LinkedOut: How Salespeople Can Use Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for Social Selling

What Is Social Selling

Social selling can be imagined as networking on social media. Instead of making connections at conferences, events, or through cold calling, it allows salespeople to find potential clients, reach out to them, and generate leads through their personal social media profiles.

The foundation of social selling is sharing interesting and valuable content for your target audience. This content showcases your products, yourself, your expertise, or news, trends, and insights from your field. In the comments, you can respond to questions from potential clients. All this activity helps increase brand awareness and position your company as an authority in the industry. That, in turn, brings in potential clients that you can engage and turn into leads.

LinkedIn as the Ideal Platform for Social Selling

Salespeople usually turn to LinkedIn for social selling. As a social network full of professionals who share industry insights and are open to networking, it’s a natural fit. Plus, it’s easy to see where someone works and what position they hold, allowing you to reach company leaders and decision-makers directly.

We’ve written a separate article on how to use LinkedIn for sales.

LinkedOut: Social Selling on Other Social Networks

Unlike LinkedIn, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram aren’t typically used to build professional networks. This raises the question of whether they can be used for social selling at all.

All social networks have potential—if only because they allow easy access to a very broad audience. Generally speaking, anyone using the internet is likely also using social media. According to a study by AMI Digital, 76% of the Czech population aged 15 and older uses social media daily. An overwhelming 95% of respondents aged 15 to 29 spend time on social networks, averaging 159 minutes per day. Even among those over 60, 56% are active on social media. And many of them look for information about companies while there.

Before diving into lead generation on social media, consider whether the selected platform is relevant to your business.

The following paragraphs will help you answer the first two questions—you’ll need to think about the third one on your own.

Social Selling on Facebook

Facebook is primarily used to connect with family, friends, and acquaintances. Users share photos, videos, articles, general updates, and snippets from their lives. But similarly, you can build a network of potential clients here. Facebook groups are especially useful for this purpose, as users join them to gain insights in a specific area and connect with experts and peers in the field.

Take advantage of the fact that Facebook remains the most widely used social network. This gives you the opportunity to reach a large number of potential clients. According to the aforementioned study, 89% of the Czech internet population aged 15 and older uses Facebook. It’s worth noting that most active users are aged 40 and up—so if your target audience is older, Facebook could have strong potential for your business.

Social Selling on Twitter

Unlike Facebook, Twitter is less about close personal connections and more about engaging with a broader audience. It’s not as personal but often includes business-related content, with users frequently listing their job titles and companies in their bios. Similar to LinkedIn, this lets you connect directly with the people you need.

Posts are limited to 280 characters, so success depends on being concise and getting to the point quickly. Twitter is great for real-time updates, sharing news, trends, tips, and opinions. It can also serve as an equivalent of an elevator pitch—aiming to grab attention fast.

It’s also relatively easy to monitor your competitors’ content and the opinions and needs of potential clients. In other words, it’s an ideal network for so-called social listening.

Social Selling on Instagram

Of all the mentioned social networks, Instagram is the most visually focused. It acts as a showcase for sharing photos and videos, and with various formats including live broadcasts, it enables interactive communication with followers. Users here seek out not only friends and family but also public figures, authorities, and influencers. Instagram is therefore highly effective for community building. It is used by 54% of the Czech population over the age of 15, and compared to Facebook, it is more popular among younger users.

Every Network Has Its Own Advantages and Best Practices

You can’t universally say which network is better or where you’ll be more successful—it depends on you and your business. Social selling can be done on any social network, each having its own pros and cons, its own audience, and the most suitable ways to reach them. You’ll need to experiment to find what works best for you.

The good news is that social media platforms are free to use, and social selling “costs” only your time. That time goes into crafting the right strategy, creating content, responding to comments, and continuously refining what isn’t working.

In addition to reaching a broad audience, one of the key benefits of social selling is that people are often more willing to read posts from professionals and accept offers than they are during a cold call. Plus, based on how users present themselves on their profiles, you’ll gain better insight into their interests and needs—allowing you to capture their attention more effectively. Just keep in mind that a single negative comment on your post can have a wider reach than a failed phone call.

If you’re generating leads on social media, keep an eye on the competition too. Observe what they’re doing, what content they’re using, and what you might draw inspiration from—or what to avoid. Why it’s important to watch the competition and even build friendly relationships with them is something we explore in more detail in our Sales Manager Hub.