2. Lead generation is all about the offer. You have to give something to get
Jason Falls
that contact information. Maybe it’s a free white paper or report. Perhaps
Jason Falls is one of the most in-demand speakers in the social
media, public relations and marketing fields. Jason co-author’s and
edits Social Media Explorer and recently completed his first book,
“No Bullshit Social Media“.
its a free webinar. Maybe it’s even a coupon or discount. Whatever it is,
the offer has to be compelling enough, and your business has to be
interesting enough for people to say, “Yes. I’ll give them my contact info.”
And that applies to big or small businesses.
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3. Publish a blog, and optimize it to generate leads. A lot of companies have
Ann Handley
blogs, of course, but so often they are sadly under-used. They don’t
Ann Handley is Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs and the coauthor of “Content Rules“
create the necessary momentum and traction. So how do companies do
that, specifically? Here’s some specific advice:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220244.
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5. Less than two years ago, I was effectively ignorant and illiterate about
Mike Weinberg
social media. Mitch Joel’s great book Six Pixels of Separation served as a
Mike Weinberg leads The New Sales Coach consultancy. He is on
a mission to simplify sales and his specialty is new business
development. Mike coaches CEOs, sales executives and sales
reps for mid-sized companies. Clients engage Mike for sales force
turn-arounds and to improve their effectiveness at acquiring new
loud wake-up call and practical “how to” guide to get started. Today, I am
blown away by the number of significant relationships I have solely due to
social media – friends, mentors, colleagues, clients and even my book
clients. Mike blogs at http://newsalescoach.com and his first book,
deal, all came from social media activity.Specifically, I would suggest
published by AMACOM, will be released in the fall of 2012.
small businesses use social media to connect with thought leaders and
experts within their industry. For the most part, industry leaders who are
active in social media tend to be gracious and generous in lending
support to others. A lot of social media behavior is driven by an
interesting combination of ego, reciprocity and benevolent desire to add
value to the community. Follow thought leaders on twitter. Reply or
retweet some of their helpful tweets. Visit these expert’s blogs and add a
comment. Before you know it, these leaders will be returning the favor
and promoting your value-adding content. I have an out of town client that
found me because a very popular sales trainer and best selling author
used twitter to point people to a blog post of mine. One of her followers
read my post and reached out to me for help. Today, that firm is a
significant client of mine and I credit 100% of that revenue to my social
media investment.
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6. 1. LinkedIn. Do you have a list of five to 10 companies you’d REALLY like
Gini Dietrich
to work with? If not, do that exercise right now. Just list three to five and
Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, the author
of PR and marketing blog Spin Sucks, the founder of the soon-tobe-launched Spin Sucks Pro, and a co-author of the forthcoming
Marketing In the Round.
do it in five minutes or less. Now go into LinkedIn and type in the first
company name in the search bar. Make sure you click on “companies
search” because it’s automatically set on “people search.” Click on the
company name and scroll through current and recent employees. Is there
anyone listed that is two or three separations from you? Likely there is
more than one person. Click on a name and see who you know in
common. Then call that person and ask if he/she wouldn’t mind
introducing you to the person at your target company. It’s an automatic
referral into the company you’re dying to work!2. Twitter search. Stop
what you’re doing and go toTwitter Search. Click on the Advanced Search
option (or just click that link) and create a saved search designed to pick
up ‘sitting ducks’. For example, if you’re a local mechanic, you may want
to set up a search for [brake job], [car inspection] or [oil change]. Set the
distance for 25 miles from your place of business and then save the
search. Now any time someone in your local area tweets about needing a
brake job, a car inspection, or an oil change, you’ll be notified. And then
you can reach out to that person. You can also create searches for you
competitors and try to steal those conversions away.3. Twitter Application.
Open TweetDeck (if you don’t already use it, download it now – it’s free)
and click on the big gray + sign at the top (add column). A box opens and
the first in the list is “search.” If it’s not already checked, click on it and, in
the white bar, type a competitor’s name, and hit “search.” Now a column
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7. pops up and anytime that competitor is mentioned on Twitter, your column
is automatically populated.4. Google Alerts. DO THIS NOW! This is not
an option. It is the one thing everyone should have for their business, for
their name, for key employees, for competitors, and for the industry.
