How to Use Social Media To Generate More Leads

Using Social Media for Lead Generation

They say you can get famous on social media within a week, but getting famous is only half of the money game. How do you convert those “Likes” — “Followers” into happy and paying customers? What is your strategy about using social media for lead generation?

According to statistics compiled by Wishpond, they create social media marketing application if you didn’t know that, 77 percent of business to consumer (B2C) marketers have acquired customers though Facebook, while business to business (B2B) marketers have found more success on LinkedIn — finding it a surprisingly 277 percent more effective than Facebook or Twitter.

For more on how social media marketing helps generate business leads and ideas to stand out to potential customers, I have arranged this infographic for you. Take a look at this infographic below and we may discuss it later in the comments box.

You may also like reading: The Art of Getting Retweets: How You Can Get More Retweets on Twitter

What is your strategy about using social media for lead generation? How do you plan to promote you product through social media to achieve your sales goals? Please share with us…

By S A Rahman Bukhari.  Article source: http://www.itsuccesscenter.com.

Conversion: Ensuring the Success of Your Social Media Strategy

Face it! None of us is in this to gain Fans, Followers, Re-Pins, etc. We’re in this to make money. Even if you’re a non-profit, you’re using social media to support your cause and donations are a big part of that support. So, CONVERSION is the key. 

What is conversion? 

Conversion should be tied to your social media goals. The most common types of conversion are: 

1. Sales — the mother of all conversions 
2. Subscriptions – let’s you continue working on getting sales 

Sure, other things matter in getting conversion and these elements should be reflected in your goals — things like positive sentiment, increased awareness, good quality perceptions. So, don’t forget these non-financial outcomes of a good marketing and social media campaign, but today I REALLY want to talk about conversion. 

How to encourage conversion? 

I love all my brothers in social media — except when they compete for an account I really want — but vanity metrics, such as #Fans, #Followers, etc really doesn’t mean a lot when you talk about conversion. Sure, building a strong community is important — look at the HOGS (Harley Owner’s Group) to see how a committed, loyal following impacts your bottom line. But, I’m not sure that’s what some folks are building on social networks, especially when they use “tricks” like contests to attract Fans or buy Followers. These aren’t engaged users and they DON’T impact your bottom line. They’re a distraction and frankly more of a bother than a benefit to the firm. 

Fans and followers only matter to the extent they support conversion by amplifying your message, defending your brand, creating user-generated content, and similar engagement outcomes. 

So, if your highly paid social media firm promises lots of Fans/Followers ask them how much your sales will increase from this increase. And, don’t accept standard figures estimating the average value of a fan. Most I’ve seen are bogus and have NO reality to them. 

That doesn’t mean social media doesn’t support conversion. It does. And, social media might produce the highest ROI (Return on Investment) of any marketing tool in your arsenal. But, like any tool, it takes skill and instruction to use it right. I’m convinced that most folks are using it wrong. 

Conversion 

While social media does a LOT to support your brand, your website is where consumers come to buy (or not buy) your products. So, the entire social media process should focus on … are you ready? Here’s the secret to making your business a success….. Your website’s ENTIRE goal is: 

BRINGING PROSPECTS TO YOUR WEBSITE AND ENCOURAGING 

EXISTING CUSTOMERS TO KEEP BUYING YOUR STUFF. 

That’s it. No big secret. Everything else you do online MUST support this overarching goal!!!!!! 

That means your blog, forum, chat room, bulletin board, or other communication channel is CRITICAL for your success. These content sharing platforms give you something to talk about over social networks, attract the Google bot to visit your site and serve it up to searchers, and keeps customers coming back for more. 

Getting visitors 

Getting visitors to your website is also not such a big secret. 

GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT! 

Don’t talk about yourself. Help solve their problems. Entertain them. Let them show off a little. The key to a successful social media marketing program is to focus on customers, not YOU. 

This may sound simple, but you’d be surprised how many firms just don’t get this. They feel like they’re wasting money if they’re not talking about themselves 100% of the time. Instead, they should be talking about their customer and helping solve their problems 90-95% of the time and only talking about themselves rarely. 

Creating great content 

I posted last week some secrets to creating great content. But, the more I think about it, the key is really being a social business and these tactics help once you’re a social business. Your business should be like the old general store in the small towns where I spent much of my youth. Places where everybody congregated to just talk and the owner knew everyone in town by name. Heck, they knew your entire life, sometimes better than you did. The owners were real — they were part of the community. 

