Using Social Media for Lead Generation
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The 2010 World Cup has just ended and whether you’re a football neophyte or seasoned veteran, we were all absorbed by into the atmosphere that the event brought all over the world. |
Corporate companies engaged with their current and potential clients through various campaigns, choosing social media as one of the top channels for lead generation among other on and offline marketing technologies.
Companies now realize that social media is a great place to attract new customers and it is therefore important to run a campaign that gives you a valuable Return On Investment (ROI). Below are 3 simple tips / lessons for companies that engage in online campaigns during such large scale events – such as the World Cup - resulting in Lead Generation.
Set up relevant social profiles
This point is often taken for granted but is one of the most important factors to a successful social media campaign. Before embarking on the campaign, set up the most ‘relevant’ social profiles to your product and service offering as this generally defines how you will target and get leads from the selected social network site.
Knowledge on how the selected network site operates and its campaign measurement offerings of your campaign lead generation success is advantageous in attaining valuable ROI.
Promote your social presence
Once you’ve set up your company social media presence (profiles) on sites like Facebook,
Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and LinkedIn; don’t forget to promote them.
Social sites do not miraculously gain followers by themselves once created so it is important to promote them. The best way to do this is through posting regular links on your website or blog promoting people to join the profiles or by having a Twitter or Facebook icon prominently displayed on your site.
Engage with the community
The first objective to engaging a community of potential customers is sharing content that showcases your campaign. Make sure that content is simple, eye catching, relevant and ‘fresh’.
This will keep customers glued on your content and help retain them with exciting, new content – remember: “Good content ought to be shared!” - Sarah Chong, co-founder and editor of Penn Olson.
For example this means that during the World Cup – campaigns had to make sure that they provided fans/followers with live, latest updates (on scores and news) as the event took place.
Keep in mind that your goal is to create value for your followers and get them to link to your profile and share your content to others through ‘viral’ lead generation.
Monitor and respond to conversations about your brand and campaign
“In order for a conversation to occur, brands must speak and listen” – Mashable (2010). With the use of Social media brands have changed their approach in marketing because now they can broadcast messages, and have an avenue to create a conversation and engage individuals.
One can use Facebook, Twitter and Google alerts to monitor online conversations about your campaign and brand. This is an example of how social media campaigns have an extra edge over other forms of technology marketing campaigns (like radio and TV) – with that fact that with Social campaigns you are able to monitor and respond in real-time to conversations about your brand.
