Are you making the most of your social media pages? Sites like Facebook and Twitter are a wonderful way to interact with current customers, but if you handle them properly, they can also be a great source of new leads. A lot of local businesses don’t do a good job of using social media to generate leads because they’re not sure how to go about it. With that in mind, let’s talk about some of the ways you can use social media to get qualified leads for your company.
Blog Post
How To Get Leads From Your Social Media Like The Pros
Deborah Janz • Jun 19, 2020
Are you making the most of your social media pages? Sites like Facebook and Twitter are a wonderful way to interact with current customers, but if you handle them properly, they can also be a
great source of new leads. A lot of local businesses don’t do a good job of using social media to generate leads because they’re not sure how to go about it. With that in mind, let’s talk about some of the ways you can use social media to get qualified leads for your company.
Strategy #1: Fill out your profiles completely
A lot of small business owners skip the step of completing a profile, but that’s a mistake. Take the time to fill in your company’s full name, address, and phone number, provide a brief description, and link back to your website. Choose a compelling profile picture and cover photo. The more complete your profile is, the more compelling it will be to potential customers.
Strategy #2: Link your social media posts to landing pages, not your home page
If you’re posting in an effort to get people to buy a particular product, make sure you link directly to it. Prospective leads shouldn’t have to guess what you want them to do. When you send them directly to a page – especially one that will require them to opt in to see the content – you greatly increase the chances that they will convert. Also, make sure that every page has your name and address, and an easy way to contact you.
Strategy #3: Sponsor a contest
This one is a pretty popular strategy that’s been around for a while, but it’s worth including because it is so effective. People who are already following you on social media are highly likely to be interested in anything you are giving away. You can maximize your exposure by offering one entry to people who like the post, and a second entry to those who share it. Your most loyal customers will always be willing to share, and the shared post will get your company in front of a whole new audience, many of whom will also be local.
Strategy #4: Use a Twitter card or pinned Facebook note to attract leads
One downside of using social media is that content turns over very quickly. That means that a call to action that you post can easily get lost in the shuffle – unless you pin it. Facebook allows you to write a note and pin it at the top of your page. Likewise, Twitter allows you to create a Twitter card with relevant information and pin it to the top of your profile. The benefit of pinning is that it leaves your content in a highly visible location for as long as you want, thus increasing visits to your website – and also visits to your business.
Strategy #5: Sponsor a Google Hangout with local customers
One of the trickiest things about getting people to buy from you is overcoming the objections that they hear inside their heads. If you can get an opportunity to talk to them directly, you can address those concerns easily. A Google Hangout is a nice way to accomplish that. Set up a time for the Google Hangout using your Google+ or Google My Business account. Your Hangout can be a round table discussion with potential customers or even a live Q & A with people online. The benefit of live online events like this is that you can interact directly with customers, and also post the Hangout for people who couldn’t make it to watch later.
Strategy #6: Use geographical targeting for your social media ads
Social media advertising is a cost-effective option for local companies. One of the best reasons to invest in paid social media advertising is that you can easily target your ads to the people who are in your geographical area and are interested in your products.
The benefit of this kind of targeting is that it prevents you from having to pay for clicks and leads that are not relevant. Your ad will be seen only by people who are in your area. On Facebook, you also have the option of sponsoring a post and targeting your followers and their followers. The geographical targeting won’t be as tight as it would be with locational targeting, but the chances are good that a high percentage of your followers’ friends are in your area, too.
Strategy #7: Use whisper codes to increase traffic to your store
When you own a brick and mortar store, figuring out who’s responding to your social media marketing efforts can be tricky. One way to help track your ROI is to send out a “whisper code” to your followers. A whisper code is basically a verbal coupon. Instead of sending a bar code that needs to be scanned, you give customers a word or phrase to whisper in return for a freebie.
The benefit of whisper codes is that you can track your social media campaigns to figure out if they’re working. The chances are that any customer who comes to your store in anticipation of getting something free will end up buying more than they otherwise would have.
Strategy #8: Use social media to promote events and appearances
Local people come to local events. If your company is sponsoring a local event, or if you regularly sell at a farmer’s market, use social media to spread the word. You might remind people of the hours, let them know what you’ll be selling, or even invite them to stop by to get a free sample.
A related pro tip is to interact with other local businesses and find ways to cross-promote your products. Using the farmer’s market example again, a local baker might tag-team with a creamery to get people to buy both bread and butter. If each of you promotes your own product as well as the other person’s, you can increase the traffic on the day of the event – and possibly gain some new social media followers, too!
