6 Steps to Launching Your Social Sales Campaign on LinkedIn (Infographic) Selling via social media cuts down on dreaded cold calls and drives up sales. Here's how to get started fast.

Social selling is all the buzz these days, but what is it, who's doing it and why is it so important right now?

But first, hold the phone. Thankfully it has zero to do with dialing for dollars (old-school cold calling). Put simply, social selling is when salespeople -- and marketers, recruiters and account reps -- use social media platforms to directly interact with sales prospects.

"Social selling has the power to help establish a positive reputation, unearth hard-to-find information, and make important contacts in a scalable way," LinkedIn vice president of sales Mike Derezin told Entrepreneur. "In today's digital and data driven age, online is how perceptions are shaped, so for anyone working in sales today, it's a real miss to not make it core to their strategy."

Related: 10 Questions to Ask When Creating Your LinkedIn Company Page

When done right, social selling is also a highly effective lead generation, relationship building and conversion tool. When done wrong, it can alienate prospects and send them packing. Getting the delicate social sales do-si-do just right can be tricky. It's best to start strong with a solid game plan.

LinkedIn, the a 347 million-plus member professional social network and creator of a popular fee-based social selling tool called Sales Navigator -- has put together a crash course in how to get started in social sales in the helpful infographic below. The guide walks you through six simple steps to launching a successful social sales campaign, from to setting up your social presence to finding and attracting the right prospects, to measuring and optimizing results.

Check it out below.

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Related: 3 Simple Ways to Use LinkedIn to Boost Sales