Hellen Oti
Earlier this year, a study from Forbes revealed that Twitter had overtaken Linkedin when it comes to lead generation. The report also indicated that, many top salespeople use Twitter to exceed their sales quota by over 6X. This makes Twitter one of the fast rising social media tools for lead generation.
Twitter also announced the removal of its 140-character limit with sending direct messages. Now direct messages can be more of a full blown conversation rather than bits of information. This change comes at time when more and more sales and marketing professionals are turning to Twitter for lead generation. In light of this new change, I thought a discussion on ways to use Twitter for lead generation might be forthcoming.
Using Twitter for Lead Generation
1. Use Twitter to promote your inbound marketing initiatives.
Tweeting out your content such as, blogs, ebooks, whitepapers, videos, among others, is one of the frequently used methods for lead generation through Twitter.
There are three main benefits when that can be derived from Tweeting and promoting your content through Twitter.
Content Amplification.
Twitter is a great tool for content amplification. In my blog post on “All You Need to Know About Content Amplification”, I explained ways to amplify your content and increase your social reach.
When it comes to using content amplification to reach a broader audience, Twitter has a unparalleled advantage as one retweet from the right social influencer to your target audience can set off a chain reaction that gets your content viral.
If your content has call-to-actions (CTAs) to help users convert, you can easily generate new leads with Twitter. The key with getting your content amplified with social influencers is to either create a relationship where you share their content and they share yours, or you create content that’s similar to what they like to share, and tweet it out directly to them.
Assisted Conversions.
The path to generating a lead is sometimes muddled with periods of indecision and edification that could prevent a conversion from happening right away. Using Twitter can assist with converting leads. To ensure that you can map out the journey of each conversion on your website accurately, you have to make sure that you have website tracking or analytics tool installed such as Google Analytics.
Direct Conversions.
A direct conversion from Twitter is gained by a follower or reader of your tweet, clicking on a link and then, directly taking the action that you will like them to take. This is the most optimal but much more challenging way to convert leads especially when you don’t have a big social presence. Nonetheless, it’s not an impossible task. I’ve had many direct conversions using Twitter. Just be consistent and don’t lose hope.
2. Monitor Tweets from Influencers and Your Target Audience.
In Twitter marketing and lead generation, using influencers to reach more of your targeted audience is absolutely essential. This is should be a part of your content amplification strategy, but at the very least, you should be monitoring influencers who communicate with your target audience regularly, to get tips on what your audience enjoys.
On the other hand, don’t rely on just industry influencers with thousands of users to connect with your target audience. Create a list of prospects in Twitter, and start fostering a relationship by tweeting out directly to them, retweeting and favoriting their tweets. This is one of the easy ways to get your own tweets noticed by your possible prospects.
3. Reach Out When The Time is Right
Just like any other relationship, timing is crucial when trying to use Twitter as a lead generation tool. When monitoring conversations, ensure that you can insert yourself at the right time. If you try to sell too soon you may end up with a connection that feels like you are only in for the sale. Think about going on a first date. Most people do not usually propose marriage on a first date as it may scare the other person away. There is the need to let a relationship naturally take its course.
In a business lead generation environment, one may not always have the luxury to wait for the lead to get to the sales-ready point on his or her own. Due to this reason, you can take action steps to give a gentle nudge along the sales pipeline rather than a sales push.
Position yourself as a thought leader, offer advice, and even free help. Then when it’s time to sell your unique proposition, it’s much easier to get the lead that has built trust and is ready to move on to a sale.
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