What Social Media Strategy? Developing Leads Online Takes A Thoughtful Plan

You have a business plan to keep your company on track and help it grow. You have a marketing plan to increase your sales and successfully introduce new products and services. But, do you have a social media strategy that leverages your company’s online interactions to turn them into leads?

Build a Community

Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are only as good as the people behind them. If you want to gain traction on social media sites, you have to build a community base that is interested in your specific products or services. There are a number of ways to generate followers and fans:

• Invest in a targeted Facebook ad campaign.
• Prompt your existing customers to join your community with special promotions for new members.
• Promote your social-media pages on your website, blog and print materials.
• Become active on Twitter. The more people that you follow, the more followers you will gain.

Provide Value

As your social community grows, you must continue to engage members with interesting and useful content. Most readers of social media expect soft selling if they are interacting online in a service provider’s community. However, if every post is a sales pitch, then your community members will lose interest quickly. The best way to continue to engage readers is to provide a mix of content, such as:

• Links to recent news articles that are relevant to your industry
• Tips and tricks to help solve problems
• Promotions or coupons that are available only to your social media community

Call to Action

Keep your community engaged by asking them for feedback and providing exclusive content that requires a simple registration process. If the goal of your social-media strategy is to generate concrete leads and initiate the sales process, you need to gather contact information so that you don’t lose them if they stray from your social-media pages. Some ways in which you can prompt registration include encouraging your readers to:

• Sign up for an e-mail newsletter
• Download an e-book
• Complete a simple form to receive a free estimate
• Call for a free consultation

What does your social media strategy entail? Post a comment to SocialTract.