Online lead generation techniques have only gotten more sophisticated in the past few years. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites can now be leveraged by small business owners to drive new leads to their customer service department or sales team.
Whether you’re a sole proprietor or an e-commerce startup with a staff of sales representatives handling customer queries, getting more customers through your doors is always a goal.
Listed below are six ways that small businesses can leverage social media to drive targeted leads.
Create Great Content
As you grow your business, you’ll notice that you receive a lot of leads. While a large portion of them are valid, it’s also good to know which prospects are going to become long-term customers.
To differentiate your offers and activities from those of your competitors, you can either create great content or partner with an online marketing agency that can help you grow your brand.
For example, you could partner with an online marketing agency that specializes in growing brands on Facebook. Many agencies can help you create engaging content and run ads on Facebook to increase your brand’s visibility.
Build Relationships
You can also partner with an online marketing agency that specializes in growing brands on Twitter. Many agencies can help you create engaging content and run ads on Twitter to increase your brand’s visibility.
Partnering with an agency that specializes in social media marketing can help you build better relationships with your followers, which will result in more frequent retweets and likes, as well as more followers in return.
For example, your brand could send a weekly tweet that includes #GetMyThingOutsofStock and asks followers to leave a comment.
If you get a lot of replies, it might send a positive message to your customer service team and give them a reason to follow you back.
Build an Online Community
You can also partner with an online marketing agency that specializes in growing brands on Instagram. Many agencies can help you create engaging content and run ads on Instagram to increase your brand’s visibility.
Partnering with an agency that specializes in social media marketing can help you build better relationships with your followers, which will result in more frequent reposts and likes, as well as more followers in return.
For example, your brand could partner with a food truck that’s always in operation and hosts pop-up dinners throughout the month.
Each time the brand posts a photo on Instagram, it could ask followers to join the conversation by reposting the image with the word “adalito” added to the caption.
Recommended Reads: Managing Your Social Media Community Life Cycle
Tell Your Story
Your story isn’t just about the products or services you sell — it’s about who you are and what you’re about.
If you’re an eCommerce startup with a mission to make shopping simpler, you can tell your story by partnering with an online marketing agency that specializes in social media marketing.
Many agencies can help you create compelling digital content and run ads on social media to increase your brand’s visibility.
For example, your brand could post a photo on Instagram that includes the text “Why I love my job,” along with a picture of a customer service representative handling a problem.
Let Your Community VOTE
You can also run polls on social media sites that can help you get feedback from your followers. This could be for topics such as favorite brands, products, services, or destinations.
Polling items that you care about and have strong followings on social media can be a great way to build brand loyalty.
For example, you could ask your followers for the one thing they’d change about the way that they use social media. If there’s a widespread demand for this, it could help your brand grow.
Use community features to grow your brand
When you have a large social media following, it’s natural to want to use these platforms to your advantage. You can keep your followers informed and engage with them on a daily basis by posting regular content to the social media channels you follow.
You can also follow certain people and groups in your niche that you’re interested in so you can get updates and recommendations from other people in your industry.
This will help you expand your business network and build further relationships with other like-minded individuals.
In addition to following other individuals in your niche, be sure to “flag” relevant content that you find on other social media platforms. This will help other people find your content even if they don’t follow you on those platforms.
Another useful way to use your social media channels is to invite your followers to join your email list. This is a great way to keep in touch with your current and future customers. You can also use your email list to send exclusive offers and newsletters.
Having an active social media following can be a great way to drive new leads to your business.
Ask for Help with Your Content
As your business grows, it’ll become more complex to find new customers. This can especially be the case if you operate a small business with few employees.
You may also have customers who are dealing with difficult questions or issues. To ease some of these problems, you can hire a freelance writer to create help articles for your social media pages.
This will allow you to direct your followers to the correct page without having to manually troubleshoot issues for them.
Freelance writers can help you cover a lot of ground without spending a lot of time on the task. This can allow you to focus more on growing your brand and driving more leads.
Create social media quizzes
Have you ever heard the saying, “Treat your customers like they’re a lead?” Well, in this day and age that could not be more true than when it comes to online marketing.
Quality content, engaging questions, and timely updates all lead to better engagement with your audience. If you are not utilizing social media to drive traffic to your blog or other web pages, you are probably doing it wrong.
Leads come from social media posts. Whether you are a small business or an individual blogger, posting regular content about your company or products on social media is one of the best ways to gain exposure and attract new followers.
You can also use these platforms as a way for potential customers to get in touch with you about something specific or share their experiences with others who may also be interested in making purchases from your business.
The important thing is that you put whatever type of content you are willing to share out there for everyone to see and see consistently. Let’s take a look at how you can generate leads with social media quizzes.
What are Social Media quizzes?
A social media quiz is a question and answer type of content that can be shared on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
You can create your own social media quiz or find existing social media questions and answers on various websites. When you post a question to these platforms, you are offering a solution.
