Posted by Cameron Francis
on
14 Apr , 2014
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News Uncategorized
Lead Generation Using Social Media
LinkedIn goes well beyond status updates and personal profiles. It is an excellent networking resource and is great for building relationships. The paid programs offered by LinkedIn are very targeted lead generation sources. Users visit and make use of LinkedIn for work-related purposes, which makes the site a great way to make business connections and build professional relationships.
MUST READ: A Marketer’s Guide To Slideshare Marketing
Company Page
Setting up a company page on LinkedIn is the first thing that needs to be done to optimise for lead generation. The company page should provide readers with a brief description of your company, tell what you do and give them a good reason why they should be following you.
When creating your company page on LinkedIn, follow these best practices:
- Your company page should be optimised for your main keywords- frequently, people conduct searches on LinkedIn. You want to make sure your business shows up in the search results.
- Tabs should be added to the company page- usually these include “Insights,” “Products,” and “Careers.” Make sure to optimise your “Products” tab for search.
- Post at least once a day on LinkedIn to establish a presence on the site.
- To enhance user engagement and enjoyment, think about adding video and other forms of media to your product pages.
LinkedIn Sponsored Updates
LinkedIn started to offer Sponsored Updates as a way to enter the game of lead generation. This allows companies to place paid promotions in status updates. Your followers and other targeted users beyond your follower network see your promoted updates. Include a visual in your LinkedIn updates and then link out to a gated asset that requires the user to provide their contact information in exchange for your offering.
Sponsored Updates enable you to target specific users. They can be excluded or included based on these criteria:
- Age
- Gender
- LinkedIn Group associations
- School name
- Skills
- Job title
- Company name
- Location
- LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn ads provide companies with the opportunity to target their intended audiences in very unique and powerful ways. The reason why this is so effective is because the information contained in a LinkedIn user profile is quite different than what you find on the other social networks. For businesses, this is very helpful. The data in the profile matches up with data businesses want from leads, including company, industry, job title, location and other useful demographics.
You have the ability to customise your LinkedIn ads- you have the option of choosing text-only ads, video ads or images. According to LinkedIn, ads with an image receive as much as 20% more clicks.
Google+
Google+ is rapidly evolving into a vital component of any company’s social media strategy. However, it is essential for lead generation as well. Google+ has 90 million users already, and Google is making these accounts mandatory for anyone who uses Gmail or wants to post YouTube comments. Google+ is also fast becoming an important part of SEO to improve search engine rankings.
About Us Page
Your Google+ “About Us” page can be used to provide your followers with a brief overview of your company. On this page you can also link out to pages on your company website that directs prospective customers to information about your products and services. Make sure your content is SEO friendly. However, avoid keyword stuffing and over-optimizing your copy.
On the “About Us” Google+ page, you can include your links, keywords and tagline, directing visitors to your highest ranking and most relevant pages.
Google Authorship
Google’s search results give a strong preference to Google+ participants. Google authenticates authors through Google Authorship and earns you trust as a source of quality content over time.
Google+ Hangouts
One really great way to increase brand awareness, share information and generate buzz is to make use of Google+ Hangouts. You can invite industry leaders to a topical chat or panel discussion. Send your prospects and customers invites and promote your hangout heavily on social networks.
Slideshare
Readers are constantly being inundated with text. Therefore, marketing professionals really can’t solely rely on blog posts and whitepapers to effectively reach customers and prospects. It is essential that your marketing campaigns all include visual elements these days.
The website SlideShare hosts your presentations and slide shows online. However, there is much more to the service. It is a vital part of virtually all current successful content marketing campaigns. With 60 million visitors per month, the site also provides a powerful social community to potentially capitalise on.
Creative Visuals And Topics
Marketing your content on SlideShare provides you with a highly effective way to use compelling visual elements to help you establish yourself as a leading expert in your specific niche or field. SlideShare is also very effective as a platform for lead generation. The service can help with attracting visitors who normally just skim quickly through your content. Some individuals scan information visually and quickly, while others like reading a 10 page report or ebook.
Optimising For SEO
It can be a lot easier to rank a slide presentation on SlideShare for specific keywords than it is to rank a post on your company website or blog. To optimise your slide presentations for the search engines (in addition to the search results on SlideShare), make sure to use keyword rich titles and descriptions, along with tags. Keep SEO in mind when writing your descriptions and titles.
It is very easy to embed SlideShare presentations into another site. This also helps to influence SEO rankings. Every time someone embeds one of your presentations into their website, it counts as an inbound link to the presentation.
SlideShare Forms
SlideShare really stands out when it comes to their lead generation forms. SlideShare allows you to directly embed your lead generation form into your presentation. The form pops up once part or all of the presentation has been presented to the reader. The user can then provide their contact information and download the slides to find out more about your products and company.
Your leads can be synced into your database directly if you use a marketing automation platform. They can then be added to your nurture program.
