Social media agencies may come to mind when you want to build your Facebook fan base or grow your Twitter followers, but in the end, those things don’t mean anything if it doesn’t lead to customers, right?
Lead generation can be a daunting task on and offline for sales teams and small businesses alike.
For sales teams, too much time can be wasted cold calling, cold emailing or just staring at a computer wondering how other people are able to use social media to bring in new leads.
Small businesses usually don’t have the benefit of a sales team, therefore spend far too much time trying to bring in new customers rather than just delivering the products and services that their customers want.
The Benefit Of Hiring A Social Media Agency
Social media agencies have the experience and knowledge of what works online for lead generation. There’s a learning curve for you to sit down and try and figure out how LinkedIn can generate leads for you or what tools are best for monitoring Twitter for prospects.
A social media agency doesn’t waste time figuring out what’s going to work, because they’ve already done that. This immediately becomes a more efficient process for you by cutting out the learning curve that is your barrier to entry.
If you did spend the time to learn how to leverage social media for lead generation, there are still two big issues that you will have versus a social media agency:
- Accomplishing the same tasks will take you 5 times as long as it would for a social media agency
- You’re still spending time on social media instead of closing hot leads or working with your existing customers.
Social Media Lead Generation
Generating leads from social media is not a myth or pipe dream. For professional services, LinkedIn is an excellent network to connect with your target audience. Twitter can be a great monitoring tool for people in need of your services, to build your brand awareness in your demographic’s community and build lasting relationships that keep customers coming back. Facebook is a channel that can generate real connections between brands and their customers, exclusive content and deals offered to turn your fans into brand advocates of your company.
The main issue with trying to do all of this yourself, even if you think you have a grasp on these social networks as a consumer, it is not the same for your business. Running social media campaigns also takes time, which takes away from more important things that are actually in your job description.
LinkedIn Lead Generation
LinkedIn Groups and LinkedIn Answers are very underrated tools for connecting with prospects. Again, while this may seem like a simple task, it is still a task that gets added to your to-do list every day. A social media agency can save you time and be more efficient with the work.
Twitter Lead Generation
Twitter has changed its API a few times recently as well as its policies. Keeping up with new Twitter tools, trends and strategies can be a full time job itself. When a social media agency is on board with you to help, you don’t need to take on that second full time job. It’s a social media agency’s job to keep up with these social media trends, not yours.
Facebook Lead Generation
Nearly six in ten (56%) Facebook users who “like” brands on the social networking site say they are more likely to recommend a brand to friends after becoming a fan
Source: MarketingProfs
While Facebook is always changing (for people and businesses) and also may not be the best place to generate new leads. But when leveraged properly, Facebook can be a great place to build a community that does two great things for your business:
- Builds a brand loyalty with your customer base and increases the lifetime value of a customer
- Turns your customers into brand advocates. When you build a strong bond with a customer, they will turn around and promote your brand (online and offline) to their small circle of friends. When you can start spreading through these small circles of people, you begin to build your business.
Have You Hired Social Media Agencies For Lead Generation?
What has been your experience with social media agencies? Have you worked with one just to set up profiles and build connections but not seen actual business results? Have you used social media yourself to generate leads?
Leave your social media lead generation experiences in the comments below!