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How to leverage two key social networking sites to drive high quality lead generation

Guest post by: David Anthony Watson

Article Overview: In this article I will cover two of the major social networking sites and walk through how to really maximise them for driving high quality lead generation. The two sites in question are Facebook and Twitter as they are excellent sites for high quality leads as well as being viral in their nature. Clearly there are a substantial number of sites that offer similar results and I will focus on these in future articles.

How to leverage two key social networking sites to drive high quality lead generation

It is incredible how quickly you can establish an online presence through the use of social networking sites. The search engines favour these sites due to their viral nature and high traffic volumes. Facebook now has 500 million users worldwide, whilst Twitter has fewer users (44.5 million as at June 2010). However both offer great opportunities to generate targeted lead generation for your business.

The benefit of social network sites is the public information readily available on your target market. Firstly you can review your prospects profile on certain sites and gain an insight into their background and decide if this is someone that you would like to work with. If you cannot view their profile then you could check if they are associated with any groups. This will tell you a bit about what they are interested in. Once you have done your research you can introduce yourself as a fellow networker and commence a mutually beneficial relationship. It really is that straightforward to start your lead generation process.

One should bear in mind that social networking sites are designed for people to be ‘sociable’ so it is appropriate to strike up a balance between being too friendly and being too salesy. Either approach is likely to put people off as it would in social situations. Try and connect with your prospects through offering valuable content such as tips and techniques on your relevant industry. Add a fan page to your facebook profile and load it with quality content to warm your leads up. Once you have provided quality content you can start to add links to your site and special offers to them. The more relevant your content the more likely your prospects will turn into buyers as opposed to browers.

Facebook has a limit of 5000 friends which sounds like a high volume but is relatively low in marketing terms. This means that you should invest time in building your friend network and ensure that you are connecting with the right people. Twitter however allows a much greater volume of prospects and you can add higher volumes in a shorter period of time. A high volume of followers does take up administration time so be aware of this.

Another key benefit to these sites is that they do not cost you anything to set up initially so you could effectively be generating high quality leads at no cost to yourself.

Follow this simple guide and you could quickly add social networking sites to your marketing mix. And there is nothing better to a sales or marketing professional than driving quality lead generation for free.

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Article Tags: high quality, lead generation, lead generation, social network sites, social networking sites, targeted lead generation
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com/



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin's Case Study #6 - Marketing an information resource? - Hey Sebastian, Congrats are starting to think beyond whats currently being done. My question is why do you want to get away from lead generation if that is where you make your money. What if you just because THE SOURCE for lead generation and high value content/information? Then you'd get more business because franchisors would HAVE to be listed with you.... J
Re: Kevin's Case Study #6 - Marketing an information resource? - Hi Sebastien, I'm wondering about two things: 1) What is your current revenue model? 2) Why would franchise owners choose to sign up with you over the lead generation companies? Is there some kind of quality control certification that you could award them to say that they are a World Franchising certified franchise? I'm not clear on what benefits a company seeking to franchise would really get from your site beyond the lead generation component.
Re: Kevin's Case Study #6 - Marketing an information resource? - [quote="Evan":3ndb7usp]Hi Sebastien, I'm wondering about two things: 1) What is your current revenue model? 2) Why would franchise owners choose to sign up with you over the lead generation companies? Is there some kind of quality control certification that you could award them to say that they are a World Franchising certified franchise? I'm not clear on what benefits a company seeking to franchise would really get from your site beyond the lead generation component.[/quote:3ndb7usp] Hello Evan, 1. We currently make money from what you may call lead generation. Franchisors pay us a fee to be on our websites and in our top seller franchise guides. We also generate money from other avenue; mostly by selling hard-to-get information about franchising (UFOCs, etc...) 2. That's exactly what I'm trying to answer.... I want to get away from the lead generation perception. I want to be seen as a good information resource, which we are. I have started to take the association angle and I am now looking to provide great benefits to our Members (used to be called clients). I think I'm on the right way. I made a lot of progress the last couple days.
Re: Twitter, Social Networking: What's Your method? - [quote:3jvh79yz]From my experience, social networking traffic (Twitter included) also converts at a far lower rate than search engine traffic. People who find you via a search engine are looking for answers to a particular problem and are more likely to buy your product / service. Twitter and other social networking visitors can help your traffic numbers but they usually come out of general interest and don't end up buying what you're selling. I haven't seen a website owner yet say they prefer social media traffic over search engine.[/quote:3jvh79yz] I couldn't agree more! I've been trying to drive this point into people's heads on my blogs and various forums for at least a year now. Yes, you can get a lot of traffic from social sites but if it doesn't make you any money (or very little) then what's the point?! You can use the same time you spend on social sites building up your rankings in search engines to get traffic that actually converts into money!
Social Networks - [quote="franchisebrief.com":bnjek0hs]Yet another social website.... While I haven't tried it, I can't tell about the quality of the site. However, I am getting over all these social websites such as myspace, facebook, etc..... Instead of spending time on those sites, I'd rather spend time working on my own site or writing articles or doing something that I am sure will generate results.[/quote:bnjek0hs] An advantage with the social networking sites is that they give you access to people that may never find your website. Once the sites are set up, most need little effort to maintain them. Chris


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