FastCompany.com – 10 Ways to Drive Sales and Qualify Leads Using Social Media

Ken Krogue recently published on FastCompany.com, the leading progressive business media brand focusing on technology innovation, “10 Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Sales.” The article discusses an introductory approach to using social media to drive sales and generate leads.

Social media is one of the leading prospecting tools sales reps have — if used correctly. It is enormously powerful in gaining sales intelligence and in connecting with and qualifying new leads and prospects. Below is a summary of the article.

10 Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Sales

1. Grab your name on every social media platform
The days of using a creative ‘handle’ are behind us. Use your real name and avoid handles that say little about who you actually are.

2. Build your brand within a targeted niche
Ask yourself, “What do I love doing?” “What am I best at?” and “Can I make money doing that?” Use the Google Insights tool and find upward trending keywords you can leverage.

3. Discover the keywords your audience is searching on
Use Google Keyword tool to find keywords that have low competition and high rankings.

4. Create a strategy for your social media efforts
Decide what you want to accomplish by implementing social media. If it’s just to build followers, you should re-think your strategy. What good are followers if they don’t do anything?

5. Remember the ‘Golden Rule’, it still applies
“Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” Remember this from grade school? In the social world, it means mention people in your blog, ‘Retweet’ them and comment on their postings. Remember to share the love.

6. Expand your reach with technology
Start using HootSuite or Buffer to pre-schedule content to be published on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. This shouldn’t replace your activity; it should only help provide relevant content to your followers. You still need to interact – which in large part is a manual process.

7. Write the content once – publish it everywhere
Write a great article, then publish the core idea on your blog, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, to name the top sites. Each provides backlinks to your original content, boosting your Google ranking.

8. Create a two-way conversation
If someone takes the time to write a thoughtful response to one of your posts, you owe them a respond back. Remember, social media is a two-way street. Responding also puts the ball back in their court to keep the conversation going.

9. Measure your results
What good is social engagement if it isn’t creating the results you want? Keeping track of your results allows you to re-think your current strategy and make any adjustments that need to be made.

10. Learn new social techniques
The easiest way to find quality content on best practices for using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or any other social media platform is to do a simple search on Google. “The Top 10 things to do in (insert social media platform here).” Take 30 minutes each week and learn something new that can help you be more effective. Never stop learning.

What successes have you seen from social media outreach? Has it helped your sales team generate and qualify leads? Share your experiences with us via the comments box below.

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