Generating Leads Through Social Media (5 Little-Known Tactics)

— June 8, 2017

Generating Leads Through Social Media (5 Little-Known Tactics)


Generating leads through social media can seem impossible.


The truth is, social media can be a great source for lead generation, as well as for nurturing leads and turning them into customers.


In this blog post, I want to share with you 5 ways that you can be generating leads through social media.


1. Hold a Contest on Social Media


One of the best ways for generating leads through social media is to give people a good incentive to get them to provide their email; and what better incentive is there than a prize?


However, if you want to generate good leads, and not just people who want to win your prize, with no interest whatsoever in what you sell, then you need to give away something that is directly related to your business – or, the best option is to give away one of your own products or services.


You might not get as many people interested and participating than you would with a prize that appeals to a large audience, but the leads who do sign up will be of a much higher quality.


If they are participating in order to win one of your products or services, that shows that they have a need or interest for that product or service – they might not get it for free if they don’t win the contest, but you might be able to sell it to them later on.


Facebook is probably one of the best platforms for holding contests; you can easily create one by using a tool. For example, you can use something like Agorapulse to create a quiz, a photo contest, a sweepstakes, a fan vote contest or a fun personality test with prizes.


generating leads through social media


Another useful tool for creating social media contests is Woobox, which you can use to create quizzes, sweepstakes, photo and video contests and much more.


2. Use Monitoring to Discover Potential Leads


By thoroughly monitoring different social platforms, you can generate more qualified leads that are on the lookout for products or services just like the ones you’re selling.


That is why you should set up a few monitoring searches to help you uncover some leads that would otherwise be lost to your competitors:



  • Monitor your brand name: not everyone will use your social handle when mentioning your business, so it’s best to monitor your brand name and check it consistently. It could be a customer service issue or it could be a lead – a lead that wouldn’t get on your radar unless you were listening.
  • Monitor relevant keywords for people searching for similar products/services: think of what keywords people would use when searching for products or services like yours and set up a search for them. When you use a dedicated monitoring tool (such as Brand24 or Brandwatch), you’ll have access to all kinds of filtering options, so that you can get more relevant results.

generating leads through social media



  • Monitor your competitors’ social handle: by monitoring your competitors on social media, you could find potential angry customers that you can reach out to, or you could find people interested in their products and services – then, you can jump in to show why you are the better option.

3. Monitor Locations and Use Geo-Targeting to Find Leads


If you operate in certain areas only, you can discover potential leads by monitoring social media activity in that location only.


You can do this on several social networks, such as Twitter and Instagram; to start you off, think of the keywords your ideal leads would use on social media and then select the location you want.


There are several tools that can do this, such as the aforementioned Agorapulse (for Instagram, Twitter) and Brandwatch.


generating leads through social media


4. Connect Your Social Media with Your CRM and Email Leads


Generating leads through social media isn’t always easy, but this one is pretty straight forward.


Social media is a great tool for nurturing leads and building trust. It allows you to engage with your leads and to build a stronger relationship – one that helps move leads along the sales funnel and get them to buy and one that gets your leads to think about you.


If you have a list of leads – for example, your email subscribers list – connect it with your social media profile. Then, start following these leads and engaging with them – it will help bring you back on their radar and furthermore, it will help build a relationship between you, too.


Engage with them as often as possible, share and retweet their updates, leave comments and likes and so on – the more you engage with them, the better.


Then, whenever you get a new lead, connect with them via social media if they have an account. This will help speed up the entire process and get them to trust you faster.


5. Hold Twitter Chats and Google Hangouts to Generate Leads


Twitter Chats, Google Hangouts and other similar services offer a great way to connect with your audience on a deeper level, demonstrate your expertise and your knowledge, as well as to generate leads.


While one is by video and the other by text (or rather, tweets), the principle behind them is the same: hold a discussion surrounding a particular subject, chosen by you, and connect directly with your audience.


The Hangout/Chat/etc. can be about your business – or, rather, one of your products or services – which will attract a smaller, but much more targeted audience, or it can be about a more general subject, such as a discussion about recent news in your particular industry, which would have a broader audience.


Once the Hangout or Chat is finished, you can direct the audience towards your gated content or directly to your landing page.


Plus, by sharing (and showing) your expertise and knowledge, you can find potential leads in your audience.


Once the event is over, you can then continue reaching out to them via social media (or other contact information, if you can get it) with the purpose of moving them through the sales funnel.


Conclusion


Social media started out as a fad and grew into a tool for improving brand awareness and engagement; now though, it’s so much more than that.


It’s become one of the top sources of referral traffic, as well as a great source for generating leads.


And it makes sense; after all, everyone is using social media – young, old, wherever there is access to the Internet, people are on some sort of social network.


Not to mention, an increasing number of people is using social media to find and research businesses, which is why businesses need to be constantly listening and monitoring social media for opportunities.


What are some of the ways you’re generating leads through social media?

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