One of the biggest reasons we all do social media marketing is to find new customers for our products or services. Maybe it is the biggest reason. It comes before social customer service, because without finding customers in the first place, we'd have no one to serve. This infographic from Salesforce Canada gives some insight into the process of acquiring customers via social media.
Does social actually help find us customers? The answer is: sort of. 54% of B2B marketers say they've generated leads using social media. Of course, B2B marketers have a tougher time with social than B2C and existing non-virtual networks often are fairly robust for B2B businesses. But I think we can expect to see greater success in the coming years.
Where do marketers go online to find customers? 77% of B2C marketers have acquired customer on Facebook. 43% have found customers of LinkedIn. Twitter is a rising power in lead generation.
If you can get someone to follow your brand on Twitter, that person is 67% more likely to buy your product than a non-follower.
So, it seems like acquiring customers on social media works. But how do you do it?
It's important to know what kind of search terms people are using who want to find products or services like yours. Now use them! Hashtag them and make sure your website uses them. Let's say you are se
Reach out to people who already have an online relationship with the kind of people who might be interested in your products. Also, definitely reach out to people who have already written about or tweeted about or interacted with your brand online.
Get involved with groups on LinkedIn or Google+ that are relevant to your product or service. Don't try to sell in these contexts, rather listen and create informational content that you think might be attractive to members of these groups.
Don't forget about paid social. Most social platforms offer pretty good ad targeting options, even for small budgets. Create username campaigns on Twitter. You can even target campaigns to specific email address on Facebook. You can target specific job titles on LinkedIn.
P.S. I'm creating my headlines using a formula from my last post. The formula: Number or Trigger Word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise. So for this post, my first try is: Most Essential + Step-by-Step + Customer Acquisition + Will Actually Get You Customers Via Social Media. Now to refine it into an actual sentence: "This Essential, Step-by-Step Customer Acquisition Strategy Will Actually Get You Customers Via Social Media." Too long, but I'm going to try it.