The audience can choose from a list of questions provided by you or challenge you to create a new question. This type of content is a great way to get engagement from your audience and ultimately, new leads.
How to make a social media quiz
The best social media questions and answers come from real-life experiences, so why not start there? One of the best ways to get started with social media is to create a free online survey.
You can create a survey that targets a specific goal such as finding out what products or services your audience likes, finding out their favorite ice cream flavor, or finding out how they would like to be paid.
While surveys are not appropriate for every type of content, they are a great way to get engaged with your audience and learn more about what type of customer you have.
Next, find a social media platform with a large following and try to make regular posts on various topics related to your business. Be sure to post frequently and include your brand and product name in your posts.
As you grow your follower base, you will notice that people are definitely taking the bait. They are probably interested in what you have to say, so why not give it to them straight?
How to find a social media quiz topic
One of the best ways to find a social media quiz topic is by creating a list of questions that range from general to specific.
It is important to choose questions that are relevant to your product or service and your audience. Once you have a topic, it is time to search for existing social media content related to that particular topic.
Start by searching Google for topics related to your product or service and see what type of content you can find. From there, brainstorm possible questions that will best help tell the story of your brand and product.
Many brands turn to Pinterest to find phase-appropriate content. If you prefer to keep your brand fresh and unique, you can also use Google Images to find appropriate content.
Leverage micro-influencers
The world is now a connected place. We see it in our daily lives with the use of social media, smartphones, and even internet-of-things (IoT) devices.
In order to stay competitive in this new landscape, businesses need to leverage every angle possible to grow their customer base and drive conversions.
For example, instead of spending thousands of dollars on paid ads for search engine results or blog posts for SEO keywords, a small business that specializes in home cleaning services can focus its advertising budget on social media platforms and micro-influencers to gain popularity and drive conversions.
That’s what we do as virtual assistants – we work with small businesses that are looking to generate leads through SEO and social media marketing.
Whether you have a brick-and-mortar company or an online brand, you can leverage micro-influencers to drive more traffic to your website or increase your conversion rate by posting relevant content about your services or products that customers find attractive.
We’ll walk you through different ways you can leverage micro-influencers for lead generation and increase brand awareness overnight.
How can social media live-streaming assist generate leads?
Are you a business owner, marketer, or entrepreneur? Have you been wondering how to leverage social media to grow your company or promote your brand?
These days, it’s not enough to just have a great website and good customer service. You also need to take care of your online presence.
If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on marketing materials and tools, then using social media is the way to go.
You can reach a whole new audience through platforms like Facebook and Twitter. All you need is a little know-how and some creativity. So here are some tips on how to use social media live streaming to generate leads:
Go Live
Before you start streaming live, it’s a good idea to get yourself ready for the event. Create a schedule for yourself so you know how long each segment of the broadcast will take.
While you’re at it, consider how you’ll handle the chat, links, and other content. When hosting a live stream, you don’t want to be “in the booth”—that is, without any interaction from your audience.
So make sure you’re comfortable interacting with your followers and letting them “try” the product or service that you’re promoting.
If you’re not at ease with your product or service, you’ll come across as less genuine. Make an effort to be at ease with yourself so you can communicate with your followers easily.
Let your followers see and feel the product or service for themselves
One of the most effective ways to grow your audience is to let them “see” the products or services that you’re advertising.
This is known as the “ Shark Tank ” effect. If your audience witnesses you receive a product or service in return, they’re more likely to buy from you themselves.
So, during your live streams, let your followers see you receive a gift, receive an award, or open a box that you’ve been excited to receive.
When you do this, you’ll come across as much more generous and trustworthy than you are when you don’t do this. You’ll also come across as more human, which is important when you’re trying to connect with your followers on an empathetic level.
Create informative live streams
If you’re often holding events or giving presentations, it’s smart to incorporate social media into your live stream. If you provide the audience with engaging content that gets them talking, they’re more likely to be interested in your business in the first place.
You can incorporate your live stream into your regular video content on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. When you publish a video on Facebook, for example, the video will automatically post to your wall. When you’re live streaming on Twitter, you can also include your username and a link to your video in the replies.
This gives your followers easy access to the content and will also encourage other people to watch your stream. If you frequently use these platforms, you’ll notice that you receive more likes, comments, and retweets on your videos than you ever would have gotten otherwise.
Engaging your followers enough so that they “see” your products or services in action is one of the best ways to generate leads.
Conclusion
As you can see, social media is a powerful tool that can be used to promote your brand and grow your business. There are many different ways to go about this, but the most effective ones usually have a combination of new media and old.
Mixing and matching these different features will give your brand a fresh and modern look that will keep your followers interested and lead to sales.
Ultimately, the key to using social media to generate leads is both understanding how it works as well as how it doesn’t work.
With a little bit of effort, you can create a successful social media strategy that benefits your brand and your audience.
