Just around half a decade ago, a few pioneering salespeople stumbled upon a fantastic discovery: social networks are a veritable goldmine for leads. At the time, it was a novel idea and the mining process was pretty much hard labour. Tactics were a little on the crude side but still quite effective.
It's hardly surprising that these clumsy social lead diggings have evolved into something more elegant and refined. Prospective clients can now be found, connected with, and nurtured using a plethora of social networks and some fairly solid relationship building tools.
Now, this form of lead targeting has become so popular that almost every salesperson worth their salt has hopped on the bandwagon - and it's easy to see why. There's no longer a need for expensive, resource-intensive tools to get the job done. With a minimal monthly investment (sometimes no investment at all) a Nimble account, and a Hootsuite or Buffer account, you can become a social lead targeting guru.
Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter seem to be growing in importance day by day. As they grow in importance, so do the data mining tools that are used in every interaction. We're at a point, now, where the tools that mine social data have started talking to each other; and that's where the magic really happens.
YOU SHOULD BE NETWORKING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Clever integration is the key to successful social lead generation. With a little forethought and the right tools, you can easily find people searching for your products on virtually any social media platform. You could also find out who these people are and who they are connected to as well as what they are doing on each of these networks. By combining your efforts on tools like Hootsuite and Nimble, you can create a contact record that unifies your communication with each of these contacts and track their responses to your correspondence.
Just as an example of how this works, within a short space of time you can build a list on Twitter based on your desired search criteria. These list members can be added to your chosen CRM tool which will give you access to unified messaging as well as a thorough overview of each prospect. When you connect with that prospect via a subtle tweet, your entire conversation will be captured and you'll be able to see that prospect's key connections and social stream on one simple screen.
With the right tools, you can keep track of the interest of your leads. You'll be able to keep a comprehensive record not only of your direct interactions with each prospect but also of their interactions with your content and landing pages. This will assist you in tweaking your approach in the most effective way possible.