How to Create a Social Selling Community of Practice
I'd like to think at heart I am a grass roots, practical kind of person. Quite often we tend to over complicate things or make them seem bigger than they actually are. I also think when it comes to working as a team, we make a lot of assumptions about our teammates comfort levels with new processes or tools and their understanding or adoption of key initiatives. We come running in with messaging, training and enablement but we don't pause to ask some fundamental questions to test if they are on board or ready to jump in.
I would also say that a big part of our on going success as a team is about creating a supportive environment where we can help each other out...cheer each other on...or hold each other accountable to the commitments we make as individuals and as a team.
One such area is our transition to social selling and the digital buyers journey. Many of us and our teams have been around the block a few times and have grown comfortable with our traditional forms of selling. While you may think more and more of us in Corporate America are making the leap - I would say that we are more focused on what WE are doing and less about helping bring up the capabilities of others.
So here are a couple of things YOU can do to start supporting YOUR team better and get the ball rolling!
LinkedIn Team Assessment
Have YOU ever been on a call dedicated to talking about social selling and they jump in with material telling you to focus on your profile, updating your picture and bio? They then jump into stories of social selling success and the importance of participating? Yeah...me too. Heck, I have been that person...guilty as charged!
I would like to propose that social selling and comfort levels with engaging is personal and as such the first thing we need to do is a basic environmental scan. It doesn't need to be complicated - it just has to level set where individuals on the team are so we can start the conversation...a real conversation around how best to assist!
My social selling team assessment looks at each individual profile and provides feedback on the following elements:
Do they have a LinkedIn Profile? (Y/N)
# Connections
Picture (Y/N) (is it recent and is it a professional looking shot)
Activity (Y/N) (Like, Comments, Sharing or Articles)
Following Your Company Pages (Y/N)
Following Customer Pages (Y/N)
Updated Contact Information (Y/N)
You'd be surprised how much this tells about a person's willingness or comfort level to engage in social selling just from these basic elements. Once you open a dialogue around why they have no activity or why they are not following their customer pages you can start to understand how best to assist and support your teammates better.
LinkedIn Teammates Feature
LinkedIn recently added functionality that enables YOU to add/tag YOUR team. The advantage of doing this is that you will not only get notified of Birthdays, Anniversaries, etc... but you will also get notified when they post or interact with content. It gives you a chance to support their journey in a more personalized way rather than leaving it to chance that you will see something pop up in your feed.
The platform also let's you add up to one manager, 19 teammates who report to your manager, 20 direct reports, and 30 other teammates. It's meant to keep it to your direct team so the notifications and activity are manageable.
It's really easy set up as follows:
Step One: Click on "My Network" in the main toolbar
Step Two: Once you get to the next screen - on the left hand toolbar you will see a menu and teammates should be one of the items in the list
Step Three: Click on "Teammate" and it will open another screen showing your current teammates and supervisor. If you want to add a teammate simply click on the "+" to add your manager and teammates. There are three types of teammates to choose from; teammates also reporting to your manager, direct reports and other.
Create a Get Social Community
In my opinion, the best kind of team success and growth are initiatives that are self propelling and driven by the team - not corporate mandated. The shining example of this recently for me is the #hpsocial group. It was started by HP employees out of their Rio Rancho Call Center and has created a lot of amazing messaging, enablement and support for that team. They are their own best examples of figuring out what works for their culture and having teammates that support them on their journey.
A few best practices we can all take away from this group is:
Begin! Find some teammates (or be the teammate) that are willing to step out of their comfort zone and just make it happen. A few passionate people who are willing to be vulnerable about their journey can really open doors for others
Set Up A Cadence that Works for the Team. The HP Social group set aside time each Monday and Friday for a few weeks in a row to inspire people and check in with them on progress. Cadence and focus keeps everyone motivated
Guest Speakers, Conversation and Challenges. Get feedback from the team on topics, guest speakers and challenges they can incorporate along the way. While there is a ton of expertise and experience you can draw on from within the team, adding in some fresh voices can make the journey that much richer
Establish a Hashtag(#) for the Team. In the case of the HP group they established #hpsocial and asked everyone to follow it. That way the group had a way to notify each other of their activity so they could all learn and grow from what they were sharing
Be Each Other's Best Cheerleaders. As the team starts to step out of their comfort zone and share ideas, be the one to cheer them on by interacting and re-sharing content. This not only keeps the ball rolling, but can help to broaden the group and get more teammates involved. Success begets success and the more everyone works together the broader the reach!
In Closing...
No matter how much we talk about the importance of social selling, it comes down to our own feelings, fears, perspective, bias and experience. We need to pause, step back and seek first to understand and then be understood. Change is personal and we need to find a way to support one another to what works best for each of us! Through basic assessments to authentic conversations, as well as LinkedIn Teammate functionality and creating a community of practice - there are lots of ways to get started.
What will be YOURS?
Leadership Questions of the Week for YOU:
What challenges have YOU had within YOUR team to get the ball rolling with social selling?
Have YOU done a team assessment to get the conversation started? If so what elements would you add or change from the ones presented above?
Did you know about the LinkedIn Teammate Functionality and what has been YOUR experience from using it?
Have YOU created a social selling community within YOUR team or company? What do you think of the best practices from the #hpsocial group?
DO you agree that getting your team on board is personal and not one size fits all?
What other things have YOU done that works that we could all learn from?
Thanks for reading….and remember…YOU make a difference!
Please continue the conversation by liking…commenting or sharing this article. You can also follow me on twitter @marciedwhite
