Ok, so you’ve setup a Twitter and Facebook account, added a couple of posts and may even have started to get a few followers and fans. But now what?  How do you transform your social media for lead generation purposes? Turning your social media accounts into reliable, valuable lead generation tools.

A growing number of businesses are reporting that social media has boosted sales. Here’s just a couple of ideas to get you started…

1. Build your network. In order to create leads you need to spend time interacting with prospects – in just the same way that you do offline.
   • Follow prospects on Twitter
   • Friend new connections of Facebook
   • Add a contact form to your Facebook page.
   • Constantly engage with your audience to build lasting relationships
   • Host a webinar with registration
   • Host, join & participate in a twitter chat using a specific keyword hashtag. Click here to find an extensive list of Twitter Chats. Generate leads by researching participants, follow potential customers and tweet them outside of the chat. When the time is right DM them to share useful information or marketing materials.
   • Create or join a LinkedIn group and contribute, help, engage with prospects
   • Host a Google+ hangout to share useful information. Don’t forget to video it so you can share on YouTube!
   • Answer questions on social channels
   • Share referrals
   • Include your website address in your social profile
2. Share content online. This is probably the biggest single way to increase lead generation and there are lots of ways that you can use content that you create.a.    Provide consistent, regular and good quality content for your social media channels.
   • Write ebooks and gate them with forms
   • Write whitepapers and gate them with forms
   • Position yourself as the expert in your field
   •  When someone promotes your content via a tweet – share it
   • Re-share existing content to encourage clicks
   • Share other people’s content – not just yours
   • Make content visual eg with infographics if you use Pinterest
   • Blog about helpful information (don’t ‘sell’)
   • Make sure your website and blog is mobile friendly
   • Written a great presentation? Share it on Slideshare and link to it from your social channels
   • Use social posts to link to content on your website.
   • Occasionally be a little salesy!
3. Use social media monitoring. By being proactive on social media you can discover potential leads and help to offer information or expertise – without any sales pressure.
   • Register for a monitoring tool. There are lots of free ones – click here to see the top 10:
   • Monitor for buying indication terms applicable to your product category
   • Monitor recommendation requests and engage with them
   • Monitor discussions about your product category and join in
   • Monitor questions and conversations about your product category and answer them
   • Monitor key phrases that customers may use when seeking help and respond with answers
   • Monitor industry trends
   • Research topics with great content
   • Research competitor insights
   • Look for and answer direct questions from prospects
4. Invest in social ads to generate leads. Paid advertising such as promoted content on Facebook and sponsored tweets on Twitter can be a cost effective way to generate leads
   • Design a Facebook ad to drive traffic to your website or landing page
   • Capitalise on Facebook click throughs by including a sign-up form that reveals content on your website or Facebook tab after the user fills out a form
   • Use promoted tweets to drive traffic to your site
   • Link back to dedicated landing pages design to optimise conversion
   •  Create a LinkedIn ad linked to a lead generation form
   • Include a strong ‘call to action’
   • Promote offers
   • Advertise on relevant forums
5. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). A well optimised website can deliver large quantities of high quality traffic for key search words and terms. Optimise your website content and social channels to include key search terms to boost your SEO.
   1. Include key phrases in your tweets
   2. Link to your blog from Facebook
   3. Ask followers to link to your website
   4. Use keywords on your companies LinkedIn company page
   5. Include keywords in your blog post headlines and body
   6. Tag and name your images
   7. Tag your blog with key phrases
   8. Upload videos to YouTube
   9. Encourage sharing with G+

Need help creating regular, good quality content for your social media channel? Check out our Social Buzzle service. Daily posts to your social media channels form £199 per month.  Find out more here.