Introduction
Social media – Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. These platforms are constantly feeding us new information every second. With almost three billion social media users, us hungry marketers certainly won’t let these tools slip away.
Around 80% of marketers have generated new leads and new businesses through social media marketing.
We are going to tell you how to generate leads through these channels.
Ready?
Final Tips
Facebook
1. Video Content is Important
10 years ago, text-only status was what everyone was doing on Facebook. But now it’s all photos and videos.
Videos draw the highest engagement rate, 64% of consumers make a purchase after viewing a branded video. In fact, Facebook gets over 8 billion video views – daily. Comparing to photos, videos have 135% more organic reach.
Mind-blowing, isn’t it?
Here are some tips on shooting videos:
- Add subtitles. 85% of the viewers watch videos on silence.
- High quality (no shit, Sherlock), do I really have to explain why we shouldn’t post a pixelated 144p video?
- Keep it short. People tend to watch the first 30 seconds of the videos. And remember, the first 4 seconds are the key timeframe to catch their attention before they scroll on.
- Add a caption, keep it short, don’t tell the whole story. By having a hook such as ‘you will never believe what happens next!’ will lure the audience more.
What are you waiting for? Pick up a phone or camera and start shooting!
2. Ads Ads Ads
Ads get brands out there to strangers, not just loyal fans.
Here are some tips on creating an effective Facebook advertisement:
- Keep the headline short. The popular headlines are only 5 words long.
- The video or photo in the ad MUST BE high quality, appealing and eye-catching.
- Add Call to Action (CTA) button. Having one is better than having none at all. Different messages in the CTA button have different results too.
- Make sure it is mobile friendly! Over 1 billion users only use Facebook on mobiles.
Instagram
This is the platform where Ariana Grande revealed her embarrassing tattoo, and where an egg declared war with the Kardashians.
Instagram is all about visual content. Plus, it is rising as a search engine itself, meaning more people are searching for services and products on Instagram.
So, what good does it do for businesses? It will let you show the human side of a business, you can interact with your audience while promoting your brand’s image. The audience will see a friendlier side of your business and will be more interested in your brand.
Here are a few tips for you:
1. Post consistent style of content.
No matter it’s the style, content, typography or tone of voice. They have to be consistent. For example, if your business is about food, don’t post something about technology.
2. Be mindful about hashtags.
Yes, we know, they are cringy, but they drive you leads! For us, we use https://hashtagify.me/ to generate hashtags. It tells you the hashtags that have the highest popularity, so you won’t have tons of useless hashtags, not only is it annoying, but also useless.
3. Instagram Story is your friend, don’t ignore it!
Yes, they only last for 24 hours, but it’s a great tool to interact with your audience.
Why is it important to interact with your audience?
Because we all love brands that we can relate and are approachable.
Admit it, we all secretly want to be a little famous. Just imagine if Ryan Reynold replied to your post…yeah, exciting, right? That is the feeling you want to give to your audience.
So, how? You can ask questions on your Instagram stories, create a poll, post day to day updates about your brand, or even your colleagues. You will create a more approachable, friendly version of your brand.
4. Instagram story highlights can make your brand look organised.
They are there to keep your Instagram stories moments. But you can utilize it to make tabs for your company. Take a look at Mcdonald’s Instagram page, those circles underneath the biography are story highlights.
5. Hashtag campaign is the way to go.
Lays’s #DoUsaFlavour campaign called their followers to post pictures of their crisps and add the hashtag in their captions, and that is how they reach to a larger group of audience.
There are a few types of Instagram campaigns you could do:
- Giveaway
- Win a product
- Influencer Marketing
- Product Launch Campaign.
- Cause Campaign. Pick an event or topic, and make a hashtag campaign out of it. For example, #DoveWithoutCruelty by Dove.
6. Original content is the best.
I know, I know – generating original quality content is hard. You need a videographer, a photographer, and a digital designer. That’s why a lot of brands use Unsplash for stock images. However, this could weaken your brand’s image, because there isn’t a unique personality or style that belongs to your own brand.
A good example is National Geographic, they feature other photographers’ work and their own. The style and theme are consistent, so when people view their page, they will know immediately what they are promoting, and what the brand is about.
So, what can I do?
Use design platforms. If you want to design posts but you have never used Photoshop, Sketch or Indesign, there are a lot of beginner-friendly online design platforms to help you. They have different templates, so you can choose the style you like and stick to it, so as to keep the consistency.
Here are a few suggestions:
Remember to use your brand colour, logo and font while designing!
