By now, there should be little doubt regarding the pervasiveness of social media. We’ve shared statistics on social media multiple times in the last year in this space, and new statistics come out frequently augmenting the case for social media. Without a well devised and implemented presence in social media, a company misses great opportunities to achieve greater success. Most target audiences can be found somewhere in social media.
Nevertheless, a quality presence in the social media space doesn’t occur out of thin air. Social media is something that takes a time commitment, a good degree of training & knowledge on a subject matter that is constantly evolving, as well as locating, producing and sharing relevant content. Additionally, concerns about corporate and regulatory compliance in regulated industries can increase the degree of difficulty. All these factors can work as disincentives from the perspective of a local sales agent.
Local sales agents in industries like financial services, insurance, healthcare and pharmaceuticals have a lot on their plates. There are always new sales objectives to meet, and retaining existing business is often a priority. There can be key client service issues to attend to, preparing presentations and tying up loose ends around the office, all taking time. For many, dedicating the required amount of time to having a fully formed and well implemented social media presence across multiple social media platforms can seem like an overwhelming task. Fortunately, local agents can have a valuable allies taking care of much of the time and content requirements in maintaining a social media presence.
Distribion has found a way for corporate entities to support their field sales agents in social media through automatic campaign scheduling and personalization options.
With automatic campaign scheduling, corporate marketing entities, who may have dedicated social media marketers, publish pre-approved social media campaigns that consist of numerous content posts with links to compelling content, including collateral. Once published, local sales agents opt-in to a campaign and our marketing automation software posts the content to the selected sites at the designated time intervals on their behalf. Local sales agents are not required to dedicate time to this in any way beyond the opt-in. They become able to spend more time selling, while their social brand is built and maintained for them.
With personalization options, corporate marketers can allow for places where posts can be customized, and if necessary, routed through a corporate approval process prior to being published. In any organization, some agents will take advantage of these personalization options, and there will be some that want to do no more than just opt-in to corporate campaigns. Either way, there is a presence in the social media space for the local agent, bolstering their own image amongst local prospective clients.
Once published, employees and marketing partners simply opt-in to a campaign and the software posts the content to the selected sites at the designated time intervals on their behalf. Local sales agents are not burdened with tasks of finding relevant, engaging content, community management or any other time consuming aspects of social media. They spend more time selling, while their social brand is built and maintained for them.