Social media provides an enormous opportunity for “social selling.” It is becoming more important and consistently increasing revenue. Twitter is a very effective resource to promote social selling. The social media platform can act as a sales tool, HubSpot’s Emma Snider notes, “73% of U.S online customers trust information and advice from Twitter.” To begin your own Social Selling efforts, check out these super easy tips to use on Twitter…

1.   IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BIO

A limit of 160 characters can make creating a Twitter bio a bit of a challenge. Both professionalism and integrity are important factors to convey. HubSpots says it is important to avoid a mere job label and instead focus on communicating, ““who do you help and how do you help them?”  To make your Twitter bio appear more easily in internet searches, add your organization or company name in the handle of your bio. Hashtags help boost your relevancy and can highlight personal interests by using short descriptive words. Add a link to your LinkedIn profile and consider listing an interesting statistic for potential prospects to gain more insight about you and your company.

2.   COMPELLING PROFILE PHOTO

Select an image that conveys professionalism. It’s important to select the right photo to convey the right message. When looking at over 60,000 ratings on 800 photos, Photofeeler found that very specific image characteristics influence people’s reactions to profile pictures.

The research revealed a visible jawline boosts a person’s competence and likability. Smiling is the most impactful photo characteristic, especially when teeth are showing. Showing off the pearly whites’ doubles likability opposed to a closed-mouth smile. A photo showing just the face without shoulders decreases likability.

3.   MAKE TWITTER “LISTS”

Twitter’s list-making tool is often overlooked. Using lists allows you to make tweets aimed at different groups. Social Selling works when you can clearly communicate with prospects during the buying stage. Pointburst recommends using three lists (Customers, Prospects and Influencers) to boost sales. Tweets can then be aimed to the interest of the diverse categories.

Simply use these step-by-step instructions to master list-making on Twitter.

4.   CREATE A MESSAGE WITH SIGNIFICANCE

Credibility and trust are two extremely important pieces to the Social Selling equation. Potential customers want to know and understand what you can offer them. The process of sales prompts them to take part in a large amount of self-educating. Emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman tweets, “In sales, cognitive empathy means you know how to listen to the client and ask the right questions.” Therefore, to adequately “sell” you must be the one to deliver answers to customers. This is important to follow during each point of the buyer funnel.

5.   BUILD RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH CONVERSATIONS

As a social media platform, Twitter allows you to personally connect with multiple leads at any time. It is a very simple and easy method to build relationships and act as a sales representative. Your platform can be used as a sales method by sharing content and ultimately drive revenue. It may seem too easy but Social Selling on a simple platform like Twitter pushes the conversation between you and potential customers. HubSpot’s senior sales manager, Daniell Herzberg, was skeptical about Twitter at first and said, “I never believed in Twitter as a sales tool. But as soon as I did, I started seeing how it made my relationships that much stronger.”

To begin building your own relationships on Twitter, sales coach and professor Gerry Moran explains how easy it is to, “get on your prospects radar,” and recommends three simple methods: Retweeting, Mentioning and Favoriting. In a slide presentation called “How to Prospect with Twitter”, Moran describes how to use these techniques. Also consider using software products to monitor your contacts on social media (e.g. Hootsuite, TweetDeck).