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Social media has transformed our lives in so many ways. Not only is it the platform we use to connect with friends, it’s now our source for entertainment and the latest news. It’s where we run our businesses and seek opportunities.
What was once just a casual “social” platform has become an essential tool.
Back in 2013, when I started as a social media manager at one digital agency, the idea of social media prospecting wasn’t widespread.
However, we had UNIQA, the leading insurance company, as a client and the company wanted to test social selling and get more clients with Facebook and Instagram. After posting examples of the cost of car insurance, we started getting requests on individual calculations. We quickly understood the power of social media prospecting and asked interested followers to share their contact details to get replies from managers on other communication channels. That’s when I realized the power of social media prospecting.
It’s no wonder that social media prospecting has become the go-to strategy for businesses and sales professionals.
What is Social Media Prospecting?
Social media prospecting is the process of using your social media channels to generate leads. This includes researching, gathering, and nurturing leads through the same channels.
Using social media for prospecting involves using the platform’s features to build relationships with potential customers. This results in increased sales and more traffic to your store or website. Leveraging social media data and functionalities within a customer success tool can help you personalize outreach and track engagement, ultimately improving the prospecting process. Here are some examples of social media prospecting:
- B2B SAAS businesses searching for CTOs or IT managers working in small to mid-sized tech companies.
- Using hashtags to find and engage with qualified leads by commenting on their posts.
- Joining niche-specific groups to find and engage with potential clients/customers.
Why Use Social Media for Prospecting?
The answer is simple: everyone is on social media. The top platforms for social media prospecting promise at least a billion users. You won’t find a bigger audience elsewhere. Plus, your target audience is likely already on social media. So, you’re meeting them where they are.
Unlike traditional cold calling, social media prospecting isn’t invasive or time-consuming.
Social media allows leads to read your message at their convenience. This increases the chances of a positive response. In fact, according to a study by LinkedIn, 78% of sellers outsell peers who don’t use social media for prospecting.
The best thing about social media as a prospecting tool is that it’s always a two-way street. Your lead can use social media to learn more about your business the same way you used it to learn more about your lead. Research and interaction can be done in one place.
What Are the Best Social Media Channels for Prospecting?
Choosing the best platform will always depend on your industry and target audience. The rule of thumb is always to understand where your target audience spends most of their time. Below are the top platforms:
- LinkedIn – As a professional networking and job search platform, LinkedIn is the top choice for generating qualified leads and learning more about your potential prospects.
- Facebook – In addition to being the number one social media platform in terms of users, Facebook also has a ton of communities and groups with highly specific niches, perfect for finding qualified leads.
- Instagram – Close to 50% of Instagram’s users are between 25-44 years old. This means a decent chunk of the user base are professionals who could be decision-makers in their respective fields. Instagram is also one of the best social media platforms for engagement. You can reply to stories, leave comments, send reactions, and more.
7 Proven Strategies for Social Media Prospecting
To help you get started with social media prospecting, we’ve listed seven tried and tested strategies:
1. Become an expert in your niche
Becoming an expert in your niche will boost your credibility. As a thought leader, you will have a better chance of receiving a positive response. With the right content mix and consistent posting, anyone can become a thought leader. Here’s what I recommend:
- Post more frequently – Having an active page means your content is more likely to appear in your followers’ feeds or as recommended content to qualified leads. The more you post, the more your brand gets seen.
- Focus on helpful/educational content – Being an expert means showing your audience you can solve their problems. Helpful content can take the form of short videos, infographics, and live sessions.
- Post case studies/blogs – Case studies are one of the most effective tools to convert leads because they serve as social proof and evidence of your capabilities as a business.
- Post about live in-person events – Attending or hosting events is an excellent way to showcase your thought leadership within your industry.
Take a look at how Travel eSIM startup Truely does it:
The brand shares updates on its LinkedIn page about events it’s part of. This shows new prospects that the brand is relevant in the industry and that other businesses and professionals are interested in its services.
2. Encourage communication with followers
The appeal of social media is in its ability to bridge the gap between businesses and customers. Before social media, brands simply talked to their audience, today it’s become a conversation. This feature is especially important in the B2B space because the stakes are higher. Your leads don’t want to be sold to, they expect a conversation.
If you have a business page, it’s a smart idea to include contact buttons like emails or phone numbers so that interested followers could use alternative communication channels of their choice. However, never forget to implement interactive communication in your social media marketing strategy.
Check out how commerce platform Shopify uses social media to encourage communication:
The brand posts relevant questions on its Instagram feed for lead generation and customers to reply in the comments section. This helps Shopify learn more about what matters to its audience and how it can build solutions to solve its customers’ pain points. In addition to social media engagement, contributing content through blogging on Shopify is another way to acquire new customers, becoming an additional channel that enhances social media efforts.
In particular, Instagram has tools that make asking questions and answering them easier than ever before. You can use the interactive stickers on Instagram Stories, such as polls, multiple choice questions, or question stickers. You can also host live Q&A sessions on any platform or simply reply to comments on your posts.
3. Focus on hyper-personalized outreach
Tailoring your messaging and approach can make a huge difference versus simply copy pasting a generic message and sending it to your contact list. Taking time to get to know your prospects, such as understanding their business needs and pain points, helps you craft a message that resonates with the receiver.
A simple personalization can make your lead feel valued and seen.
A personalized outreach enables you to form a deeper connection and therefore increases your chances of a positive response. Your prospect likely receives dozens of outreach messages a day, personalization helps you stand out and it’s a way to build trust.
