We asked 12 entrepreneurs their secret to successful lead generation; these smart strategies are sure to boost your social media leads. Social media trends change constantly. Consumers are tired of blatant self-promotion, so put those tactics to rest. What’s a brand to do to hold an audience? From holding contests to promoting gated content, these entrepreneurs from YEC have found success with these creative methods for collecting social media leads.
1. Provide Social-Exclusive Offers
Create offers that are exclusive to social media. If your audience knows you are simply promoting the same offers to every channel, the offer isn’t going to stand out. While a “free e-book offer” blends in with the other social noise, an “exclusive download just for our Twitter followers” commands attention and will receive a much higher engagement rate than a generic offer.
2. Take the Conversation Off-Line
The key to getting great leads from social media is to take your conversations to the next level. Ask your contacts if it makes sense to have a conversation outside of the digital world, and then educate them on your products and services. See how you can help each other to excel in business, or ask who they know so you can be introduced.
3. Optimize for Open Graph and Twitter Cards
When you share your website on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other sites, you want the best picture to appear as opposed to the small thumbnail of a random photo. In order to do this, be sure to use Facebook’s Open Graph meta fields on your website and Twitter cards to show the title, description, and photo you want. This is one key to getting more clicks and leads from the social world!
4. Go Where Your Customers Are
With the abundance of social networks out there, you should focus your efforts on social platforms where your customers and prospects are most active. This largely depends on your demographic. One way to determine that is by researching the responses and the engagement that your competition is getting from their customers and followers on various social networks.
5. Set Up Filters
With so many posts, you’ll need to filter out the noise, like an irrelevant conversation, and tune into actionable posts from potential customers. Use a social media platform like Social Studio or HootSuite, and then set up topic-related streams. Include buying words like “looking for,” “need” or “evaluating” to focus on only those posts where people are seeking a solution.
6. Use Video or Comment to Opt-In
When I post a quote to Twitter I get a few views. A photo gets a few more. But I get the most action when I tweet a video. I include a link to the opt-in page where I’ve embedded the video, and if I post the video to LinkedIn or directly upload it to Facebook, I instruct people to comment “in” if they’re interested. Then we directly connect to see if it’s a good fit.
7. Funnel People Back to Your Site
As you post content on social media, incorporate links to funnel people back to your site. There should always be a link to your site in your updates so people can get in touch with you.
8. Segment Your Users, and Tailor Your Message
Instead of trying to get results from general Facebook posts targeted to your entire fan base, get specific. Create specific page posts for various targeting segments. Narrow the focus, target by age, interests, education, location and more. The more you craft messages to drive leads to a specific segment of users, the better your results.
9. Run a Contest
Use an application such as Shortstack to develop a custom contest to host on your Facebook page. Offer a gift card or free goods. If you don’t sell products, offer something relative to your industry as a prize. In order to enter the contest, have users enter their name, email and any other qualifying information you feel necessary. This will help build your email list and obtain new leads.
10. Advertise to Your Customer’s Connections
Take your existing customer list in a CSV file, upload the list to the various social media and platforms like Facebook and advertise to your customer connections. By leveraging the power of social connections, you’ll be able to reach people like your current customer base while establishing a trust for your brand.
11. Promote Gated Content
Using social media to promote an e-book or a webinar that requires providing an email in order to receive the content is a great way to collect more leads on social media. Once they click, take them straight to the landing page to sign up. The portion of users who are willing to give you their email, even knowing your sales team will contact them, are more likely to be interested in your product.
12. Create and Post Quizzes
When it comes to collecting leads, quizzes have a higher engagement rate compared to e-books. They add value in real time and create a sense of suspense around the result, which makes the user more likely to give their emails. Furthermore, if done well, quizzes are more “share-worthy” than other forms of content.
