UPDATED 11:30 EDT / MAY 27 2015

NEWS

Twitter is now more popular than LinkedIn for salespeople

LinkedIn is considered by many to be the “professional” social networking site, but it looks like Twitter has quietly become the go-to platform for salespeople looking for connections and clients.

According to a recent study by sales consulting and data research firm KiteDesk, Twitter has pulled slightly ahead of LinkedIn in popularity for salespeople. LinkedIn itself sits just above Facebook in popularity, and all three social media sites lead the pack, with platforms like Google+ and others trailing behind by a significant margin.

“Shocked that Twitter has surpassed LinkedIn,” Jeff Rowley, founder of Jeff Rowley Inc, said in KiteDesk’s report. “That said, I can typically learn more personal things about a buyer on Twitter than LinkedIn — who she follows (business professionals, my competitors & partners, influencers, comedians, politicians, athletes, news outlets, charitable organizations) who follows her, what she tweets about, who she retweets, what lists she’s a member of and subscribes to.”

He added, “I use Twitter to not only research, but ENGAGE. If I believe the content being shared by my buyer is relevant to my network, I will comment, retweet, and potentially favorite. I might share (via Twitter, LinkedIn, or email) a relevant follow-on article, blog post, podcast, eBook, video. I also use Twitter to “attend” events virtually via the event hashtag. It’s all about being where your buyers are: offline, online, #AllTheTime.”

KiteDesk noted that social media can play a big role in making successful sales, and its report found that 69 percent of top sellers – that is, salespeople who exceed their quotas by at least 10 percent – closed one or more deals as a direct result of using social media.

Now that Twitter allows users to opt-in to enable direct messages from non-followers, it has become easier than ever for salespeople to communicate with different businesses and brands. While Facebook’s overall user base vastly outnumbers both Twitter and LinkedIn combined (and then some), it has not become quite as popular with businesses yet.

You can download KiteDesk’s full report on social media and sales on their website.

photo credit: Shovelling Son via photopin cc

Since you’re here …

… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.

If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.