How to Generate Leads using Social Media

If you aren’t looking to your social media for lead generation, you may be missing on some great opportunities.

Leads on social media are already interested in your product or service.

In fact, social media produces almost two times the number of marketing leads you’d receive through trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail, or PPC. In addition, conversion rates on social media are 13% higher than the average lead conversion rate.*

Pulling leads out of the social media hat requires knowledge of when and how to approach these users, so we put together a list of things to keep in mind.

Determine your strongest social platforms

• Depending on your industry, you might find more success on one over all the others. Business Insider reported that 77% of B2B marketers find lead generating success on LinkedIn, while 77% of B2C marketers find them on Facebook. Trying out the four main social media players – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ to see where you stand is a great starting point.

Find active conversation

• Search for keywords and hashtag conversations on Twitter and start chatting. Feel free to use this handy Twitter Chat Guide by Social Media Examiner. Share insight and advice; remember to be friendly, concise and try not to be sales-pitchy or your users may just label you as spam.

• Join groups related to your product or service on LinkedIn and post answers to user questions or topics of interest. Be sure to post publicly as well as privately to users. Feel free to include more information about yourself in the private message, but remember to be genuine.

• Conduct a free Google+ video conference. Some great topics could be a product demo, customers service Q&A, interviews with the CEO or industry leaders. Be sure to mention call-to-actions before, during, and after the chat and record the presentation to upload and share later. Keep a lookout for our ebook, “Google+ For Businesses”, to be posted next week.

Post engaging content

• Regularly post quality content to keep your social media accounts active. Connect with customers using your own original company content to build long-term relationships and build credibility. As a rule of thumb, you can get away with posting 80% original content, 20% third- party content. Posting content from other sources can keep streams fresh.

• Connect content to your website and contact information whether it’s a blog post, video, or article. Expose more opportunities for the user to engage with you and what you’re offering.

• Include direct links to landing pages, which can be in the form of a white paper or landing page. You can usually get away with posting these a couple of times a week on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ and once a day on Twitter.

Nurture the leads

• Be sure to follow up once a social media user becomes a lead. Have a lead nurturing campaign ready to go and approach the user with more interesting content they might like, the sooner you’re able to do this, the more receptive they’ll be.

Social media was made to connect your business to those who are already interested in your brand, so why not take advantage of collecting some leads in the process? For more ideas on how to generate more leads through social media, check out Social Media Examiner’s “4 Ways To Use Social Media to Generate Leads“. To learn more about other benefits social media marketing can offer, download our free ebook, “Top 10 Benefits of Social Media Marketing”.

*BusinessInsider.com

About Small Screen Producer

Small Screen Producer is a full service, marketing firm located in Houston, Texas that specializes in online digital media marketing through a 4-step process. Step 1: WE PLAN a custom web presence strategy for your business through website design and development, mobile development, social media account creation and branding. STEP 2: We then POSITION your brand through Pay-Per-Click advertising and search engine optimize tactics that include on-page and off-page SEO that are Google and Bing approved. STEP 3: We then PROMOTE your brand using an Inbound marketing strategy or a content marketing strategy to help you accomplish your marketing goals. We do this through blogging, video production, infographics, call-to-actions, landing pages, and free educational offers. We help you build trust and rapport with your customer base. STEP 4: We then PROTECT your brand’s web presence with a reputation management program that monitors social media and on line reviews. Get started today with a free online marketing assessment of your company’s web presence. Your company deserves it.