1. The document discusses how businesses can leverage social media for sales, or "social sales", by providing "social utility" - using social media to help people solve problems together or address core social needs like standing out or fitting in. 2. It suggests businesses can drive social sales by offering social value propositions that deliver social utility, such as helping consumers club together to get better prices or providing early access to new products for social status. 3. The key is for businesses to offer a "social shopping service" on social media that genuinely helps people solve problems socially or solve social problems, in order to generate sales from social media rather than just seeing it as a revolution.

1. 1
Social Utility:
The Secret to
Unlocking Sales
TIL IT Y
LU with Social Media
SO CIA
Dr Paul Marsden
Social Commerce Today
@marsattacks

2. 2
Three insights for turning social media into social sales...

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For 34% of women aged 18-34, checking their social media
account is the first thing they do when waking up
Yeah, yeah - social media is big. But so what?

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SOCIAL MEDIA
REVOLUTION
media
ju st
i ts er it
G et ov
It’s not a revolution, it’s just media

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TELEPHONE DID
NOT KILL THE
MOVIE STAR
Social media is simply personal communication media - a
utility to help people connect and share with each other

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As a business, having a social media strategy makes
about as much sense as having a paper strategy

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“IF I HAD TO GUESS
SOCIAL COMMERCE
IS THE NEXT AREA TO
REALLY BLOW UP”
MARK ZUCKERBERG
But social media can have a useful role to play in your
sales strategy...

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For example, consumers are happy to hear from you in
social media if you have a remarkable offer for them...

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For instance, Heinz opened a pop-up social media store
to sell personalised get well soup; 1 in 8 fans bought...

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But when there’s no remarkable offer - there are no sales

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So if you want to sell with social media, you’ll need a clear
and compelling value proposition...

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Helping people solve
problems socially
ILI TY
U T
CI AL
SO
Helping people solve
social problems
Smart brands are using social media to offer ‘social’ value
propositions that are all about delivering ‘social utility’

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“Does my butt
look big in
this?”
‘Social utility’ is just a fancy name for helping people solve
problems socially and helping them solve social problems

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SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE
“A wise man learns from the experience of others,
a fool by his own”
Helping people solve problems socially means helping
them solve problems together; with their social intelligence

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For example, why not help consumers club together like
Mercedes to get better value by buying in bulk?

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You can also offer social utility by helping people solve their
core social problems: how to ‘stand out’ and how to ‘fit in’

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Helping people ‘stand out’ with social media is all about
offering them ‘social status’...

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As Burberry does with pop-up social media stores
offering early access bragging rights for new products...

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Helping people ‘fit in’ with social media is all about helping
‘social bonding’ like Starbucks social media gift store

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Whether you help people solve problems socially or help
them solve social problems, the secret is to offer social utility

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SOCIAL UTILITY
using social media to help people solve
problems socially and solve social problems
social social social
intelligence status bonding
$$$$$$ SOCIAL SALES $$$$$$
So here’s the secret to selling with social media: Offer a
social shopping service that has genuine social utility

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This is not a revolution, it’s just basic business sense; smart
selling is about solving people’s problems - at a profit

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Find out more in the forthcoming ‘F-Commerce Handbook’
& ‘Social Commerce Handbook’ from McGraw Hill