Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to use social media, knowing that it could get you leads and unique sales opportunities? If you answered yes, then keep reading.
Because social media is being used by more than 3 billion users worldwide, entrepreneurs definitely cannot ignore social media as one of the top marketing channels.
With this comes a huge challenge in designing the right social media strategy, and if not done correctly, can limit the profitable opportunities that exist within social media platforms.
The formula to generate leads from social media:
Quality Profile + Quality Content + Relevancy = Organic Reach
Organic Reach * Conversion Rate % = Leads
Let’s discuss each ingredient of the formula.
Building A Successful Social Media Profile
Whether you are just trying to get more exposure online, to connect with your fans or customers, or to improve your online reputation, social networking profiles are the way to go in order to reach your business goals.
Unless you have a major site associated with your name, and plenty of people specifically typing your name or your brand on search engines, your social media profile is usually the first result Google shows when someone searches for you.
Start thinking of each social media profile you create as a landing page for your personal brand.
Your landing page is possibly the first encounter that someone is going to have with your brand, and you will want that first impression to make the visitor interested to know more about you.
Be strategic. When someone is interacting with your social channels, make sure they will be able to see a profile that makes them like you, trust in you, and believe in you.
Some tips to build a successful social media profile:
- Use a profile picture that makes you look approachable
- Customize your cover image and add an attractive description
- Add a BIO
- Balance your personal and business content
- Adjust your privacy settings to make sure people can find you and never turn on automatic tagging
This might sound logical, but let me clarify the importance of having a strong profile. It makes no sense to spend resources for marketing purposes in order to get people to know about a brand if there is a poor online presence.
Producing Quality Content
One of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs have when it comes to social media marketing is content. Coming up with fresh, relevant, interesting, and effective content ideas to share with their audience isn’t something that comes easily. A great way to solve this challenge is to incorporate psychology to the process of content creation.
Using the psychology of personalities, you are able to anticipate the emotions you want to trigger from your readers and thus creating a marketing strategy around it.
The language people use to express themselves can provide clues about the kind of people they are, online and off. Current efforts to understand personality from writing samples rely on theories and survey data from the 1980s.
New research uses social media data to successfully identify differences and similarities between users without prior assumptions. The way people refer to themselves and others has previously been correlated with personality. The new analysis also associates these personality markers with topics of conversation.
If topics of conversation are correlated with personalities, this means that marketers can trigger those conversations, provided that they have a strategy in place!
The Gemstones Personality Test
The 4 Personality Gems come from the motivational speaker Dani Johnson. Johnson says, “You have all four Gem characteristics in you. Some people have a lot of two Gems and very little of the others. Others have quite a bit of each one in them, but they lead and communicate in one primary Gem most of the time.”
I’ve used this strategy to craft my social media content for a long time now and it’s fascinating!
Are The Personality Gems Effective? Yes. But how does it work?
First of all, you will want to identify your 2 strongest gems and see if your social media currently reflects them. You will be surprised by how accurate this is!
Emeralds
Emeralds love the numbers. They are very analytical. They love planners and everything needs to be scheduled.
If you’re an emerald, most likely, you don’t share just anything on social media. You’re very meticulous about your privacy. When you share content, it’s because you know it’s going to be according to your standards.
Since you’re into numbers, you don’t really see the point of leaving comments on people’s pictures. You read them, you acknowledge them, but you are not up to leaving hearts, GIFs, or videos.
Did I describe you well? If you’re an emerald and want to trigger more engagement from different users, make sure you don’t post like emeralds all the time. Add some variation!
Pearls
Pearls love people. They are very emotional. They love supporting causes. When they see a story that moves their heart, they share.
If you’re a pearl, most likely, you share content from other sources, especially inspirational content. You also participate in causes and truly enjoy helping others. Like emeralds, you’re very meticulous about your privacy.
You might consider yourself an introvert, but social media is something you enjoy, because it allows you to connect with people and help them, from the convenience of your home.
Did I describe you well? If you’re a pearl and want to trigger more engagement from different users, make sure you don’t post like pearls all the time. Be sure your content brings facts, adds variation, and inspire people to take action, besides helping others.
