Is Social Media the Key to Revitalizing your Sales Force?

Your phone rings and your heart races. Who is it? What’s it about? You reach into your pocket, all while reviewing who might be contacting you.

How many times do you experience this situation every day? The mere act of imagining what a notification could be, even before you’ve had time to find your phone, speaks volumes about the growing importance of web and mobile technologies in our lives. It also means your phone can engage you more than any professional task.

Today, sales managers are just beginning to leverage social media to engage their teams on internal platforms. What about you, when will you take the plunge? Here are 5 keys to boost your sales force’s engagement with social media.

1. The Era of Sharing

On social media, “sharing” has gradually become a way to inform our contacts about our daily activities, tastes, and interests. Platforms like Facebook or Twitter fulfill 3 key functions: self-preservation, the consolidation of our social relationships, and the measurement of our popularity.

According to a study cited by Buffer, 62% of social media users feel valued by positive reactions triggered by their own posts. Social media can thus become powerful levers for engagement, both among your employees and your customers: when will they be integrated into your organization?

2. Focus on Interactions

Sharing, commenting on, or liking a post on social media allows us to strengthen the bonds that unite us with our loved ones or professional contacts. These forms of engagement can even give a whole new dimension to our relationships, while encouraging reciprocity.

Thus, when one user reacts to another’s post, they encourage the other to return the favor by reacting in turn, thus creating a true interaction.

By getting your employees to interact through an internal network, you will strengthen the cohesion of the entire team while stimulating them through healthy competition. Not only will you improve your sales force’s engagement, but you will also optimize their communications and sales performance: what are you waiting for?

3. Notification Alert!

One of the techniques used by social media to engage their users lies in the use of notifications. These auditory (beeps, distinctive rings) or sensory (vibrations) signals cause a dopamine spike in the human body; and this hormone is responsible for the feeling of motivation, recognition, and… addictions.

Every time a user receives a notification, their brain responds positively by triggering a sensation of pleasure. And the addiction to notifications continues until they are checked, for the same reasons that drive us to scratch off lottery tickets: we anticipate the moment of “revelation”, which will tell us if we’ve won the jackpot or if we need to wait for the next notification.

4. Follow the News Feed

Like notifications, social media news feeds have an addictive effect on users. In search of a true digital gem, they are willing to scroll indefinitely through the home page of their favorite networks. The variety of information flows, as well as their quality and relevance, generally depends on each page’s subscriber base.

However, imagine for a moment the degree of quality and relevance you could achieve by dedicating an internal social network to your sales team. Your team members could then view each other’s posts, thus strengthening their engagement while ensuring that posts and reactions are focused on your business and sales performance.

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5. The Principle of Gamification

Gamification represents a recent, but particularly important, aspect of coaching and engaging your sales force. This practice consists of boosting an organization’s sales performance through contests, quizzes, and challenges.

It can also be combined with a micro-learning platform, to establish healthy competition within your team while fostering individual and collective progress.

The benefits and effectiveness of social media within companies are well-established. You just need to adapt their uses to your working methods and the specificities of your company to turn them into true levers of engagement, motivation, and performance for your sales team.