Social selling: a handy glossary to help you find your way 📕

Last update:

So what's Social Selling? 😉

Social selling has been a talking point for quite some time, roughly since 2015–2016. There is no shortage of content on the subject. A Google search for “What's Social Selling?On this morning of September 28, 2019, there were no fewer than 3,770,000 results. A constant growth figure.

However, not all articles explain all of the terms associated with Social Selling, this new conception of the commercial relationship. Essentially, they simply explain on the surface what the Social Selling is. Sometimes what is proposed is relevant, sometimes it falls next to the plate (in my opinion). For example, many content explains that Social Selling is primarily about automation. I do not really agree with that and we will certainly have the opportunity to come back to it.

And so, I thought it would be interesting – and useful – to draw up a kind of inventory, and therefore in the event of proposing a small dictionary.

A dictionary without pretension and necessarily partial and especially provisional since Social Selling is still very young, nothing is frozen. Far from it. Many of my colleagues think differently from me, have their own definitions, and that's so much better. 

You will note that my dictionary also defines experts, 14 in all. Who are these people and why them? Well, they have in common to be part of the panel of experts that Loic Simon gathered to think about. In this case, we are thinking together about how Social Selling can evolve in terms of philosophy, practices, and how it will eventually evolve into distinct disciplines. For example Social Selling on sale complex BtoB, Social Selling pure prospecting, Social Selling from KAM (Key Account Management), etc. I pass and the best.

Well, without further delay, place in our dictionary, at our – very provisional – dictionary (made in a collaborative way with my 13 fellow students, thank you to them ;))