Here’s an example of a LinkedIn prospecting message I recommend using:
Hi [Prospect’s Name],
[Introduce yourself, including where you work and your position}
I’ve been following your impressive work at [Prospect’s Company]. [Mention relevant news]
At [your business], we specialize in helping businesses like yours [describe your product and services]. [Give relevant examples of how your services can be of particular help to the prospect]we
[Talk about how you’ve helped a particular client.] I would love for a chance to discuss this further and help you achieve similar results.
Would you be open to a short [give time estimate] chat? I’m flexible and can adjust to your schedule. Feel free to book a call directly here: [insert link]
Best regards,
[Your Name]
Contact details
4. Cooperate with other businesses
Co-promotion is a common strategy in social media marketing. Partnering with other businesses can help expose your brand to valuable prospects you otherwise don’t have access to. For example, if your business offers travel connectivity services, you can partner with airlines. Promoting each other’s services on your pages can drive traffic to your page and vice versa.
Partnerships or cross-promos can establish your business as a thought leader and help you get qualified leads.
For instance, non-profit organizations, like Girls Who Code, have partnered with legacy automotive brand General Motors. This helps the non-profit earn credibility, while exposing it to a global audience. On the other hand, the partnership can help boost General Motors’ brand loyalty and give them access to a pool of future employees.
5. Spy on your leads
Social media gives you access to important information about your leads without violating any privacy issues. LinkedIn prospecting, can provide professional and business updates relevant to your business.
For instance, when a former customer updates their career information on LinkedIn when they move companies, this gives you the opportunity to offer the same services to their new company and therefore improve prospecting efforts.
LinkedIn is the best social media platform to use to “spy” on your leads. Following career and business updates can help you upsell relevant products and services. And since this information is usually publicly available, the “spying” is completely acceptable.
Remember: While public information like job titles, career moves, and company news are okay to mention, don’t attempt to dig more private details about your prospects. This can be seen as an invasion of privacy and may backfire.
6. Run social media contests
A social media contest is one of the fastest ways to gather more prospects and grow your audience. The simpler it is to join, the better. One of the most popular contest formats is “comment to win” because it takes no effort to join.
While the prize doesn’t have to be grand, it has to be compelling enough to get more people to join. The prize also has to be relevant to your prospects while highlighting your product and services.
As a B2B business, the prize can be a free subscription to your software, company swag, invitation to events, or VIP access.
Social media software platform Hootsuite ran an Instagram contest, which required participants to read the report as part of its mechanics. This helped the business gather more leads since accessing the report requires submitting your email address.
The contest targeted social media managers who are the primary users of the platform.
7. Team up with relevant influencers
Tapping an influencer who’s relevant in your industry is a surefire way to boost your social media prospecting. Someone of note like a CEO from a major company, a tech reviewer, or any niche-specific content creator can help you gather more leads.
A great example of a B2B influencer is Jennifer Kim:
Jennifer Kim is a CEO of her own startup who regularly works with other startups to promote their products.
When choosing an influencer, it’s important to select someone who already has an active presence on your target social media platform. Their expertise should also be relevant to your industry to ensure they have the right audience fit. It’s the proven way to get quality leads from prospective customers who have a strong interest in your business.
What To Avoid When Doing Social Media Prospecting
Even with a solid social media prospecting strategy, missing out on minor details can derail your efforts. Here are four common social media prospecting mistakes to avoid:
Not optimizing your profile for prospecting
Just because you’re a new business, doesn’t mean leads aren’t searching for you. Optimizing your social media profile for prospecting means making it easier for potential customers to find you. This can be done by adding relevant keywords to your profiles as well as hashtags.
For example, if you’re a marketing agency, it’s important to use keywords like “marketing” or “digital marketing” on your profile.
Another way to optimize your profile for prospecting is to add contact buttons and make sure that your contact information is easily visible on your profile.
Not leveraging lead magnets
Lead magnets are free content or product trials of perceived value that are given away in exchange for contact details. Many marketers take lead magnets for granted because social media has its own techniques and tools to collect leads.
Incorporating lead magnets into your social media prospecting strategy can attract more serious leads and become a powerful tool in sales prospecting.
Incorporating lead magnets into your social media prospecting strategy can attract more serious leads. Here are some ideas:
- Case studies
- Newsletters
- Free trials
- E-Seminars
Neglecting contact verification tools
Instead of searching blindly on social media for possible prospects, you can use contact verification tools to build your prospecting list. With the right tools, you can find updated contact details of people on your list, such as phone numbers and email addresses. This ensures that your list is always up to date.
Not having a dedicated social media moderator
Social media prospecting is a full-time job, it’s not a matter of sending messages and waiting for a response. Even if you have a solid marketing team who take care of your social media posts and relevant content you post on social networks, having a moderator can help you:
- Effectively manage your social accounts,
- Respond in a timely manner to direct messages or comments,
- Ensure that all posts are scheduled, and comments are replied to.
Without a dedicated moderator, you can quickly go off track and lose leads you worked hard to reach.
Conclusion
Social media’s origins as a relationship-building tool make it the best platform for generating leads. Not to mention, platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook make it easier for you to gain access to individuals you otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to interact with.
Use these tips to help you grow your prospecting list, nurture valuable leads, and turn them into loyal customers.
Author
Val Razo is a freelance SMM consultant who helps SMBs establish and maintain a strong social media presence. Get in touch with Val on LinkedIn.
