HOW TO TURN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CONTACTS INTO LEADS
A few months back, I stumbled across a video called ‘If social media sites were people’. During the hilarious five minute video, popular social media sites are characterized in human form and interact with each other at a party.
However, despite the clearly irritating behaviour of the platforms, after watching the video I found myself thanking the skies above me. Why, I hear you ask? Well, because they aren’t irritating people but content inspiring, lead-producing machines that help businesses market themselves on a daily basis.
It struck me that, given the many conversations I’ve had with journalists and other professionals at networking events, many people have a strong interest in social selling, both paid and organically, but not many know how to turn that interest into a piece of marketing genius.
So, here are my top tips for generating leads through social media:
However, despite the clearly irritating behaviour of the platforms, after watching the video I found myself thanking the skies above me.
Don’t wait around for leads, hunt them down!
This is probably the most vital piece of advice to acknowledge. In the same way you wouldn’t sit around and hope that a prospect calls your office, you shouldn’t wait for somebody to speak to you online either.
Think of it as an incredibly busy networking event, you’d be silly to stand by yourself with so many interesting people around. Twitter and Facebook have a whole backlog of companies just waiting to be contacted. You know exactly the type of client you want so why not use social media as your way of reaching out to them?
Be helpful and engaging
Everybody likes a helping hand now and then. We all see those tweets – ‘Where’s a good place to get my car fixed?’ or even ‘Does anybody know anything about XX?’ Perhaps it’s not relevant to what your company does or wants to sell but if you can help them with their simple request now, there’s a strong chance they’ll remember you later.
Link to your other websites and blogs
Hey, the draft box is there to be written in right? If your company produces blogs posts or content, then share them! This is a simple way to boost traffic to your blog and also create a topic for discussion on social media.
Take your relationship offline
Don’t forget to take your newly formed connection offline. Suggest meeting for a coffee and see if you can turn the new relationship into business.
And if that hasn’t got you convinced then here’s some statistics that came from an infographic on Business Insider:
- 34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter
- Out of the marketers who’ve generated leads on Twitter, 20% of them have closed deals
- LinkedIn is 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook and Twitter
- 77% of B2B marketers say that they have acquired a customer through LinkedIn
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