• Subscriber: Person who has decided to follow your statement. So the bond is unilateral and it's a little sad. Invite your subscribers to really exchange with them. A social network is also made to... Socialize 🙂
• Alexandre Durain : It fell into the digital pot when it was small, otherwise it is all the same that Renaud Marcadet
• Algorithm Program designed to make decisions for us. Is usually toxic. Especially when used in social media. Ingested most of the time to make little visible what you would like to make very visible. The definition of Larousse is as follows: " A set of operating rules that can be applied to resolve a problem identified through a finite number of operations. An algorithm can be translated, through a programming language, into a computer-executable program”
• Antoine Jambart : Trainer and Consultant in the use of media and social networks in company. Just like Philippe Attal In short, but in the West
• Arobase : Symbol @ which in social networks allows to identify (or tag) a contact or a company. Usually used in posts but not in articles as you can see here: @Philippe Attal does not become clickable
• Article : Background content, usually long. Designed to develop one's thinking in an extensive way, to do what in substance. Practical because indexed on Google and permanently attached to its author's profile. Content of choice to make Inbound Marketing.
• Athazagoraphobia : Fear of being forgotten or ignored. In combination with FOMO (the fear of missing something, see definition below), we have here an excellent #CocktailGoodBeing. Thank you. Coraline Rampin for the suggestion of this entry
• Automation : A process by which one manages to be very active on social media without ever setting foot in it. That's not good.
• Bruno Fridlansky : He knows. He wrote a book. His leitmotiv: " The more digital there is and the more human it takes« 
• Relational Capital : Corresponds to " all resources, information and other connections from personal and professional relations networks" . Foremostly very useful when you're commercial; in fact, no, it's simply indispensable. A businessman without any relational capital is not worth anything. Thank you. Olivier Couly for this very relevant contribution!
• Charter : A good practice guide created by the company for its employees. For example, to guide them on the best ways to mention the company within their profile, if they are OK to do so. Thank you. Philippe Lebreton for the suggestion of this addition 🙂
• Christine Morlet : TedX-level conference – and it's not nothing
• Commentary : Text which is intended to react to someone's post, or to his comment. Hence the notion of the thread of commentary. Is ideally benevolent but also constructive. But of course we can look for friction and thus raise the viral mayonnaise...
• Commercial : Employee of a company, paid to develop sales. And who in principle practices Social Selling. Or not.
• Confidentiality : Very relative concept in the world of Social Media. Associated with privacy settings. Don't take care of it can cost you a lot.
• Danielle Fazzio : Tool allowing differentiation "need" / "strategy". But only if you feel it, huh?
• Digital : « Qualifies what relates to the fingers, which belongs or which relates to the fingers " OR MORE EXACTLY IN 2019: " Qualifies what relates to the Internet, new technologies in general« 
• Dopamine : « Neurotransmitter, a biochemical molecule that allows communication within the nervous system, and one that directly influences behaviour In short, in Social Selling, it's the reward you get when your content is hard. As a result, you're more and more motivated to continue in this direction for ever more dopamine shots...
• Employee Advocacy : Action consisting of making its employees ambassadors of the company, i.e. active spokespersons. The more your collaborators are OK to play the game, the more likely your company will be to gain a reputation. On this specific subject see Renaud Marcadet and Alexandre Durain
• Commitment : « Grail's kind that any social seller who respects himself (person or company) wants to generate, for the good reason that a publication with a strong commitment is favored by the algorithm and generally leads to leads. To create long-term commitment, no miracle recipe except to find in his DNA his imprint, his voice, his clean touch, because the touch... that's exactly what touches an audience and echoes in it. Place your universe at the feet of its readers, find the words to invite them to enter, then take the time to build links with its network are, among other things, source of commitment " (thank you for this moment of grace Céline Tilly)
• Facebook: An ancient social network, which feels suffering and which is increasingly global Has-been. The opinion of a student I recently exchanged with on this subject: " Facebook is a den of old c.n. " Um. BUT AT THE SAME TIME it's still massively used and to touch certain professions it's ZE platform to be. Provided to pay because on Facebook, to be really visible you have to go through the #FacebookAds box
• Follower : See. " Follower "
• FOMO : « Fear Of Missing Out The fear of missing something. Usually a notification. FOMO is an addiction generated by the abuse of social platforms. That's why at the table you keep your smartphone next to your plate.
• Gabriel Dabi-Schwebel : What he says interests you #InboundMarketing
• GhostWriting : Consists of having a third party write a text that will be signed by his name.
• Google : ZE search engine. To the sinister reputation but which remains massively used everywhere – and in France even more than elsewhere. The Alpha and Omega of all webmarkers a little bit serious! But #Qwant is good too.
• Growth Hacking : Together with techniques to make it very quickly – and often artificially – increase its performance on social networks. For example, the number of contacts.
• Hater : He does not love you, and he makes it known publicly. Most often in the form of frankly unpleasant comments
• Hashtag (or #) : Keyword preceded by the symbol #, allows indexing and above all to value the dominant subject(s) of a content. The consensus hashtags (commonly used) are distinguished from the "clash of the eye" hashtags, which are mainly used to color a speech, to make humor, for example it's #NettementPlusClairHein
• Human : Animal species. The only one on planet Earth that uses social networks. Which will probably eventually cause her loss.

