With a good strategy, social media is an excellent way to build a good brand reputation and credibility. Aside from that, it is also a good way to build a community to interact with your followers, customers, and would be customers.
However, it is not enough that you interact with them. It is good that you get likes occasionally from the post you published. It is good that you get positive comments from your social media marketing efforts. But these are not enough.
The purpose of social media should not be limited to building your brand image. It should also be about converting your engagement into leads.
Getting engagements is hard, especially if you are competing with hundreds or even thousands of other brands for the attention of your customers. That is why it is more difficult to convert these engagements to potential leads and sales.
It may be difficult, but it is possible. How? Here are some easy-to-follow social media strategies that work like magic when it comes to converting your engagements into leads.
Strategy #1 – Learn to listen
Setting up and building a social media account is just the first step. Populating it with engaging and exciting content is another. But these steps are not just the only activity that you should be doing with your social media account. You have followers. Your followers see your content. They are listening to what you are saying. And they are even giving their two cents about it. This means that your followers are taking the time to interact with you. And the only proper thing to do is to listen to what they are saying. Don’t just let their comments rot in the comment box. Whether good or bad, you need to listen to them.
Strategy #2 – Learn to respond
After taking the time to listen to their comments, don’t ever forget to return to them. If it is an appreciation comment or post, learn to say thank you. If it is an inquiry, immediately answer and respond. If it is a problem, provide immediate solutions. Responding to their comments is a good way of building trust with your followers. Also, it is an excellent way to improve customer experience. They will feel that someone is ready to listen and respond to their every query. Responding also helps humanize your account. They don’t think that an auto-bot is behind your every post.
Remember that 32% of your followers expect a response within 30 minutes. This is according to Jay Baer. So you need to be proactive in responding to them.
Strategy #3 – Help your followers/customers solve their problems
This is part of the responding strategy. But it is more critical than just simply reading and commenting to their post. If your follower or customer is asking a question or asking for help with a specific problem, learn to provide a solution. This is a good way to build a good image in your industry. If you can afford an answer, your follower will think that you are an expert in that field and will keep coming back to you to ask for more. And when they are about to purchase you will be the one that they will remember and buy because you always give something valuable to them. Your followers and customers will also begin to trust you. So it is important to always provide useful information to your followers and customers as it improves the process of your sales funnel.
Strategy #4 – Partner with influencers
Don’t just take all the work in building a good brand image with your social media accounts. Learn to outsource and seek the help of influencers. Influencers are gaining popularity today because many customers would listen to what they are saying and would sometimes buy what they are using. In fact, according to the study of Experticity, over 82% of consumers would listen to the recommendation of influencers.
Also, influencers have a lot of followers, which means, wider audience for your brand.
Strategy #5 – Learn to run ads
Organically doing your social media marketing is cheaper. But it will take you a long time to see the effects and the return. And sometimes, you may not be able to hit your goals. That is why there is no wrong to use paid social media ads. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram have their advertising plans that you can use to promote your brand and your product. You can also track your ads depending on different metrics to see if your ads are converting into sales.
Running social media ads may be a bit expensive than doing it organically. But the returns are fast, and studies show that the results are good. Also, you need to budget your social media ads properly so that you get your money’s worth.
Strategy #6 – Use post gated content
Try creating content that converts into leads. How do you do that? Use links or direct people to your website or your contact page when you create social media content. If you are an eCommerce, it will also help if you directly put the link to your product so your followers and customers will have easy access on the checkout button. This simple technique will sure convert your engagement into robust sales.
These are just some of the strategies that you can use if you want to convert your engagement or follower interaction into solid leads. The first thing that you need to do is to listen to what your customers are saying. Take their feedback. And after that, make sure to respond to their feedback, question, or inquiry IMMEDIATELY. Don’t let their comments stay in your comment box for so long. They will lose interest in your brand. You also need to provide a solution if they are asking you for it. Your customers have problems and if you can give them the solution that they are looking for, they will surely remember you and will keep coming back for your brand and services.
Another thing that you need to remember is to partner with other people, especially those who have a lot of following. There are a lot of influencers out there that you can partner with to help you promote your brand. Also, don’t be afraid to try running ads. They may cost you, but if it runs well, your investment will be worth it.
And lastly, don’t forget to add links to your post. This will help your followers to do what you want them to do, and that is to make a sale.