Can Social Media really help sales? The simple answer is of course yes, but probably not quite the “yes” that you are wanting. Social media is rarely, if ever, the direct sales channel itself. Social media can increase the likelihood of sales through better targeting, more consistent touchpoints and availability of information, establishing affinities and relationships and all of the things that support the eventual transaction. Those are the same things we would want to do offline to nurture our prospects, but now we have more online channels to bridge those connections in both places.

Yet we’re so impatient to take the platforms social media provides and make them the direct marketing and revenue channel. But it’s not so easy.

Instead, consider social media as the supporting cast for the sales process, and a way to enhance your prospects’ experience with your company so that the eventual sale feels like a natural, even welcome culmination to the relationship.

Here are a few ideas:

• Find the Point of Need
• Be Responsive
• Availability (and Ease) of Information
• Be friendly
• Focus on the In-Between

So can sales and social media co exist and even work together? Absolutely.