Lead Generation Using Social Media

Everything in social media will lead us to our ultimate goal – good, solid leads. Lead management allows you track how you are generating interest and how you are going to track those leads into and through your sales funnel.

To put it simply – it's your business process. It tells you how your customers are getting interested in you and your company. 

It is important to have a process in writing that you follow, and you should continue to review it on a regular basis. As we all know, the sales department and the marketing department are two very separate entities – and one may not always be "in tune" with the other.  Therefore, it is important,  whether you are on the sales side or the marketing side, to sit down with the other and discuss what criteria that leads should meet before being passed on to the sales department. Also, it's a good idea for the marketing department to also follow up after the lead is passed on, to find out the ultimate result of what happened.

If you attend trade shows and do get a number a leads, also clean them up before just handing them over to your sales team. It's critical that they get leads that are worth their time. Of course, this does not mean that you discard the others – just be sure that the leads with the highest chance of becoming a sale reach your sales team ASAP!

If you are gathering leads from your website or websites, be sure to use what are known as a "squeeze page" to "trap" information in order to see what is working and what is not. For example, if you are sending out Emails, have them land on a certain page of your site so that you can score how many came from this source. The same applies to LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Incorporate "tricks" that will allow you to see where the prospect was on the web before arriving at your website. Knowing how to interpret your information will be crucial in your effective social media campaign. 

Also, be sure to match the expectation of the prospective client with the expectation of the sales rep. The more everyone works to be on the same page, the easier the process will be.

The most important thing to remember is that you should not measure how many leads there are, but rather, how many leads are QUALIFIABLE. There are many ways to generate leads, only a few of which have been covered here.  The goal is to continue to use each blog to advance your sales revenue through social media.  It is understood that social media is a lot of things to a lot of people.  The focus should be on this little piece of the pie – selling your products and services using social media.  

Your web presence is the face of your company.  You need to keep this presence engaging, professional, current, and lead-generating.