Over half the world’s population is on social media – 3.96 billion users, to be exact. When it comes to your business’ social media presence, there’s a high chance that potential leads are somewhere in that sea of users. But your social media efforts don’t have to focus on all 3.96 billion users – just the ones that meet your target audience.

Whenever you see a viral social media post from a business’ social media account, it’s important to remember that the endgame of that post is not necessarily virality, but brand awareness, engagement, and lead generation on social media. And while it is fairly easy for businesses to see the first two generated with an attention-grabbing post, many small business owners have yet to see how an active and engaging social media presence can drive their leads.

You Need An Optimized Social Media Profile

Whether you’re on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram, optimizing your accounts can prevent your profiles from becoming dead ends when you’ve caught the interest of a potential lead. After all, a viral social media campaign is still likely to fail and produce zero leads if you don’t leave a trail of breadcrumbs towards where you want social media users to go.

Fill in the details of your social media profile, including your contact information, a link to your website or online store, the address to your physical store, and more. On Facebook, this means a comprehensive About feature when a user visits your profile page. On Instagram, it’s a descriptive bio and a row of helpful Highlights to give users more information. Take advantage of the platform’s structure so that users get what they need at a glance.

Announce Contests, Discounts, Sales, And More

While marketing strategies like email marketing targets customers and already-existing leads, social media provides the opportunity of branching out beyond your network and to those who might have never even heard of your business but are in search of what you have.

Announcing social media contests or sales and special discounts is a great way to collect leads. For instance, you can advertise exclusive discounts if they go to your website and sign up for your newsletter. If you have a physical store, announce that followers who download the graphic and present it when they shop can receive a special discount.

Using the virality of social media, your advertisements can branch out to various networks and capture the attention of more potential leads. And these discounts, sales, and contests can convince users to take the next step towards making a purchase.

Creating Interactive Content

Nowadays, with information easily accessible with a few taps of a smartphone, users have a much smaller attention span, especially in scrollable social media platforms. While scrolling through social media feeds, users on desktops will spend around 2.5 seconds on a piece of content; if they aren’t hooked within that timeframe, they move on. For the mobile device users, you only have about 1.7 seconds to catch their attention.

What this means for your social media strategy to generate leads for your small business is that a static social media post is no longer an effective advertisement. On top of the short attention span, you’ll be competing with other businesses and other viral content. You need content that’s not only

short and eye-catching, but also interactive. A few examples to name include:

• Facebook: Tagging products in your Facebook shop
• Instagram:
  IG Stories: Creating compelling stories that can convince users to “Swipe up” to learn more, redirecting them to a new link.
  IG Posts: Sharing IG posts that includes pricing and links to where users can buy them.
• Pinterest: Options for users to be linked to where they can buy products.

Rather than having users wander around your social media page or online store to learn more about a product they’re interested in, you get to generate a strong lead by pointing users to exactly where they need to go to checkout.

Learn More With Shawn Tiberio

An active and engaging social media profile can result in brand awareness, increased engagement, and lead generation. Through an optimized trail to your business and compelling content that points users towards where they want to go, you can turn your likes and shares into leads that are one step closer to becoming paying customers.

A successful social media campaign involves timing, careful strategy, and taking advantage of what a social media platform can help produce in numbers. Let Shawn Tiberio help you and your small businesses through coaching sessions designed to bring out your inner potential as a successful entrepreneur. With his experience growing several thriving businesses, Shawn understands how navigating social media for small businesses should be for the best results.

Schedule a call with Shawn Tiberio today to learn how you can improve your small business’ social media strategy.