Lead Generation Using Social Media

Svilen Milev

Small business should think one thing when they hear about the large number of people using social media everyday: lead generation. Whether you’re looking for leads for new customers or new employees, getting on board the social media interview is where it’s at.

Reuters published the results of a recent survey showing that Microsoft employees use social media the most. While that’s interesting, the more important thing to you the business owner is the conclusion drawn from the survey:

“The NetProspex Social Index was determined after an analysis of more than 100,000 business executives from the Fortune 1000 companies in the first quarter of 2010. ‘This report shows that in today’s business environment, employees throughout many of the country’s largest corporations are using social networks,’ Gary Halliwell, CEO of NetProspex, said in a statement.

This presents a new opportunity for sales and marketing prospecting and lead generation, as strategies adapt to encompass the landscape of social networks.”

How do you use social media for lead generation?  Many entrepreneurs waste time in their approach to social media marketing. Instead of generating leads, they broadcast miscellaneous bits of information about their company, products and services.

A traditional way to generate a lead on a website is to use a form. A prospect fills it out with their information, and you’ve got a lead to follow up with. That’s won’t work as a social media strategy, but you have to come up with ways to capture information about prospects to follow up with them. Some ideas include:

• Read the profiles of users, fans and followers and follow up with those who fit the customer profile you’re looking for
• Initiate private conversations with prospects who leave interesting comments
• Post a few of your needs and goals for you business and watch the response. Follow up with those who are interested and give responses that warrant you following up with them.

Add to this list based on what’s unique to your business, and start lead generating using social media as soon as possible.

Related posts:

1. What Social Media Marketing Means for Lead Generation
2. Coca-Cola Makes Social Media Marketing Easy for the Rest of Us
3. Using Social Media for Collaboration and Testing
4. Measuring the Results of Social Media Marketing
5. Social Media Marketing – A Revolution Revisited