8. The way the question is phrased, makes it sound like you want to put
Steve Garfield
posts on every single social media site you can find, yelling “hey I’ve got
Steve Garfield is the author of Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to
Building Your Business, founder of Boston Media Makers, and blogs
at OffOnATangent.com.
this stuff, come buy it!” But that’s not what social media is all about.Social
media is people.If you are starting every Twitter post with a number like,
“5 ways you can improve your business” or “7 steps to writing better blog
posts” you are going to get some people who are interested in learning
those things, but are they learning about you? I think the question should
be phrased, “how should small business use social media to get to know
people.” It goes both ways.Make-believe it’s a laid-back environment, like
a pub, on a Friday night. You’re there to meet some people, see what
they’re all about, and let him know what you’re like.Then, one day they
might have a need some help, and remember, oh, I met that guy at the
pub, on a Friday night, who likes dark beer, and travel, and can also help
me put video on the web. I’m going to call him because I think he’s pretty
cool guy.
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9. Social media is a multifunctional marketing vehicle and requires
Leanne
Hoagland-Smith
alignment to the overall strategic plan and specifically an integrated
education based marketing plan. Use those social media platforms where
you believe your ideal customer will be. Provide value for your target
Leanne Hoagland-Smith is Chief Results Officer for ADVANCED
SYSTEMS and author of Be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits,
market by consistently engaging and interacting first. Leave the selling to
the Keys to Unlocking Sales Success. She supports forward
after the relationship is firmly established. Remember, people (think your
thinking leaders who want a new status quo, but have trouble
sales leads) buy from people they know and trust; buy on first on emotion
leaving the current one. Call Leanne at 219.759.5601 CST or visit
www.increase-sales-coach.com
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and buy on value unique to them.
10. Social media alone won’t generate leads for you; but they can play a
Charles Green
critical role. Two critical roles, in fact. One role is to offer a sample of your
Charles Green is founder and CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates
He specializes in commercial relationships and sales working as a
consultant since 1976. Charles is the author of the “Trusted Advisor
Fieldbook” and “Trust-Based Selling”
wares, to let people test-drive whatever it is you do. The second role is to
comment on other people’s samples, and in some ways that is even more
important.Of course your content has to be good; but commenting on
other people’s content shows that you recognize, respect and care about
them. That is a powerful aid to awareness, recognition and lead
generation.
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11. Every business needs to make sure its customers and prospects are
David Brock
aware of their products and services. Businesses must make it easy for
Dave Brock is a consultant and recognized thought leader and is
featured in many leading publications, including Selling Power, CEO
Express, ThinkSales, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and other
journals and publications around the world. His blog, Partners in
Excellence, is syndicated in a number of sites globally, and appears
in several languages.
customers and prospects to find you. To do this, you have to ‘hang out’
where your customers hang out, you have to intercept them where they
are, These days, customers and prospects are hanging out on the web,
so we have to hang out, engaging them with meaningful content,
participating in discussions, and building a community. We also need to
recognize social media is just one channel in which we engage our
customers and prospects. They may be leveraging other channels, we
need to meet them there as well. Lead generation needs to be multichannel, multi touch, all in a way that constantly builds value for the
customer or prospect.
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12. Small businesses should use social media as an indirect route to lead
Denise O’Berry
generation. That means building one-on-one relationships in addition to
A small business owner since 1996, Denise O’Berry understands
the challenges facing small business. She’s lived them herself and
helped hundreds of clients work through the frustrations, fears, and
joys of owning a small business. The enthusiasm and ability of
small business owners to overcome huge obstacles inspires her.
driving prospects to a value added online resource or providing a
downloadable white paper that will help the prospect solve a problem.
Part of the lead generation process should include tactics for capturing
She is continually amazed by all the things small business owners
the prospect’s email address so a long term relationship can be built with
manage to accomplish.
them. It’s important to remember that people buy from people, not
companies so using a long term approach to lead generation will yield a
bigger pay off for small business.
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13. “When you want to attract leads to your business—or just plain build an
Derek Halpern
email list—social media should be the last place you go. Especially when
After building several successful websites in various niches
(entertainment, fashion, humor, and more) over the last 5 years,
Derek Halpern refocused on what he loves most: Building and
Marketing Businesses. He blogs at Social Triggers.
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you’re first starting out. Instead, you’re better off writing high quality
content, reaching out to bloggers who may like that content, and asking
them to publish it on their site. That’s a much better source of traffic.”
14. In my view trying to use Social Media for lead generation is short-sighted
Hank Trisler
and wrong-headed. There. I’ve said it.If your only purpose in sharing your
Hank Trisler is a recognized sales strategist author of “No Bull
Selling” and “No Bull Sales Management”
thoughts through the internet is to get people to call you, you’ll likely be
doomed to disappointment. Those ploys are hopelessly transparent. If, on
the other hand, you tell people precisely what you think, and if other
people agree with your point of view, they might be inclined to seek you
out for further discussion/consultation.
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