust so creating relationships with customers helps convince them of your credibility and reliability. You’ll also be able to create better social media content that resonates with followers and boosts engagement on your posts.

Relationship marketing is one of the most powerful forms of marketing out there. It will help your business grow, provide you with new leads, and help you make a name for yourself. But it’s not easy to do. If it was, everyone would already be doing it.

The first step is to shift your focus from sales to service. I promise that if you treat your people well, like friends and family, they will be loyal and they will refer you to others. The sales will happen naturally.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.


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