Social Media Lead Generation: Reality or Utopia?
Social media began as a way for people to connect with each other, share content, and network. Now, it’s become an effective aspect of a business’s digital marketing strategy. In today’s market, one way to drive business is through social media lead generation.
Currently, there are nearly 4 billion people with active social media accounts. That’s a huge pool of potential customers, so it makes sense that companies would turn to social platforms to attract business. Because social media is highly targetable, it’s easy to create custom content that will resonate with consumers, create demand generation, and result in sales growth. Social media is an important tool for business success.
Keep reading to learn about social media lead generation and discover ways to use this tool to drive traffic to your site and generate revenue for your company.
Key Takeaways
- Social media lead generation utilizes the networking power of social platforms to promote your business to a highly targeted audience.
- Features like engagement, searchability, and analytics make social media a highly effective way to attract new leads.
- While social media supports numerous approaches for lead generation, there are five simple things you can do now to begin attracting prospects.
What Exactly Is Social Media Lead Generation?
Lead generation is the means of attracting new prospects to your business. It provides data that enables you to better understand your audience and create custom content that solves their problems and entices them to visit your site for more information. Although leads aren’t yet customers, they’re people who could potentially convert. It’s important to channel more contacts into your sales funnel to increase the likelihood of purchases.
Social media lead generation uses the power of social networking to capture qualified leads and drive them to your website for possible conversion. Social media is a highly effective way to attract new leads because it has:
- Higher engagement: Between shares, likes, and comments, social media is designed for audience interaction which builds deep relationships and customer loyalty.
- Built-in targeting and contact information: Every user has a profile listing their basic details.
- Searchability: You can hand-pick the people you want to see your message and find individuals who are already interacting with your brand.
- Geo-targeting tools: You can narrow your field by location if you want to do business in specific areas.
The best lead generation comes when all digital marketing efforts align to reach the right people with the right message at the right time. Social media allows you to engage people at any point in their sales journey, helping to improve customer lifecycle marketing and drive more traffic to your business.
How to Generate Leads with Social Media
There are several ways to approach a social media campaign to generate more leads. The following video provides a five-step approach to creating an impactful and effective social media lead generation strategy:
In the meantime, here are five ways to increase engagement and drive traffic to your site today.
1. Optimize Your Profile
When people see a social media post from your company, they’ll likely click on your company name to see your profile. That’s where they can learn what you do, where you’re located, and how to contact you. Optimize your profile to build interest and entice potential leads to engage with and follow your page. This profile optimization could include:
- Adding call-to-action buttons
- Posting accurate, clear contact details
- Including links to your site
These can help raise a prospect’s interest and direct them to the next step of the customer journey.
2. Create Linked Content
The only way to gather leads on social media is to create content. However, it’s an extremely congested marketplace, considering (on Facebook alone) 1,500 posts can appear in a user’s feed every day. To stand out from the crowd, you must create compelling content that resonates with your audience and encourages them to interact with your brand. For this reason, you should include clickable links in your social media posts.
These links guide users to the next step as they seek answers to questions. All content you post should have a purpose, whether it’s to get people to visit your website, sign up for a newsletter, or learn more about a specific product. Links help direct people through the sales funnel and allow your posts to achieve their goal.
3. Create Social Ads
Social media ad spend has reached nearly $56 billion, making it one of the most popular advertising streams for digital marketers. Create paid ads featured on various social platforms to reach a more specific audience and track marketing efforts. Despite its targetability, social media posts often appear for anyone who searches a certain keyword. Paid ads allow you to set parameters on who sees your ad to reach your ideal audience for higher engagement and better conversions.
Most social platforms enable you to create lead ads with questions that collect information for generating leads. In many instances, leads gathered through these ads can sync to your customer management tools so your sales team can pursue them further.
4. Incentivize
While many people may not want to share their personal information, they may be more willing if there’s something in it for them. Offer incentives that entice people to give you contact information. Contests, specials, giveaways, and gated content can be enough to coax people into giving up their names and email addresses.
Once you have these contacts, you can reach out with targeted content to teach them about your brand and offerings. Conversely, the information you collect as a result of incentives can help you better understand your audience and shape your digital marketing strategy.
5. Implement Live Features
Eighty-four percent of consumers say a brand’s video has convinced them to make a purchase. Live videos are social media features that enable companies to boost social performance and attract new leads. Brands can demonstrate product use, explain ideas, give virtual tours of facilities, and bring an experience to their audience. They can also answer questions in real-time or share breaking news as soon as it happens.
Live features give your brand authenticity and put a face to your company’s name. This builds trust and confidence in purchasing from you and develops lasting relationships that result in continued purchases and ongoing success.
Maximize Social Media’s Full Potential
Televerde provides sales and marketing solutions to global businesses looking to attract new prospects and increase customer retention. Let us help you create an impactful digital marketing strategy that capitalizes on social media’s full potential.
Looking for more resources? The Televerde Resources and Events Hub contains webinars and tools to help you boost your customer service strategy.