• Inbound Marketing : Content strategy which consists essentially of attracting people who interest you with content that interests them. Opposing the Outbound Marketing defined below
• Influence : And then if we speak of "influencer", then necessarily we must speak of "Influence", the Holy Grail. We can identify three types of influence on the Social Web: owned It's the one we own personally, the arned is the one we get by others, the one they recognize us (perhaps the most interesting). And finally the Paid It's the one you buy, for example by buying fans on Facebook or Twitter subscribers. That's not good, huh?
• Influencer : Social media user who has gained visibility and audience (important, faithful and responsive) by the quality (?) of his speech.
• Instagram : Social network based on image and therefore on appearance. And on the ego. And so on narcissism too. But a lot of people are going to find that they don't. Instagram is a great topic to occupy the long weekends
• Koka Sexton : One of the great precursors of Social Selling, probably even one of its inventors
• KPI : Key Performance Indicator or in good French Indicator Key Performance. This is what allows you to know, and therefore factually objective, whether it works or not.
• Lead : Sales opportunity. For example a prospect that asks you for a quote directly in LinkedIn's email, it is a " lead" . To be dealt with quickly.
• Low Link: Contact that evolves in the same ecosystems as your strong ties; which is not directly a target but can, through different relay mechanisms, contribute effectively to your own visibility. For more information, see "The Strength Of Weak Ties", the research work conducted by the psycho-sociologist Mark Granovetter on this subject
• Like : Type of reaction – very brief – to a content. Commenting is much better, commenting
• LinkedIn : Professional Social Network, the serious Facebook of all those who have a career. You're currently using it and it's not for nothing, LinkedIn we love it or we don't like it, but it's probably there to last.
• Lois Simon : Mainly responsible for the 300% increase in the number of Social Sellers in France over the last 2 years
• Marc Bellot : LeadGENERATOR: he likes well-equipped sales processes that highlight the value of his customers
• MarComm : Hybrid communication and marketing. That's exactly what's right today. 
• Social Media : Generally refers to all websites and web platforms that offer so-called "social" functionality to users (source 1min30). The social media instead insists on the notion of content. 
• Michael Aguilar : Speaker and social seller atypical who often makes the difference by doing differently than others!
• Modern Selling : Same as "Social Selling", but formulated in a less relevant way.
• Narcissism : Main lever of social networks like Instagram, or Facebook. Ah and then all the others as well... Levier that leads more generally to the production of content of the type "Make Know". We'll come back.
• Outbound Marketing : Strategy of archaic and frankly "not good" content which consists essentially of sinking into the throat of your targets of unwanted promotional content. Type of Marketing massively used last century
• Page Enterprise : Space in a social network like Facebook or LinkedIn in which a legal person, not a natural person (this is a profile) 
• Parameters : All these uninteresting adjustments that most people ignore. And in the end, instead of managing their parameters, it's those same parameters that manage them...
• Personal Branding : Practice of becoming a brand, and then embodying it on social platforms. With all the good or bad consequences you can imagine. Attention #TempsLong required, you don't change your Personal Branding every four morning. Variant of Emmanuelle Vignau : « A personal brand is to embody in the eyes of the world its singularity " #Joli
• Patrice Laubignat : A big heart to tell beautiful stories
• Philippe Attal : Trainer and Consultant in the use of media and social networks in company. Just like Antoine Jambart In short, but in the East
• Philippe Deliège : Creator of Social Selling and StoryTeller concepts at his own time. BUT AUSSI Belgian Wikipedia tennis at the service of a healthier and efficient sale. Author, and it's not nothing.
• Pilotage: The approach – most often managerial – to organize and monitor Social Selling actions within a group. Essentially, it is piloted to check whether this works, whether the actions produce results. Hence the importance of defining and monitoring KPIs, performance indicators (see above)
• Pod : Group of contacts that agree to synchronize their engagement with each other, thus artificially pushing their virality. It considers two types of pods : The pod of pure calculation, of pure strategy (not well), and the pod affinity (good) where members help each other because they share the same values, the same affinities
• Post Publication. Usually short. And with a rather ephemeral life. Tributary of the algorithm that decides its visibility and longevity on the wires
• Push : Action consisting of publishing content and organizing so that it is seen to the maximum
• Sales Process : All the steps leading to a sale action. Depending on the ecosystem in which the process takes place it can be very long and very complex
• Profile This is what an individual who uses a social network is about. Digital visiting card that can be optimized with one of the keywords, visuals, videos, etc. 
• Publication : What results from the action of publishing something on a media or social network. Maybe text, one or more images, a video, a slideshow... Or a combination of all this

