While there may be debate about whether LinkedIn or Twitter is more popular with salespeople, there’s no question that sales executives are becoming more active on Twitter. Why? They understand the power of the micro-blogging platform as a way to monitor, reach, and engage target buyers while also building their personal brand. But how are these sales leaders engaging on Twitter? And in what ways can you use this information to become more effective on social media?
How Sales Executives Engage on Twitter
My firm, Leadtail, decided to delve into these very questions by looking at the Twitter activity of 595 sales executives during the first six months of this year. Specifically, we analyzed 160,928 tweets and 91,471 shared links to better understand the topics sales execs are interested in, what they’re reading and sharing, and which people most influence them on social media. Here’s what we discovered.
What Sales Execs Talk About
We compiled the top hashtags used by sales leaders to identify the topics grabbing their attention. Why hashtags? Like search keywords, popular hashtags are a good indicator of what people are paying attention to, talking about, searching for, and sharing on social media.
No surprise that #Sales, #Leadership, #SaaS, and #CRM are hot topics with sales executives, but there are many conversations happening that reflect their growing interest in social media, social selling, marketing, technology, and startups. As the graphic below illustrates, sales leaders engage in a breadth of topics that reflect both business and personal (sports!) interests.
Top Publications Sales Leaders Read and Share
In an age of information overload, which publications are senior sales professionals prioritizing? It may be surprising to discover that they focus much of their social media reading and sharing on top business, entrepreneurial, and technology-related publications such as Forbes, Inc., Harvard Business Review, and TechCrunch. Clearly, sales executives are making it a priority to become better business leaders and entrepreneurs, while also staying current on technology news.
Here are the top 25 content sources shared by sales leaders on Twitter:
People Most Retweeted by Sales Leaders
Social media has given each of us the ability to create a personal brand, grow an audience, and influence others. The list below shows the top 25 people retweeted by the sales leaders in our study. Whether their tweets are helpful, inspirational, informative, or entertaining, each of the people on this list has created a unique social voice that resonates with top sales professionals.
How Sales Professionals Can Use This Data
How can you use these social insights to engage sales executives or other target buyers?
- Search on and use popular hashtags to stay in front of your audience
- Read and share content from top publications so you can better engage and understand the issues keeping decision makers up at night
- Follow and build relationships with top influencers since they already hold sway with your prospects
- Tap into stories and conversations from top publications and influencers when looking for content marketing ideas
The good news is that you have plenty of opportunity to build a name for yourself using social media. Start by sharing and engaging those publications, brands and people that influence your target audience. This will put you on the path to becoming influential, too!
Interested in what the rest of the C-Suite is up to on social media? Visit our reports page to download any of our free social insights reports.
Today’s Guest Author:
Carter Hostelley is the Founder and CEO of Leadtail, a social strategy and insights firm. For the past six years, he has championed the importance of social media to CMOs and senior marketers at leading business brands and venture-backed companies. Specifically, how social media can reach, engage, and influence buyers. He also writes about B2B social marketing and customer experience for CMSWire. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn.