What is social selling and how do you do it on Instagram and LinkedIn?
Updated
Quick answer
Social selling is selling through relationships on social media: you find people who match your ideal client, engage with their content before any pitch, start a useful conversation and only then suggest a meeting. In LUME Hub, RADAR organizes this process into pipeline stages, from the first touch to the closed deal.
Social selling is selling through relationships on social media. Instead of blasting messages to people who don't know you, you pick people who match your ideal client, engage with what they post, start a useful conversation and only then make an offer. The sale comes from trust, not from pushing.
Social selling vs. mass DMs
The difference is the order of things:
| Cold outreach | Social selling |
|---|---|
| A big contact list | A few right profiles (your ICP) |
| The first message is the pitch | Engagement first, conversation next |
| The same message for everyone | A message based on what the person posts |
| Measures how many messages went out | Measures replies, meetings and sales |
When someone gets a message from a person who already liked, commented on and reacted to their stories, they recognize the name. The conversation starts warm, not cold.
The steps of social selling
The method usually follows these steps:
- Define your ideal client (ICP): who buys, in which niche, with what problem.
- Find the profiles: hashtags, followers of niche accounts, post comments, referrals.
- Warm up: follow, like, comment and react to stories without selling anything.
- Reach out: a short first message about them.
- Talk and qualify: see whether it's a fit and offer a diagnostic or a meeting.
- Meeting and proposal: the moment to present your solution.
- Follow up: get back to those who didn't close, at the right time.
On Instagram, warming up happens through likes, comments and stories. On LinkedIn, the way in is a comment and a connection request with a note, and the conversation starts once the person accepts.
Why social selling works
- Context: you reach out to people who have already seen your name and content.
- Personalization: the conversation starts from what the person posts, not a generic script.
- A measurable routine: you can count touches, outreach, replies and meetings and see where the process gets stuck.
How to do social selling in LUME Hub
RADAR, in the Sales app, organizes the method as a pipeline with the stages new, warming up, reached out, in conversation, booked, meeting held, follow-up and client, plus recycle and disqualified. Each lead counts up to 3 touches before it's ready for a DM.
- The step-by-step routine is in how to do social selling on Instagram with RADAR.
- The Chrome extension logs touches on Instagram and LinkedIn for you: see how to install the social selling Chrome extension.
- The Playbook and the AI queue suggest each lead's next step based on your process.
- The weekly scoreboard compares outreach, replies, diagnostics, conversations, proposals and sales with your targets.
To see how the stages form a funnel, read what is a sales funnel.
Frequently asked questions
Is social selling the same as mass DMs?
No. Sending the same message to lots of people with no context is the opposite of social selling. The method picks a few right profiles, warms them up with interactions and personalizes the conversation.
What is LinkedIn's Social Selling Index (SSI)?
It's a score LinkedIn calculates for your profile, tied to personal brand, connecting with the right people, engaging with content and building relationships. RADAR doesn't show the SSI; it measures your routine through touches, replies and meetings in the weekly scoreboard.
Does social selling work for local businesses?
Yes, especially on Instagram, where customers and businesses in the same city follow each other. To find local businesses, you can combine it with Prospector, which brings businesses from Google Maps.
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