I remember when Barnes and Noble opened and folks thought they were crazy putting in benches and comfy chairs that invited readers to tarry over a good book. Other were convinced they’d lose all their business because folks would just read the books and magazines, rather than buying them. Instead, for a generation, they became the first place folks thought about when they needed a book or just wanted a place to meet friends or hang out for a couple of hours. It was genius until folks decided Amazon was just more convenient. 

Tell a good story and folks will fall all over themselves to share it.

By Angela Hausman.  Article Source: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/conversion-ensuring-the-success-of-your-social-media-strategy-0547081

How to Make the Most of LinkedIn

With over 50 million users, LinkedIn has become one of the most popular social networking website for professionals. LinkedIn just got valued at a little above a billion dollars with a maximum number of high profile executives and CXO's on any social network. If you are looking towards building deeper relationships, getting more engaged and becoming an active member of LinkedIn, here are some tips which may be helpful:

1. Be Visible - Add as many connections as possible. By adding connections, you increase the likelihood of appearing first in people's searching when people are looking for something. People would rather work with someone in an existing connection rather than to look for a new provider.

2. Improve connectibility - Make sure that your profile is up to date and you've added all your professional details. Many people put only their recent company details in their profile and by doing so they severely limit their ability to connect with people. Based on your professional details, LinkedIn recommends you to potential colleagues whom you can connect with. Also, when a prospective employee or client searches, your name would appear in the list.

3. Connect with influencers - Use the data on LinkedIn to connect to influential people. The data will help you identify the networking events you should attend or arrange speaking engagements in good events. The detailed resumes on LinkedIn will help you identify people who share similar interests and you can connect with them. Influential connections can help you go a long way in your career.

4. Maintain connections - Most of the time we ensure that we make connections but don't maintain them. Become genuinely interested in your connections, appreciate their activity and take the relationship to the next level. If you do not use the deck of cards collected from your networking event, your time and money have gone waste in attending the event. Get connected to all members on LinkedIn, share thoughts and discuss things. If you are running newsletters, it may be a good idea to get their email ids and put them in your mailer system. That way, you ensure that you communicate with them regularly. Don't overdo it so as not to irritate people.

5. Contribute, Contribute, Contribute - Give away your best and the best will come to you! An old saying but still very effective in our digital world. LinkedIn answers are one of the best way to contribute to the network and gain visibility and credibility. Answer questions, respond to other people's answers and if your answer is ranked #1, a badge will appear on your profile signifying that you are an expert in that industry. The LinkedIn answers do get ranked well in search engines like Google and that is another way you get visibility.

Twitter Followers - How to Make Money With Targeted Traffic

Making money with Twitter is not as difficult as it may seem. Your Twitter followers have to be one of a kind, and that is certainly, one interested in what you are indeed tweeting about.

The most evident way of this money making process is, by means of direct advertising. A word of caution here.. Be careful not to be qualified as a spammer, the untold rule is very simple, try the rest of the people, as you would like to be treated. Deliver content, quality content, as opposed to just affiliated links. And please, do not misunderstand me, it is OK to send affiliate links, just don't overuse them.

By making yourself an expert, or at least an advocated on whatever you tweet about, you will have tons of targeted traffic, to whatever or wherever you point your audience to, this is the key subject here, getting interested people to follow the links you want the most, which rightfully could be, the ones making you money!

Some people are using other ways to make money with twitter, some of them very smarts ones, if I can say so myself. For example, you may have a huge fan base, or if you are an authority in a field of expertise. In these cases, some people would love to be listening to whatever you have to say. Hence, you can have a twitter account with privacy settings set in such a way, that only your friends will see your tweets, and your friends are going to be, those subscribing to you! And perhaps, charging something for the subscription can be a way to make tons of money.

Ongoing seminars, for example, fall in this category as well. As you can see, the potential of this is enormous, think for a moment about this fact: every weekend, classes and boot camps are given in every corner of the world, an added value for any of those can be, subscriptions to a private twitter account.

Delivering good services, like food corners, dry cleaners, or any other similar one, can be interested in broadcasting their messages to a particular audience, for example those working, living or studying in or near an address very close to them, if you find followers in that category, for example college students, or workers of companies in that area, you can have targeted traffic for your prospect advertisers.

It is now time to start making money with your Twitter followers.

Article source: http://EzineArticles.com/2653224