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Turn Your Social Media Efforts Into High-Quality Leads

Posted: December 14, 2018
By: Janet A Johnson

A lot of companies have settled for the view that social media efforts amount to a time-sucking black hole that only works to tell people what you were up to over the weekend. We don’t blame you! Carving out a social media presence that your potential clients can happily follow, while attracting them towards your business is easier said than done. However, it is far from impossible. You just have to know which buttons to press – design a strategy and apply the proper tools and techniques and social media could become your biggest source of high-quality leads.

Here’s how hundreds of other companies like yours are using social media to get leads.

1. Bigger Is Not Always Better – Or Is It

Ask a lot of companies what they want from their social media accounts, and most will say, “More Followers…,” and while they may add a few other needed improvements, “more followers” is considered a sign of success. Often times that leads them to hire growth freelancers or use bots to boost their follower numbers. Yes, you’ll get 100K followers in unreasonably short timeframes, yet you will find that you cannot cash out on any of those. You see, the trend has been to use fake followers, and  “follow for follow” or “likes for likes” methods to build social media accounts. These type of social media efforts always proves futile because you cannot convert fake followers or people who are not your target audience into real customers.

In contrast, companies on a more organic growth track often find more value from real engagement. They get more impressions and clicks directed to their landing pages – the very thing you should be striving for. It’s always best to focus on reaching and engaging with your target audience and then work on converting them into clients.

2. Be Human

We touched on growth bots ad fake followers in the previous section but let’s be clear. Perhaps the worst thing to ever happen since social media has to be growth hacking bots. Those tools that promise thousands of followers overnight. Not only does it prove pointless in the long run, but your account can also be locked and taken from you by whichever platform you tried plugging a bot.

Being human on social media timelines provides your potential customers the chance to connect with you emotionally. Given how nowadays people stay glued to their social media apps, particularly through their smartphones, being relatable goes a long way in getting genuine, high-quality leads.

Allow me to Share a Story

As I engage with my Instagram audience, I noticed that an individual with 134K followers moved from an average of 34 likes per post to approximately 330 likes overnight and so I decided to engage him about his strategy. He directed me to purchase his book. I thought to myself, “with 134K followers and 33o likes and no comments, that does not amount to any type of impressive engagement.” I suspected he was using bots so I continued to monitor his account to see how things would progress. Yes, I am the curious, analytical type (smile). Needless to say, after 2 weeks he was back down to an average of 34 likes per post.

See how these type of social media efforts proved pointless? I don’t doubt that Instagram caught up with him and he got a “slap on the wrest.” You see Instagram is actively working on Reducing inauthentic Activity on Instagram. So much for his sales pitch about his book! I suspect, he now needs a new strategy!

3. Spend Your Social Media Efforts In Starting The Conversations You Want

Perhaps the most important, yet overlooked objective on any social media platform has to be creating the connections that bring the results you need. A lot of companies create social media profiles and leave them to bask in inactivity – a sad sight. On the other end of the spectrum, many companies focus their social media efforts in actively creating working relationships and turning interesting strangers into either customers or worthy partners in business.

Starting the conversations you want on social media snugly ties the first two action points into a bundle. As such it would be pointless to use a bot for either growth or to spark conversations with other profiles.

What Then?

Just be real! Selling Authenticity and Personalizing Your Brand is key in showcasing your brand to your target audience. Engaging and building relationships with your potential clients will go a far way! Although this can be quite a chore to stay engaged with your audience, it’s better to hire a freelancer that will focus on organic growth through engagement than having a large number of fake followers for the optics of success and really amount to nothing in terms of conversion.