• Reaction : Reaction to a post, an article. Comment or share, and click on one of the icons below, for example on LinkedIn: " I like« , « Bravo.« , « I love it« , « Instructive« , « Interesting » … 
• Reciprocity : Ingredient constitutive of Social Selling and social networks in general. When there is a connection between two profiles, there is most of the time, de facto, reciprocity in exchanges. This makes it possible to exchange private messages (very practical, etc.)
• Real : Anything outside the Digital. Boring. No, I'm kidding, the real should be the culmination of any action in the Digital. Because doing digital to make even more digital is... absurd.
• Renaud Marcadet : Like Alexandre Durain, but the same. BUT ALSO Mason of corporate democracy when he regains some of his naivety
• Social Network : Web platform which allows the connection and exchanges between individuals who embody themselves in "profiles". The social network insists on the notion of a link between users
• GDPR : « General Data Protection Regulation" . Very complicated and frankly painful trick relating to the Protection of our Data. And very hypocritical. Who's been giving headaches to a lot of people since 2017
• Scroll : Action consisting of scrolling the news feed. Terriblely time-consuming and generally toxic
• CSD For " Sales Development Representative ": Young commercial who uses social networks to explore. He likes Sales Navigator and the deadliest footage. He also loves to take his phone (in principle) and sushi in front of Netflix (thank you here). Marc Bellot)
• Serendipity: « Makes a scientific discovery or technical invention unexpectedly as a result of a competition of incidental circumstances and very often as part of a research on another subject. " (source Wikipedia) ... In short, LEAVE A POWER DOING THE HASARD by letting go. And enjoy what it produces
• Smarketing : Hybrid Sales and Marketing. That's exactly what's right in our day. Even better if crossed with MarComm, the recipe for success in Social Selling
• Social : Social in the sense of "Web Social", this Web within which we are all actors, and more precisely actors of the content that is there: We create it, we inject it, we relay it, we share it, we comment on it, we rename it, we plagiarize it, etc.
• Social Buying : Same as Social Selling, except that the objective here is to source and approach potential suppliers. We're here, sort of, across the mirror.
• Social Selling : « Art and the Way to Use Social Media to Sell and Sell ( ten Loic Simon). The wider the Social Selling is " the reflection of a vast societal change, with an exciting development perspective for the coming years (economic models, putting people at the centre of relationships using digital tools...). " Thank you for this addition Jean-Michel Davault.
• Social Selling Forum : Or #SocialSellingForum. Loic's baby, don't touch, trademark. But going there is the assurance of learning a lot about it. And besides, I co-organize the next one on Angers, on October 17, 2019 at ESSCA and to register it is just Here #SequencePromo
• Stéphane Briot : Ask Whybut with Briot
• Storytelling : Consolidates all the techniques that facilitate the memorization of a message. That's very useful. Within this idea one can think of scripting, dramatizing, staging a hero but also an antagonist who opposes him. All with a staging, a outcome. Thank you. Gildas Le Moigne for his input on this point.
• Troll : Very similar to the Hater. Is there to rot the wall of others by commenting in a negative way, or totally deliberately hostile
• Twitter : Social network whose DNA is the news. Hot news. East on the " What's going on?" . Also probably the first social network to have been designed for Mobility
• Helpful: Is the Social Selling actions that produce results. Cf; "Pilotage" higher, and KPIs, always higher... Also says time spent on platforms. In general, the more time you spend, the less useful, huh? The method is good.
• Sale : Exchange of a good – or a service, huh – for money. Practicing more and more via web platforms
• Viadeo : French Social Network very similar to LinkedIn. In clinical death since the end of 2016. Don't go, or don't go
• Video Content mixing sound, moving images (drawing or real) and text (subtitles, important subtitles in Social Selling) intended to make the viewer live a good time. Often more effective so dynamic and deep. A good video brings maximum value to each second (dixit Benjamin Tardif, an expert in the trade)
• Youtube : Social Media (and also social network etc) specializing in hosting video content. Great success in the world, nearly 2 billion active users worldwide in 2019. 400 hours of video uploads per minute (!)

Well, so, what do you think should be defined differently? And what other terms should be defined? What do you still think is missing?