The Superpower of Social Selling (On Linkedin and in B2B)
The Rise of Consumer-Driven Codes in the Business World
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the boundaries between the consumer and B2B worlds are increasingly blurred.
Concepts and tactics once exclusive to B2C marketing—such as storytelling, authenticity, and influencer engagement—are now driving success in B2B sales.
Despite the prevalence of digital technologies and AI, business remains fundamentally human-centric. The art of building relationships, earning trust, and establishing thought leadership is more critical than ever.
This is where B2B social selling comes into play.
What is B2B Social Selling?
B2B social selling is the strategic process of leveraging social media to position oneself—and the products or services one offers—in a way that attracts prospects, builds trust, and opens opportunities.
Whether through value-added posts, engaging with industry conversations, or sharing personal insights, social selling helps position individuals and companies as credible, knowledgeable, and approachable.
Mastering social selling not only increases visibility but also helps attract clients, speaking engagements, and potential collaborators while strengthening brand perception.
The Art Behind Social Selling
Through my career, I’ve been practicing social selling long before it became a widely recognized strategy. It’s not about posting random content and hoping something sticks; it’s a calculated, strategic effort that starts with understanding your audience.
To succeed, you must answer fundamental questions:
Who is your target audience?
Why should they care about what you offer?
What value can you bring to them?
How can you position yourself as a trusted resource?
Selfishly, how can it help you accelerate your sales and revenue? (What blockers do your client have that you can facilitate unblocking with such campaign).
By tailoring content to address these questions, you create posts that genuinely help potential clients understand what you do, why you do it, and how you can help them. Sharing updates about trade shows you attend, industry events, partnerships, and behind-the-scenes insights builds credibility and fosters intimacy with your audience—without having to explicitly state it.
Becoming a Trusted Resource
Effective social selling is all about providing value. The goal is to become a go-to resource within your industry, someone who offers meaningful insights and helps potential clients navigate challenges. This can be achieved by:
Sharing actionable tips, case studies, and success stories.
Engaging with comments and messages to establish relationships.
Demonstrating expertise through collaborations and interviews.
Being transparent and human in your approach.
In today’s digital-first world, people seek authenticity. Opening up about your journey, struggles, and successes allows your audience to relate to you and view you as more than just a business representative—but as a person they can trust.
The Digital Twin Effect: Building Your Online Persona
As most of our interactions become digital, it’s crucial to craft a digital identity that mirrors your real-world personality and values. Your social media presence should reflect your professional expertise while also highlighting your human side—your interests, personality, and even vulnerabilities.
This “digital twin” effect allows prospects and colleagues to experience an authentic version of you, helping to build rapport and foster deeper business relationships online.
The Business Impact of Social Selling
When executed well, social selling can lead to tangible business results, such as:
Increased brand visibility through higher engagement rates.
More inbound inquiries and lead generation.
Higher website traffic and demo requests.
Improved recruitment opportunities and talent attraction.
Social media algorithms favor engagement, meaning that the more value you provide, the greater your content’s reach—leading to an exponential effect in awareness and influence.
Value for your external community but also internal: Strangely, what is important for the outside world is often as important for your team, internally to know. By managing well external communications you, at the same time, help focus your team on important company message, reinforcing its purpose, vision. There is an undeniable positive effect for teams to follow, engage, reshare company posts. Not only it sends a strong signal to the outside world but it also helps catalyze the energy of your most important assets: You team members!
Social Selling as a Company-Wide Strategy
Social selling is no longer an isolated activity for sales or marketing teams—it should be embraced across the entire organization. However, with more people representing the company online, there is a need to govern the process carefully to avoid inconsistencies, errors, or reputational risks.
Managing Social Selling Within an Organization
To successfully implement social selling across your company, consider the following best practices:
Train your team – Provide workshops on effective social selling and PR principles. I recommend you reading my other article on “Thinking about PR and Community-Targeted Communication as a Kaleidoscope” - It will get you nicely started.
Gradual rollout – Start with a few experienced individuals and encourage others to reshare content until they’re ready to create their own.
Several Linkedin Pages - Think about not diluting your message. Several pages can help do that. For example, think of a page for each sectors your are targeting or regions, or by departments and so on. Each page need a specific value proposition, an audience you target and value added campaigns thoughtfully designed to achieve the objectives of the page.
Approval mechanisms – Establish content approval processes to ensure consistency and alignment with brand values.
Content frameworks – Offer templates for posts and articles to make content creation easier and aligned with company goals.
Media resources – Provide access to a library of approved visuals, videos, and content to maintain brand consistency.
Profile disclaimers – Encourage employees to add disclaimers clarifying their personal views versus company representation.
By implementing these guidelines, businesses can harness the power of social selling without risking their brand reputation.
A Word of Caution: Privacy and Security
While social selling offers immense benefits, it’s essential to remain cautious about sharing sensitive personal information that could be exploited by cybercriminals or fraudsters. Avoid sharing overly personal details or confidential company information that could be misused.
Be Yourself, Embrace, Test, and Iterate
We are living through an unprecedented digital transformation—no one has all the answers, and social selling is a continuous learning process. It’s crucial to embrace the opportunities it offers while being flexible enough to iterate and refine strategies based on what resonates with your audience.
By being cautious yet proactive, businesses can leverage social selling to accelerate growth, build stronger relationships, and stay ahead of the competition.
Value authenticity, be yourself.
Conclusion: Social Selling as a Growth Accelerator
Social selling is no longer a "nice-to-have" but a must-have strategy for B2B companies looking to thrive in today's competitive market. Whether you're a solopreneur or part of a large organization, developing an authentic online presence, providing value, and building trust can significantly boost your sales, partnerships, and influence.
Start leveraging social selling today and watch your brand awareness and business opportunities flourish.
