Many salespeople don’t realise the business benefit of social media and I have had them say to me “how can I get leads from social media?”. It is usually because it can get them feeling like social media is an extra marketing activity, rather than an earner for their business.
However, social media leads to more “indirect” leads, as it helps you get more traffic that you can try to convert once they get to your website. Studies have shown that 77% of buyers are “more likely to buy from a company who uses social media.”
Generating leads using social media doesn’t happen instantly, like all other social media results. It takes a bit of effort and the bigger and better your social media profiles are, the better the chances that you will generate more leads. It’s all too easy to fall into the traps that stop companies creating genuine sales leads from their social media marketing activity and lack of a formal social media strategy is usually the culprit.
1. Social Listening
One of the first steps in a social media strategy is listening for conversations about your company, your personas, competitors or other topics of interest. Social listening allows you to track, analyse and respond to conversations about your brand online. Using a professional listening tool will make your social engagement efficient and effective because it’s much easier to pinpoint results and gain insight on content ideas, locations of communities online & offline and can identify key influencers.
Some recommended social listening/social media monitoring tools include Meltwater and Social Mention.
2. Social Conversation
Social conversations can drive word of mouth marketing. This is about finding and responding to conversations online – engaging with others in social media (not selling). Creating social conversations is about creating an idea that spreads from person to person. We marketers call this sort of viral sharing buzz, word-of-mouth or viral marketing. Engaging in conversation shows that you’re not just a company that is disconnected from its consumers; it shows you are listening and care about any of their concerns
Mavens recommended tools for social conversation/social engagement is Hootsuite.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites. Social media marketing programs usually centre on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. Businesses can take advantage of this by launching and running campaigns and promotions on social media sites.
Mavens recommended tool for social media marketing is Shortstack.
4. Social Media Analytics
Analytics is at the core of any marketing strategy and social media marketing is no exception. To maximise your campaign performance, it’s important to measure all your efforts as this allows you to know what areas need to be improved and worked on. Marketers also need to measure and analyse results of their social media efforts across various platforms to help prove return on investment. Although social media analytics and tracking can be very time-consuming and sometimes expensive, there are a lot of social media analytics tools that can really benefit you and your company.
Some social media analytics tools include Awario and Sprout Social.
5. Social Influencer
Businesses need to identify and engage with influencers that are relevant to their company or industry. True social influence drives action, not awareness. People tend to confuse a number of people in your audience with influence. Having a lot of followers/fans/connections doesn’t give you the power to drive action, it gives you the power to drive awareness.
To find out your social influence use tools such as GroupHigh.
Every industry has influencers, you can download our essential guide to help you become more aware of them and connect with them in order to tap into an audience you have not yet been able to reach.