Twitter
Twitter is an interesting place. It’s like the early stages of Facebook, where people share one short statement and still get a lot of engagement. Twitter is more casual than other social media platforms, and – it’s mostly about words.
However, there are a few things to bear in mind when sharing posts on Twitter as a brand:
1. Post your own content.
If your company publishes blogs regularly, make sure to boost them on all social media platforms. This is one of the direct ways to generate leads, because not only will social media drives in more leads to your website, but also get people to explore your company. Tell your colleagues to share the posts as well, so that your articles are reaching more people.
2. Post third party content.
We understand that not all businesses have a lot of original content to post. If that’s the case for you, then source third-party content like news, videos, articles, etc. Make sure their thumbnail looks good too.
3. Important tip : tag relevant social media handles.
For instance, if the article is about Fortune Media, don’t be afraid to tag them in your post, because we are all thirsty for some attention.
Not only are you promoting them, but also yourself because a lot of times they will like, comment or retweet your post – if they have a lot of followers, then you hit the jackpot.
4. Your tone of voice is important.
Make sure you stick to one that fits your brand, for example, if you want your business to sound niche and professional, keep it that way, don’t suddenly go ‘OMG guys look at this.’
5. Be Interactive.
Twitter is a platform where there are no borders. When someone commented below your posts, or tag you, retweeted your posts – react. Like their comment, reply to them, retweet their post. This way your brand looks more approachable and friendly.
6. Don’t post your competitors’ articles.
DUH. But this mistake is quite easy to make. Make sure you click on the publishers and find out what nature they are. If they are your competitors…
7. Jump on the #hashtag bandwagon!
But where to start? Make sure they are relevant to your posts. Here are some tools to help you: hashtagify, and All Hashtag. You can even start a hashtag campaign, by using a unique hashtag. For example, if your company is hosting an annual event, share updates on social media and add #(your company name)annualdinner2019.
Useful weekday hashtags for Twitter:
- #MondayMotivation
- #TranformationTuesday
- #WednesdayWisdom
- #WellnessWednesday
- #HumpDay
- #ThankfulThursday
- #TGIF
- #Friyay
8. Keep an eye on all the National Day
You can then hashtag the national day and write a relevant post. Not only is your post on trend, but it is also informative. You can find them here.
9. Move with the internet.
Always be aware of what the hottest topics are, like climate change, news topics, equality. Try to make your post relevant to the hot topics.
For some #inspirations, there are loads of brands who are great on Twitter. Check out:
- JetBlue
Their designs on twitter are consistent. Their tone of voice is direct and fun, and their posts go with the trend.
- Wendys :
They take a bold move of using Twitter, but it works like a charm. They roast their competitors on twitter (which successfully went viral), interact with their audience, follow the trend and post hilarious tweets.
- For more professional side of things, check out Forrester.
They share a lot of their original content, like their own studies and surveys. A unique point of them is that they have a graphic design for every post. They are also very good at summarising the whole study into a bite-size paragraph for easy digestion.
One golden rule is: don’t include all the details in the post, you want people to click on the link and find out more about your blog.
LinkedIn
For LinkedIn, you’ll have to tone the ‘fun’ down a notch, whilst keeping it interesting.
1. Do share your original content, blogs, videos. Sharing third-party content is effective too.
2. LinkedIn is less about your product, more about your business development.
Don’t be shy to share team photos, company events, recruitment adverts, company achievements, etc. Do share your employees’ achievements and their posts, because they typically have 10 times the social reach of your company.
Videos and Images on LinkedIn are way more popular than text-only posts. They are 5 times more likely to start a conversation!
It is a platform for you to show how great your company culture is, and also shows another side of your company rather than just products.
Take a look at Loreal’s LinkedIn page, we all know Loreal is a cosmetic company, but they utilised LinkedIn to show everyone that they are more than that.
Post your blogs on LinkedIn, they have a ‘suggested content’ for companies, this means other companies would see your blogs and they might even share them!
Final Tips
Make use of all the Social Media analytic tools.
Twitter Analytics, LinkedIn Analytics (for page administrators only), Facebook Analytics, Instagram Insights.
Use social media scheduling tools.
We use Hootsuite, there are others like buffer, Later (for Instagram), Tweetdeck (free). Facebook has a built-in scheduling option as well!
If you struggle with curating content, Feedly can help you stay on top of all the topics, so you don’t have to google every time.
Speaking of social media, ads like paid social and paid search are key values to generate leads to your brand, so we suggest you look into it, we have a blog all about it.
If you read all of this, thank you and I am so proud of you! If you want help with social media management or digital marketing in general, you are always welcome to consult us.
