7 Great Ways to Generate Leads With Social Media

The Need for Social Media to Generate Business Leads

Generating leads should be a priority for every business owner. When there is a consistent flow of leads within your organization, it keeps your business profitable. This is because interested customers translate to sales, which in turn, leads to profit. While there are different ways to generate leads online like SEO and PPC, social media has proven to be one of the most effective.

Over the years, social media has evolved from merely connecting people. Governments and public agencies have also utilized social networks like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok to disseminate information. However, its most popular evolution yet is becoming a vast marketplace that connects sellers and buyers from all over the world.

Data released by Statista shows that of the 5.44 billion internet users across the globe as of April 2024, 5.07 billion used social media platforms. Leveraging such platforms brings your business closer to internet users who comprise around 65% of the world’s population.

As businesses continue to build their customer base on social media platforms, the alliance between social media and eCommerce has become clear. In some sense, the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in strengthening this bond.

When the lockdown forced people indoors, social media usage increased. Seeing this as an opportunity, businesses made up for the reduction in physical interaction by intensifying social media marketing efforts. While social distancing ruled the material world, the virtual one encouraged more interactions than ever before. This trend remains firmly etched in place.

Advantages of Social Media for Generating Leads Online

The answer to, “Can social media generate leads?” is a resounding yes. For businesses and social media lead generation companies that know how to harness its potential, it can become an extremely powerful marketing tool. Its benefits include:

• Expands reach. With billions of internet users around the world, social media advertises your business to the far ends of the globe. It breaks geographical barriers by making your brand accessible to people from various regions.
• Increases brand popularity. Just as social media is responsible for jumpstarting the careers of several individuals, it can also create awareness about your brand. By amassing more followers on various social networks, you continue to spread the word about your business.
• Offers interesting ways to attract customers. Social media platforms offer an informal way of converting customers. This includes using exciting trends and creative posts to attract users.
• Improves referrals. Technology sure has made things easy, so much so that with a single click, potential customers can access your business accounts on social media. They can also share links to your business, making it easier to refer your brand to others.
• Serves as an effective communication channel. With a developed online presence, consumers can always refer to your social media channels for important information. While print ads and radio commercials are okay, it’s faster, easier, and more cost-effective to announce promos and other details on social media.

How to Generate Leads Online Using Social Media

If you’re looking for the best way to generate leads using social media, know that there is no single method or tool that fits the bill, and finding success in this realm requires following a multipronged approach. For example, you may benefit by running paid ads and collaborating with popular social media influencers.

If you’re wondering how to generate leads from social media for free, know that while it is possible, optimum results come if you’re willing to spend some money. What helps is that you may look forward to a good return on investment (ROI) if you partner with a reputable social media lead generation agency.

Whether you turn to social media marketing for lead generation on your own or hire specialists for the job, the approach to follow remains largely the same.

1. Create a Social Media Presence

Before determining how to generate leads for your business using social media and creating new accounts, you need to look at the landscape and see what might work best for you. For starters, you need to understand that social media platforms exist for different purposes and appeal to different audiences.

According to social media demographics released by Sprout Social, while the younger generation prefers Snapchat and Instagram, older consumers favor platforms like Facebook, X/Twitter, and Pinterest. Your business model should have an ideal customer profile from which you may determine the best social media platforms for your organization.

Once you select suitable platforms, you need to create a profile that reflects your brand identity. While you may retain some degree of formality, strip away all unnecessary baggage since most web users get on social media for leisure. The profile you come up with should have compelling content that immediately catches the attention of your target audience. Advertise your business but more importantly, engage your followers.

Remember that social media growth requires consistent effort. A consumer who lands on your page and notices that the most recent posts date back months or years will immediately be discouraged. It’s like following a series with sporadic episode releases. No matter how interesting the narrative is, the inconsistency will turn audiences off. Consequently, even if you use highly creative ways to generate leads, you still need to actively engage your followers.

2. Establish Your Target Audience

While good digital marketing can break stereotypical barriers, it pays to have an ideal fraction of the populace in mind. This percentage of people makes up for customers who are most likely to use your services and buy your products. For instance, businesses that sell maternity products and services tend to have expectant and nursing mothers in mind. In this scenario, it is possible to optimize sales by identifying the interests of these women as well as their likes, dislikes, and specific preferences.

It is possible to categorize web users into several types based on various demographics. Depending on each category, you can pinpoint suitable social media practices for your business. By arming yourself with relevant facts about your target consumer, you may leverage their interests and lure them in with strategic posts. You can determine what, when, and how to post content that drives social media engagement.

Tailoring your social media presence to attract potential customers is the essence of generating leads on social media. By piquing their interests, you extend the amount of time they spend on your page and increase the chances of converting them to customers. You also need to gain insight into your target audience and engage it with the online patterns it favors most.

