Social media is open for any business to take advantage of. Whether social media is an effective marketing tool today is not the question. The way a business utilizes social media can determine the type of conversions that result. It’s not simply enough to gain thousands of “followers” or “fans.” The thousands of fans or followers is potentially a large list of leads or conversions for your business.
There are various ways to define conversion. Here a few ways conversion is defined:
Fans and Followers – On social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, connecting with people is one of the goals of most business social media campaigns. Some campaigns, particularly ones that are early on in the formation of a complete social media strategy, use acquisition of fans and followers as the conversion itself. In most cases, it is just the first step.
Making Contact – It’s one thing to have a fan. It’s another to convert that fan into a real contact. Turning people from a fan into a contact can be achieved by engaging with them directly in conversation on social media. It can also be done by acquiring further information about them, such as when they subscribe to a newsletter or give you another method of communication outside of social media.
Referrals – For businesses who utilize social media for customer relations and retention, the all-important referral is often missed. Encouraging and/or incentivising current customers to refer potential business to you is often the most rewarding type of conversion.
More Information – The lead. For most businesses that are selling a product or service, the lead is second only to the sale and is normally where social media stops and real life selling begins. It’s not that social media can’t sell. In the future, it will be more relevant as consumers use social media more and more for direct purchases. Today, getting the lead through social media is normally the ultimate conversion.
Sales – There are companies that use social media all the way through; they get the fan and go straight into selling their products and services. While this is currently only applicable to a small number of business types, it’s something to keep in mind as business moves more into the social media realm.
Get Quality Fans and Followers
Make sure you’re being followed or liked by the right people. You can have as many fans or followers as you’d like, but it doesn’t do you any service if they aren’t interested in what you do or provide. Fans and followers should be those that are genuinely interested, which creates more effective exposure through related “sharing” and “retweets.” The amount of followers or fans depends on how big your business is. Don’t worry too much about numbers; 400 quality active followers is preferable to 10,000 followers, with a few thousand spammers in between.
Turning Fans into Contacts
Once you’ve garnered some quality fans and followers, it’s time to follow any potential interesting leads. Take some time to engage with a few active followers or fans to build relationships. Blog, retweet, post a comment, and email. You never know when one potential lead could to a referral. Stay active and interesting. It is social media after all and you should be a part of it.
Getting Referrals, leads, and sales
The graph above shows that in social media, more converting social messages does not necessarily convert to leads. You may have an elaborately thought out conversion message, but you still won’t see as many leads as you’d like. Contrary to that, the more active you are, the more leads you will receive. To some it up, the more active you are on social networks, the more leads are converted without actually marketing. Leads are converted indirectly through social engagement.
Find the right mix between social media and converting social leads. The more time you can dedicate to social media, the more possibilities may open up for you business.
Written by Daniel T.