Rubies
You’re here to win. You love the challenges. You’re not shy. Your social media displays your accolades and you have no shame. You see yourself as an influencer.
You might consider yourself an extrovert and social media is a great place for you to connect with more people. You’re certainly not shy on camera.
Did I describe you well? Watch out for not being unapproachable. You can be an influencer without pushing people away. Feature different people on your social media. Add content that’s not just about you or your interests. This will allow you to ignite different conversations with different people.
Sapphires
Sapphires are natural social media users. They share updates constantly and are not camera shy. You see them in lots of places, activities, with lots of people. Sapphires are promoters and this makes them a great addition to your brand.
If you’re a Sapphire and want to attract different people to your social media, add authority content, facts, and share your work more. Your audience will celebrate your accomplishments. Don’t be shy to share your great work!
Social Relevancy
Social media algorithms are made up of affinity, which refers to the relationship of one topic to another. The goal of Facebook’s algorithm is to “show stories that matter to users,” according to Adam Mosseri, VP of Facebook’s News Feed Management.
What this really means is that social media is optimized for shares above all else. For this reason, part of the winning formula to create a profitable content marketing strategy is to create content that will encourage your users to share. How can we do that?
We just discussed how Personality Gems can help you trigger responses from specific personality types. That takes care of the WHO. To trigger engagement, we also need to consider the WHAT and the WHEN.
Think about the last time you shared a post from someone. Why did you share it? Chances are, you had in mind a specific topic and you found a post that fit perfectly with what you had in mind, and you decided it was appropriate for you to share.
Tips to get more engagement in social media:
- Generate original content so that users find something new to share
- Stay up to date with Social National Days; people love these!
- Be creative (in other words, don’t be boring).
- Surprise your users with something that is totally different from what they are used to seeing.
- Be active. The more comments and shares you give, the more you receive.
When your content is relevant and generates engagement, it triggers the algorithm, pretty much in all of the main social media platforms.
If you want to generate leads, you want your content to signal meaning that is meaningful and relevant to your target audience. The caveat here is that you won’t have access to the targeting features unless you pay for ads. If you want to grow your business without paying for ads, then you need to implement direct marketing strategies to generate conversions from your organic audience.
How To Generate Conversions From Your Social Media Content (Organic)
An effective social media marketing strategy should attract the right leads without using traditional e-commerce practices. Social media is about being social.
Unlike many entrepreneurs believe, you can generate leads and clients from social media without paying for ads. Of course, it will be slower than if you pay for ads, but it’s possible.
If you’re not having conversions from social media, the first thing to watch is the amount of exposure (reach) you’re having, which is a reflection of the number of interactions, such as:
- Comments
- Replies
- Likes
- Shares
The more comments, replies, likes, and shares you have, the more accounts you reach.
Turning your reach into leads will be a matter of having the ability to generate meaningful conversations with your audience, via chat (messenger). Just remember not to spam your audience.
Another great way to generate leads is to combine blog posts with social media. For example, by sharing educational blog posts on your Facebook page, users will be able to begin to perceive value from you. The more they trust you, the better reputation you will have.
In general, the more value you add and the more trust you build with your users, the more likely you are to gain permission to pitch to them. Just one thing, your pitch, via social media channels, isn’t about a coupon or a sale; it is a “call to action” (CTA).
You don’t need just any CTA, you want a strong one that convinces people to act.
There are two main purposes of a call to action; to tell someone what they should do, and to give them the motivation to do so.
It’s a hard balance to strike. You have to give potential customers enough information to get them to click without overwhelming them . When in doubt, ask a copywriter or marketer for a second opinion!
To Recap
We have discussed the formula to generate leads from social media:
Quality Profile + Quality Content + Relevancy = Organic Reach
Organic Reach * Conversion Rate % = Leads
A quality profile, followed by quality content and relevancy will ignite your process of increasing your organic reach. Simultaneously, your strategies to ignite conversions will increase your conversion rate, resulting in higher qualified leads.
Pay attention to the Personality Gems. This is a great guideline to use for creating content; especially if you’re launching something new this year.
