One question that we are often asked by startups as well as small business owners, is why should they use social media for marketing their business?
Well, the #1 reason to use it, is because it is FREE.
The second reason is that social media is where most of your target audience can be found and as such, to improve brand awareness and to reach your target audience easily, you need to put in time and effort in creating an actionable social media marketing strategy.
And lastly, it helps to connect you with newer markets as well as influencers in your niche, which can help accelerate your business growth.
Thus, we hope this answers the question as to why you need to use social media and so now let’s move on to the 9 ways Small Businesses can use Social Media for Online Lead Generation.
Let’s get started!
1. Pick Relevant Social Media Channels
This is the first and by far the most crucial task when setting up social profiles for your business. Instead to being all over the place with your social media marketing campaigns, select a few relevant social platforms, one that is used by most of your target audience as this will help boost visibility and improve conversion.
For instance, according to this statistical report, there are 62 million Facebook male users between 18 and 24 years old, whereas, the female users in the same age group are about 21 million. Thus, it is important that you do a bit of a research and focus on the right social media channels based on your target market, in order to garner more leads for your business.
2. Add a Call-To-Action (CTA) To Post or Unique #Hashtags
As a two-way communication channel, social media helps improve engagement with your audience. However, in order to get a response from your target audience, you need to add interesting and compelling call-to-action to all your social media posts.
Something like this;
This will help get more traffic to your website and also help generate leads. Similarly, making use of specific and trending hashtags (#SocialMedia) is also important as it will ensure that your post is seen by the audience other than your fans and followers will help increase brand awareness. Best part, if you are unsure of which #hashtags to use then here is a simple tool called RiteTag that can help you out.
3. Share Gated Content
Content plays a vital role in the effectiveness of your social media marketing campaign and as such, you have got to leverage as much as you can from it, in order to grow in the online world. And this is where Gated content comes into the picture.
As one of the best lead generating strategies, Gated content allows readers to access a part of your content, which, if they would like to read further would involve the exchange of information such as their email address, name or contact information.
Like this;
The Gated content can be in the form of an eBooks, videos, case studies or any other valuable content that would prompt readers to share their personal information in order to access that content. Plus, successful lead generation from this strategy can help boost your email marketing campaign.
4. Make Use of Different Content Formats
The attention span of users on social media is quite fleeting and thus, to make an impact you need to catch their attention from the word go. It is only when you are able to catch their attention would you be able to get that all valuable click or share for your post. Thus, making use of different content formats is essential.
While text with images is the most commonly used content format on social media, to stand apart from the rest, making use of explainer videos, sharing snappy gifs, infographics, relatable quotes, creating promotional memes etc, can help boost engagement.
Plus, that’s not all! These eye-catching content also has the ability to go viral, which will not only enhance your brand’s visibility but it will also help garner more referral traffic that’ll ultimately boost your ROI.
5. Run an Event Contest
Social media event contest not only engages your existing audience, but it also helps you garner new fans and followers as those who like these tend to invite their friends to come and try it, thereby increasing awareness about your brand.
Other benefits of running a contest includes increase engagement with your audience, more targeted leads and overall it is a creative social media marketing strategy through which you create a buzz about a newly launched product (OnePlus 5T) or use it as a pre-launch strategy which will help build curiosity & anticipation leading to a lot of word of mouth marketing.
6. Make Use of Facebook and Twitter Ads
If you are a small business owner than Facebook and Twitter ads can be extremely helpful in improving your reach as well as driving in organic traffic. Being one of the cost-effective marketing strategies, Facebook/Twitter ads allows you to set targeted campaigns based your marketing objectives.
Through Facebook and Twitter Ads, you can increase your site’s traffic and improve engagement as well as gain more leads. Thus, if you have a budget then making use of these Ads will definitely help deliver the desired results.
7. Don’t Ignore the Comments
Like mentioned above, social media is a two-way communication channel and as such, similar to posting content regularly, you also need to reply to comments ASAP as this will help establish trust.
Ignoring queries and complaints made via social media leads to poor customer experience and could hurt your brand’s credibility. Thus, make sure to always respond promptly and politely.
Also, by effectively handling a disgruntled customer’s complaint you are able to build trust, which, in turn, will be reciprocated by your loyal customers recommending your brand to their friends and colleagues.
8. Join Relevant Social Networking Groups and Chats
Social media is the best platform to connect with like-minded people from your niche industry. By joining relevant social networking groups & chats and actively participating in questions and debates, you’ll be able to not only interact with influencers but you’ll also be able to get more visibility for your business. Best part, these groups are a great way through which you can find new prospects and leads for your online business.
What are some of these Social networking groups and chats that you can join?
These are the main ones, however, there are other social media groups that you can be a part of based on your niche.
9. Track and Measure Social Media Metrics
It’s only when you monitor your site’s performance on any given social platform, would you be able to make effective changes to your social media marketing campaign. Thus, tracking and measuring social media metrics is extremely important.
Social media metrics provide you with insights such as total page likes, number of followers, engagement percentage, page views, retweets and more. And based on this, you would be able to make necessary changes and create customised content that’ll help boost engagement with your target audience, resulting in greater conversion.
#Conclusion
There is no denying the fact that social media is the most cost-effective marketing channel at your disposal to promote your business as well as to garner access to newer markets and opportunities.
By not investing in it, your business is losing out potential traffic to your competitors. Therefore, if you are new to the online world, then the above 9 actionable ways can help you garner more leads for your business via social media. Plus, it will also help boost your brand’s visibility and drive more traffic to your website.