Strategy #9: Use Facebook’s “Call Now” feature to target mobile users
When you advertise on Facebook, you have the choice of targeting mobile users by including a “Call Now” button on your ad. The button enables mobile users to call you directly by touching the button instead of having to look up and dial your number. It’s a great way to encourage contact – and give you the opportunity to pitch a lead directly.
Social media strategies may vary from business to business, but the strategies listed here will help you make the most of the time and effort you put in to your social media campaigns.
If you aren't getting the results you want with your social media presence, let's chat. Contact Rod, your AIM.digital representative
Having good search rankings is just as important is getting a line of customers into your business. If you aren’t familiar with how social media can impact your search rankings, read on. What Search Engines Are Looking For First, you have to understand what search engines are looking for, so you can see how social media is affecting search results. For instance, the authority of your tweets, how many +1s your URL receives, how many Facebook Likes and shares your URL gets and how many tweets and retweets your URL obtains. Each and every time someone in social media mentions your local business, it helps to boost your search rankings. How large your following is as well as and how much engagement your social posts receive also play a role in this. Here’s an example: Luigi’s Italian Restaurant in New York City got a tweet from a local newspaper about its delicious dishes. That tweet was then favorited 400 times and retweeted 50 times. Both the newspaper’s and Luigi’s Twitter handle get activity for this. Then because Luigi’s had their URL linked to their account on Twitter, their Web site was able to get a higher ranking on search engines. How this Can Help Local Businesses Engagement on social media networks can help boost your rankings even for keywords that are otherwise difficult to rank highly for (those that general). However, it works best with those that have low competition. So if the keyword that is getting social media buzz is “Italian food”, you could end up ranking high for that keyword. Local businesses can take advantage of this because it helps them to boost their business’s search ranks for those general, yet necessary keywords. Whenever you share content, make sure that you include low competition keywords like “Authentic Italian food in New York”, so when it gets social buzz, it can boost your rankings in search engines. The more content you share from your Web site on social media, the better your site will rank, which means more traffic being generated for your Web site. How to Optimize Your SEO Before you begin your SEO social media campaign, you should check out how you’re doing thus far. You can check this by going to LocalVox, which is a free tool. Make sure you know which keywords are the top ones you should be ranking for. You can use LocalCast, which is an SEO tool to help you track your ranking and find keywords you can use to optimize your Web site and social media posts. A Deeper Understanding of Your Social Signals and their Impact So you know that the more action you get on social media, the better your search ranks become. Now, let’s look into how exactly this works for the different social media networks: Google+: This is still in its early stages compared to the likes of Twitter and Facebook, but it has been having a great impact on social content. The way it works is, the more +1s you get, the better. You should aim to get +1s for your brand profile, Web site and social media posts. When your brand page gets a lot of +1s, it gives you more authority, which helps to raise the ranks of your future content. Your authority is also determined by how many followers you have and how much your content is being shared. Your social media strategy should have a method for generating more and more +1s over time. It’s important to focus on being in a network of people who have great profiles, because who you know can help establish your voice. Facebook: There are over 900 million people using Facebook, making it the ideal platform to use for boosting your search rankings. There are studies that show that Facebook actually has more influence over your search rankings than Twitter or Google+ (something to keep in mind). So the more shares and likes your posts receive, the better your rankings will do. The amount of comments you receive also helps — in fact, when you get a lot of likes, shares and comments, it boosts your rankings significantly. Twitter: With about 500 million users, Twitter posts boost rankings when tweets have authority, versus amount. The factors that can help you with your search rankings include the authority of your followers, mentions and retweets; how many followers, mentions and retweets you have; and the speed and intensity of your tweets and retweets over time. There are other social media sites you can use, like Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Reddit, FourSquare and Digg. These are the factors that play a role in getting ranked higher using these sites: Pinterest: How many pins, re-pins and comments you receive, and the growth rate of those pins and re-pins. FourSquare: How many check-ins and the spread rate of those check-ins. Reddit, Digg and StumbleUpon: How many upvotes and comments you receive. Link Building Using Social Media Link building isn’t a new concept and is just as valuable today as it was 10 years ago. However, it has been made much easier to achieve thanks to social media networks. In the past, people would try link building using black hat tactics, like leaving spammy comments on forums and blogs. Today, you can implement link building into your social media strategy. For instance, you can include links to valuable content from your blog in the social media posts you submit. Boost Your Rankings on Google by Using Social Media There are many benefits that local businesses can receive from social media accounts. They are able to become an authority, gain a bigger following, network with influencers and boost incoming traffic using link building and organic search results. Social media has a grand effect on the way we do business today and if you leverage it the right way, you can steadily grow the customer base for your local business. If you aren't getting the results you want with your social media presence, let's chat. Contact Rod, your AIM.digital representative
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