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Social media. Doing it is time-consuming. Doing it well can be tedious, laborious, and frustrating. Now imagine, pouring all that time and effort into your social media channels only to have no return? I’ve watched horror movies that scared me less than that last sentence…

Generating leads is the marketer’s end goal for social media. You want people to buy what you’re selling, whether that’s a product, a service, or something else. The object of being on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like is to get interaction which you can turn into sales, or “conversions” if you want to get technical. The way to do this? Generating leads. A lead is someone you come into contact with, either by reaching out or drawing them in, who will ultimately end up taking what you’re offering. 

Is generating leads easy? It can be if you know how to work it. I’m going to give you a few tips for lead generation, but the most important thing I can tell you is to avoid appearing like a salesman at all costs. Do NOT ping people out of the blue and say “You look like someone who needs my product!” You’ll look like a robot, one that will probably spread a virus to their computer.

Also, be sure that what you’re putting on your feed is what audiences are going to want to see. It should be professional but skillfully implement the tone you’re going for. Research the kinds of posts your audience interacts with.

Now that we have the basics out of the way, some advice for getting into the nitty-gritty of lead generation.

Know Your Channels

This may sound obvious, but it’s something I find most non-professional marketers fail to keep in mind. Tailor your networking approach for the social media channels that you’re using. Your strategy should not be the same for both Facebook and Instagram, two platforms that serve different purposes and wildly different demographics. 

If your company’s business is mostly B2B, Facebook is not the appropriate format to be reaching out to potential leads on. You will come across as spammy. LinkedIn is where you would want to go looking for leads who are professionals that could benefit from your product or service. InMail that is more upfront about its sales-centric approach is much less likely to get ignored there. Still, though, be careful about the tone you’re using.

Bring Your Followers to You

Social media is great for maintaining an audience and getting eyes on your brand, but if you want to build leads and get much-needed sales, social media isn’t really the ideal platform for transactions. The best way to get conversions is to take your lead from social media to somewhere you have more control.

A landing page is an ideal format for this. Something simple that only gives your lead two options: convert or don’t. Taking the reader to a landing page on your site eliminates the distraction of social media and puts their eyes directly in front of your product. It’s not difficult to do this; say you’re trying to get someone to sign up for your webinar. At the end of your post, include a call to action that reads “To learn more, watch our quick, free webinar!” and then a link to your landing page where all they’ll see is the option to watch the webinar. Bait the line, reel them in, don’t give them the opportunity for distraction.

Make Use of Targeted Ads

The major social media sites offer the ability to target ads to specific sets of audiences. Putting your brands right in front of the eyes of potential customers within your demographic only helps your conversion rate, and lowers your bounce rate by not leading uninterested customers through the process.

The world of targeted ads is vast and deserving of its own blog, but they are the closest thing to a safe bet you can get through advertising on social media. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer a pretty wide array of options for ad presentation, many of which cut steps out of the process, making it more like that potential customers will make it over the conversion finish line.

If this all sounds a little overwhelming, that’s because it is! I get it, this isn’t the kind of thing you as a business owner want to be dealing with. My team at The Go! Agency has the experience of working on many campaigns just like yours, and we can easily accomplish the goals you have in mind for your brand. All you have to do is call!

One thing is true for every social media platform: they will evolve. And as a digital marketer, one of your essential duties is to evolve along with them and find out how you can tailor your message to be as effective as possible. The latest evolution? Stories.

Instagram started the stories phenomenon which Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn would all copy to varying degrees of success. Instagram and Tik Tok are at the forefront of short, story-based social media and the trend doesn’t seem to be diminishing. Story features allow for an added layer of audience interactivity with your brand that traditional platforms don’t have like polls and questions stickers, the answers to which you can mine for endless story content.

Ultimately, stories are just another version of the content you put out across your social media channels, but it’s important to go where audiences are going to get the most eyes on your brand. Don’t assume your brand is strong enough to get away with only posting on Facebook every other day.

If you’re entirely new to story features (or better yet, completely new to using Instagram), it’s feasible that you could spend a few hours in your “well what do I do?” period. I promise, though, it isn’t that hard! There are only five types of stories that a professional social media account is expected to release. 

• Tutorials—short, process-based videos are all the rage, incredibly addicting, and have a high sharing potential. 
• Content from your followers—if your followers tag you in posts or videos, don’t be afraid to share that on your stories feed! It provides you content and lets your community know you’re engaging with them.
• Behind-the-scenes—everyone likes to feel like they’re watching something exclusive, so shoot a quick video of everybody hard at work on a “top-secret” project or maybe your office participating in a viral meme!
• Advertise time-sensitive offers or promotions.
• Make special announcements about upcoming products, features, you name it! Whatever your brand has to showcase.

Not every single one of these ideas is going to be applicable to your company, but you can definitely make use of at least three of them. Remember, you want these to look good, but at the end of the day, these two things should hold true: these are promotional, not entertainment and they aren’t a source of revenue, just another way to get your message in front of your audience. What I’m saying is, if you’re sweating it, you shouldn’t be.

Also, adding stories to your regular updates doesn’t need to be a whole production. If you want to shoot video, whip out your cell phone and try to hold it as steady as possible. This isn’t going to be released in theaters, after-all. Being attention-getting and making sure your message is clear are far more important than cinematic quality.

I encourage you to consider story features and videos as the next step in your digital marketing campaign. The future is visual and soon written updates for important announcements or launches are going to be second bananas to quality video and photography. We’re already seeing this with the domination of apps like Tik Tok, a medium so unstoppable that it overcame the ire of the President of the United States!

Of course, if you’re really being thrown for a loop, there’s no better way of ensuring quality content than entrusting your digital strategy with my team at The Go! Agency.