A lot people think that social media is a bit of a fad, essentially something just for kids. Yet when it is used
correctly this couldn't be further from the truth.
If I gave you an immense database of potential business leads (including contact information, a list of likes/ dislikes and employment history, etc) couldn't you use this to target potential customers and sell to them on a mass sale?
Well with Twitter and Linkedin that is exactly what I'm giving you. A social network is this type of database and you just need to know how to use it. With that in mind, here are 5 useful tips for generating leads and bringing new customers into your business. For all examples I will assume you are looking for business owners, although the same techniques can be used for connecting with any demographic.
Twitter Search: The most well known way to search Twitter is to use the search box at the top of the page and although this is not the best technique it's a good starting point. If you are looking to sell your product to business owners in Manchester then you can perform searches such as “ceo Manchester” or “owner Manchester”. In fact, you could have a list of 10-20 different job titles and just work your way through the list. All you need to do is click on the “people” option at the top left to find hundreds of potential leads. Here is one potential search query for managing director manchester.
Twitter Lists: Once you've found potential leads you should really put them all into a Twitter list. For example here is a list from @espionagemanc containing users related to business in Manchester. You may want to create your own list for business leads in Manchester, then one for London and Glasgow, etc. Also, you may want to create additional lists for people that have replied to you and lists for people that have bought your product.
Listorious Once you have started to use lists you may want to tap into pre-existing lists that other Twitter users have already made. If you would like to do this then visit listorious.com and perform a search for “UK Business”, “Manchester Business”, etc. This is a great tool for finding lists and can be the perfect resource for locating your chosen demographic. For instance, here is a list I found about UK recruitment users.
Socialbro.com: this is a Chrome extension that has a range of functionality for
managing your Twitter relationships but I'm just going to stick to its search capabilities. You can download
the extension at www.socialbro.com and can then use it within
Chrome. Why it is so ideal for lead generation is that you can perform Twitter searches by location and then
you can order results by number of followers, last date tweeted, influence, etc. All you then need to do is
connect with the right people and tell them about your product.
Linkedin: So you've used Twitter to find individuals but what if you want to go one step further and completely map out the infrastructure of a company and contact all of its employees? Well in that case you would used Linkedin. You would perform a search for a particular company and would be able to view a list of employees. Then just click on their profile and either connect with them on Linkedin or if they have a Twitter link on their profile connect with them on Twitter.
If you want to target BT for example then search for the company, then click United Kingdom as the location. From there you will find Sudesh Jog, Head of Retention at BT and can then connect with him on Twitter via @sudeshjog. He is just one of the people that I have found using Linkedin.
If you these 5 techniques then you should be able to connect with any demographic you want. What's more because you can view their profiles you will be able to get a feel for what they are interested in and will therefore be able to have a custom approach for engaging with them.
Author Bio: Tudor Davies is a blogger and social sharer and is currently working for officeman.co.uk. To connect with Tudor you can find him on Twitter at @Tudor_Davies.
If I gave you an immense database of potential business leads (including contact information, a list of likes/ dislikes and employment history, etc) couldn't you use this to target potential customers and sell to them on a mass sale?
Well with Twitter and Linkedin that is exactly what I'm giving you. A social network is this type of database and you just need to know how to use it. With that in mind, here are 5 useful tips for generating leads and bringing new customers into your business. For all examples I will assume you are looking for business owners, although the same techniques can be used for connecting with any demographic.
Twitter Search: The most well known way to search Twitter is to use the search box at the top of the page and although this is not the best technique it's a good starting point. If you are looking to sell your product to business owners in Manchester then you can perform searches such as “ceo Manchester” or “owner Manchester”. In fact, you could have a list of 10-20 different job titles and just work your way through the list. All you need to do is click on the “people” option at the top left to find hundreds of potential leads. Here is one potential search query for managing director manchester.
Twitter Lists: Once you've found potential leads you should really put them all into a Twitter list. For example here is a list from @espionagemanc containing users related to business in Manchester. You may want to create your own list for business leads in Manchester, then one for London and Glasgow, etc. Also, you may want to create additional lists for people that have replied to you and lists for people that have bought your product.
Listorious Once you have started to use lists you may want to tap into pre-existing lists that other Twitter users have already made. If you would like to do this then visit listorious.com and perform a search for “UK Business”, “Manchester Business”, etc. This is a great tool for finding lists and can be the perfect resource for locating your chosen demographic. For instance, here is a list I found about UK recruitment users.
Socialbro.com: this is a Chrome extension that has a range of functionality for
managing your Twitter relationships but I'm just going to stick to its search capabilities. You can download
the extension at www.socialbro.com and can then use it within
Chrome. Why it is so ideal for lead generation is that you can perform Twitter searches by location and then
you can order results by number of followers, last date tweeted, influence, etc. All you then need to do is
connect with the right people and tell them about your product.
Linkedin: So you've used Twitter to find individuals but what if you want to go one step further and completely map out the infrastructure of a company and contact all of its employees? Well in that case you would used Linkedin. You would perform a search for a particular company and would be able to view a list of employees. Then just click on their profile and either connect with them on Linkedin or if they have a Twitter link on their profile connect with them on Twitter.
If you want to target BT for example then search for the company, then click United Kingdom as the location. From there you will find Sudesh Jog, Head of Retention at BT and can then connect with him on Twitter via @sudeshjog. He is just one of the people that I have found using Linkedin.
If you these 5 techniques then you should be able to connect with any demographic you want. What's more because you can view their profiles you will be able to get a feel for what they are interested in and will therefore be able to have a custom approach for engaging with them.
Author Bio: Tudor Davies is a blogger and social sharer and is currently working for officeman.co.uk. To connect with Tudor you can find him on Twitter at @Tudor_Davies.
An interesting read, I'll have to checkout social to, it's not one I have come across before. A platform that allows you to perform lots of these tasks in one place is MarketMeSuite.com I find it the best Social Tool available. Especially for creating custom Twitter/Facebook searches, and template bases tweets/replies! Really good for social media marketing and lead generation through targeted landing pages.
ReplyDeleteHi Justin,
DeleteYes, SocialBro is new to me too so I will go and check that one out. I tried MarketMeSuite. I liked the search capabilities of it and tried the Pro version too. Handling all my social media accounts can be quite time consuming if you are not careful. I'm still a big fan of Hootsuite.
I've been helping colleagues get to grips with the basics of social media for business and how to make sure they start with a plan on who they want to target and what they want to achieve. Otherwise, the information can be overwhelming and it's easy to waste time.