by guest blogger Jenny Vance, LeadJen
Companies spend a lot of money building their social media presence. Most of the time this consists of pushing content out and gathering followers.
But there’s a virtually untapped way to use social media that can drive sales and contribute to the bottom line: turning social media conversations into sales opportunities.
Through the millions of conversations taking place on social networks daily, prospective customers are raising their hands to indicate a need. People are talking about products and services they need, they are complaining about your competitors, and they are vetting your products. If you’re listening, you can win them over.
There are three steps involved in lead generation through social channels:
- Monitor keywords. Carefully select keywords that your prospects are using and monitor them to identify relevant conversations.
- Respond carefully. Create messages that point recipients to additional content, such as an offer or an article.
- Convert prospects. Build a system for getting engaged prospects into your sales funnel and then nurture the leads.
It’s important to respond appropriately and in a timely manner. Your posts can be seen by anyone so make sure the person responding has business acumen that you trust, the tools needed to be successful and the ability to respond quickly.
Finally, since social media monitoring can be labor intensive, consider outsourcing your lead generation to an expert, such as LeadJen.
Jenny Vance is president of LeadJen, Inc., a business-to-business lead generation company that helps sales and marketing executives get value out of every prospecting call. She can be reached on Twitter @JennyVanceIndy.