What are the ways we can utilize social media for lead generation?

Not too long ago, I was requested to answer a question on Quora that I thought my audience would find interesting.  We all use social media, but, how do we gain leads from social media?  Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest - they are not black holes where your content disappears after posting.  You can use those platforms to build your list and grow your business. 

Here's how...

You need to do a few things before you build your business’ social media following.

Develop your brand.

1. What are the aesthetics (color scheme, social media header, profile headlines, etc)
2. What is your tone? Will your “voice” be playful? Authoritative? Friendly? Supportive?
3. Curate content your audience will love. Here’s a worksheet on how to figure out WHAT your audience wants to read.
4. Start writing content your audience cares about. The worksheet above can help you with that too.

Do your research.

1. What social media platforms is your audience on?
1. How do you figure that out? Go on places like Quora, Reddit, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups, and search relevant hashtags on Twitter. Ask what social media they use most. The fastest way to figure this out is to look at your top competitors (the ones that are already successful). Where are their biggest social media followings?

Build your following.

1. You can’t promote your business on social media unless people are actually following you.
2. Grow your Twitter following using this e-book (it’s free).
3. Grow your Instagram with this e-course (it’s ALMOST free).

Convert your social media following to customers

The best way to convert social media leads is to create great content upgrades that they want. When they download the content upgrade, they will provide an email. Through an email campaign, you will build a relationship and convert them to a paying customer.

To create an effective email campaign, you’ll want to:

1. Nurture them by providing educational content once or twice a week or so. At this point, don’t ask for anything in return. Do this for 3+ weeks. You’ll want about 7 emails to go out in this time that has value, free content.
2. After at least 3 weeks, begin your sales email campaign.
3. Start the 8 email sales process. Send on consecutive days.
1. 1st email: tease your product
2. 2nd email: explain your product more thoroughly + why they need it.
3. 3rd email: offer the product
4. 4th email: FAQ email about your product
5. 5th email: bonus upgrade for those who purchase your product by the deadline
6. 6th email: thank you email to those who purchased, include social proof
7. 7th email: build an argument on why its important that people buy. Include their pain points, and how you solve them.
8. 8th email: on the last day, send 3 emails saying it’s the last chance to get the product and it won’t be available after that.

You’re building FOMO. Now, if this is an evergreen product, you use this method. 1–2 are the same for both.

3. Send 3 emails on 3 consecutive days:

Email 1: Discuss the problem that your ideal customer is having. This let’s them know you understand their issues.

Email 2: Agitate the problem. Explain why this problem is so bad and needs to be fixed.

Email 3: Solve their problem. Explain how you can solve their issue with your product.

If you’re interested, I have a free 5-day list building challenge that will go into converting social media followers to leads. You can sign up here - it’s 100% free.