Isn’t it phenomenal how the social media websites we use leisurely are also a source of income? Yes! You can now generate leads through social media. Beyond likes, upvotes, claps, retweets, there is a lot more to explore and experiment with. Before stepping on to the track in understanding the importance of social media marketing for lead generation, let us first understand what exactly do I mean by lead and why are they powerful to your business.

First things first, it is not state-of-the-art that businesses approached the customers through analog or electronic media. Earlier it was through cold calling and email spamming. But now the internet and its platforms have occupied their place and lead generation is one such approach that certainly plays an important role in the advancement of grabbing customer attention or optimizing your revenues.

So, what is a lead?

Well, a lead is more like a person or company that has shown interest in your product or service and provided you their point of contact for further discussion. The leads obtained are then passed to the sales department and those dudes will take care of the rest.

And why are Leads Important to your Business?

Because the leads you generated today are the customers you make tomorrow. Ergo, how could social media serve as B2B lead generation services?

Let us look at the tips and tactics that can bring a steady stream of potential customers at your door:

#1. CONDUCT CONTESTS

Who does not love freebies? At least I do! And it is determined that contests draw a lot of attention and a knockout in the digital world for years. But, the thing about contests is that it has to be both intriguing and specifically relatable to the audience who have chances to become your customers. 

You can use WordPress Giveaway Plugins on your website and launch your contest in just a few clicks.

Now, why does anyone even want to enter the contest?

Gifts?

Absolutely! If the reward is not beneficial or valuable enough, no user likes to participate in your contest. Hence, think of a sweepstake or extended trial of your product or even giveaway is also a decent proposition in case if you provide any physical product.

But what do I get in return? Why should I give to some stranger for free? Without any benefit?

Here comes the thing. Anyone who has to enter into your contest is expected to fill out a form where information needed to contact them is obligatory such as their email address or contact number and you have got all the lead data at your end.

There are a handful of ways to obtain information through social media and the best among them is through sharing.

Sharing: Initially, make sure that you have incorporated all social channels for entrants to share the information accordingly. Do not ask for likes or shares often since the Facebook algorithm should not stamp you as spam and might also decrease your Newsfeed distribution.

#2. PROMOTE GATED CONTENT:

One of the social media marketing for lead generation is through sharing links to gated content; since social media is a megaphone to spread your word across the globe.

But what is gated content?:

For like a babe in the woods, it is online information. It can be either an article, white paper, video, webinar, or blogs that want users basic information in exchange for access. So, you can advertise the gated content by developing posts that redirect to your landing page and thus increase your lead database. One of the critical aspects to take into account is that these kinds of posts have to be stuffed with rich content and images. Because readers just take seconds whether to provide the information or not and every second should matter to you!

Don’t believe me? :

According to Guy Kawasaki, chief evangelist of Canva “Every post, other than a response or comment, should have a picture or video. That’s one of the most important things to remember.”

#3. ENABLE GEO-TARGETED SEARCH:

• Let us think about this. You are running a grocery store and who could be your potential customers? People living on the other side of the globe? Not AT ALL.
• The social media marketing for lead generation for all small business is going local. And it is already happening through social media posts and advertisements that are optimized to reach the closest set of audience. But this is a space you can make use to nurture your leads or increase your database. Geotargeted search inevitably assists you in discovering the target audience and provoke them to step into your business.
• How to grasp leads through this? Twitter: Twitter has made it easier to track the tweets and conclude whether that particular can be your potential customer or not. You can make use of the advanced search page. Initially, fill-out your search terms and go to the places option where you can choose appropriate geolocation to hit your bull’s eye.
• Hootsuite: Yet another tool that allows you to track the tweets from multiple locations. On the Hootsuite dashboard itself, you can enter your keyword and click on the location (compass arrow icon) to dig out the tweets nearby.
• Hootlet Chrome Extension: Once you add this Hootlet Chrome Extension to your browser, you can find out the option that lets you discover the Tweets Near Here.               
• Quora:
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• Yep! After all, we are talking about social media marketing for lead generation. Quora has become more like another search engine in today’s digital world. Whenever a user is looking for some information or asks anything, Quora is the the-go platform.
• Let us say, you want to know about the animation or VFX and Quora can give you in-depth information in real-time from the people like you and me. Therefore, this is one the approach to meet your real audience seamlessly.

#4. SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING:

• I agree that organic social media posts do work. But, umm, only to a certain extent. Through proper social media advertising, you can change the tables entirely upside down and gather leads within the network. Let us take the widely used platforms Facebook, Instagram and take a look at the generation of leads:
• Facebook: A name that does not need any introduction. One substantial advantage of Facebook lead ads on top of gated content we discussed earlier is the fact that it instantaneously generates the lead form with the essential contact information and a matter of clicks to get in touch with your customer(no exchange of information with contact details, you see?)
• But you have to be careful because you should only ask for the information that is needed. Nothing more, nothing less for the lead. Don’t leave a scary or disgusting impression on the user that he/she just runs away.
• You can link up the obtained details directly to your CRM Application where your sales department can go ahead with the rest.
• A full-service social media marketing agency can make this process a cakewalk for you since they are a blender of all this stuff and know where and how to market your product or service.
• Instagram: For the reason Facebook owns Instagram, Facebook lead ads also get displayed on Instagram as long as it meets the design requirements with few tweaks and twists. It can only inhabit the lead form with name, gender, email address, and contact number, and the user must have to type for any additional information.
• Also, the thing to keep in mind is that Instagram lead ads come into view only on the mobile and captures 40 percent more time to substitute the form. So, make sure you ask only crucial information for your lead purpose.
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• TikTok: 
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• It is a win-win situation to use TikTok for marketing. It is essentially a potent social media marketing strategy and an influencer marketing technique. Here, the influencer is TikTok. Make this influencer impact your business to the heights.

Conclusion

End of the day, the importance of social media marketing for lead generation is as plain as the nose on our face. The aforementioned strategies are only a few to help you start implementing and escalate your business to the next level.

Happy growing! Good luck!