3. Design a Functional Website

While some businesses trade directly on social networks without a website, the presence of several scams on these platforms scares many consumers away. When your business has a functioning website, it reinforces trust in your first-time customers. Social media simply acts as the means to an end, the end being your website. Your page displays the goods and services available, and this encourages consumers to visit your website and make their purchases.

The saying, “Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well” dates back to 1774. By this rationale, when you think of getting a business website, it is crucial to choose the best option based on your budget. This is because you need to avoid frustrating visitors with underwhelming user experiences that compel them to leave your website and discourage them from further exploring it further.

Designing a user-friendly website that is easy to navigate with stress-free functionality is crucial. When potential customers see this, they are convinced about your business’s credibility.

If you’re wondering how to generate sales leads for your business website from social media platforms, attach clear and clickable links to your profile and posts. For instance, Instagram helps businesses by providing multiple ways for consumers to access their websites while interacting with their pages and posts, and you ought to consider taking advantage of each option. Besides, you may also benefit by looking at what Instagram Shopping has to offer.

4. Share Engaging Posts

An amazing attribute of social media is the ability of posts to go viral, breaching cultural and geographical boundaries. When posts garner enough attention from users, they tend to spread quickly and widely. This is because web users repeatedly share posts, even across multiple social platforms, until they catch the attention of many.

Viral posts can also come in the form of social media/online challenges where several web users participate in popular online activities. These challenges typically serve as exciting ways to popularize various social media trends. Some social media challenges that have garnered significant attention include:

• Doodle Challenge
• Don’t Rush Challenge
• Don’t Leave Me Challenge
• Drop Challenge
• Dalgona Coffee Challenge
• Pillow Challenge
• The Savage Challenge
• Between Art and Quarantine Challenge

You can create viral posts or begin an interesting challenge to promote your business. This would improve your social media visibility and make it easier for web users to find your business. Online contests and special promotions can also promote lead generation in social media.

Another way to generate leads on social media is to drive engagement by incentivizing your followers to interact more with your profile. They can comment on your posts, share them with others, or repost them on their pages. While this helps increase brand awareness, it also has the desired effect of generating leads.

5. Run Social Media Ads

If you’re looking for ways to generate leads online, checking what sponsored ads on social media platforms have to offer might work well for you. These ads leverage the habits of web users by showing them profiles that are relevant to their interests.

The biggest advantage of social media ads is that they place your brand squarely in front of your target audience. Social media platforms have algorithms that monitor the habits of their users. Consequently, they feed users personalized content to keep them engaged. By using paid ads on social networks, you may present your offerings to a curated audience specifically targeted by the platforms.

For instance, if a user interacts with various clothing brands on a social media platform, its algorithm begins to suggest similar businesses. Once you run ads on social media, the platforms then recommend your business to users whose interests match your products/services.

Social media advertising is a necessity if you want to generate leads online, and an effective way to get the ball rolling is by hiring a social media ad specialist.

6. Consider Influencer Marketing

This method of generating leads online is perhaps the most popular on social media. Influencers are individuals on social networks with enough popularity to sway the opinions of other web users. Simply put, they are online celebrities. Businesses take advantage of their celebrated online personas by contracting them to advertise their products and services on social media.

Several businesses looking at how to generate leads in digital marketing turn to this form of advertising because of the strong social influence involved. After all, some influencers have cult-like followings of devoted fans that make it easy to influence the buying habits of their followers.

By collaborating with these social media celebrities, you get increased visibility through their popularity. Additionally, you may add incentives like a special discount code for customers referred by influencers. Apart from the motivation of reduced prices, it would make them feel seen and valued. Social networks like Instagram and YouTube are popular platforms for influencer marketing.

7. Reward Follower Engagement

Human beings love getting rewards for the work they do. A nod here and a pat on the back there encourage people to work harder at whatever they do. When you reward social media followers for their engagement, it motivates them to continue and invite others. This increases awareness of your brand.

Discounts, promos, and referral bonuses encourage social media interaction and ultimately help in generating business leads. Referral bonuses are particularly potent because they reward existing customers for introducing new ones to your business. This easily converts new customers and strengthens the loyalty of existing ones.

Occasional giveaways are also a great way to encourage your followers on social media. Tie the giveaway requirements to factors that improve your visibility on the platform. For instance, you can ask interested followers to refer their friends and families, share your posts, or tag you on their pages to qualify for a freebie. As your followers compete to win gifts, your business generates leads from their efforts.

Conclusion

Of all the ways to generate leads online, social media lead generation is an indispensable part of digital marketing because most online networking platforms focus on profitability. By harnessing all they have to offer, you can identify and capture leads who are already interested in your brand. With ongoing effort, your business may enjoy an increase in lead count as well as revenue.

Sure, social media can be a little intimidating if you are new on the scene. From knowing what and when to post to understanding how hashtags work, it can be overwhelming at times, especially when your following doesn’t seem to be increasing. If this is you, don’t fret. Consider seeking help from a professional digital marketing agency to handle all your social media needs.