Most businesses, both B2B and B2C, understand that social media networks are excellent for connecting with their target markets. However, many question which network is best for their business as a resource for generating leads. According to a recent survey conducted by HubSpot, the answer is LinkedIn, beating Twitter and Facebook.
HubSpot studied over 5,000 B2B and B2C businesses combined to identify these surprising results. And if you find that answer surprising, here’s some more interesting data according to their report: LinkedIn beat Twitter and Facebook by 277%, almost three times higher than both of these other social media giants. LinkedIn grabbed the top spot with a 2.77% visitor-to-lead conversion rate. Facebook only achieved a .77% conversion, while Twitter fell to third place with a .69% conversion.
LinkedIn further established its lead-generating prowess by single-handedly outperforming these businesses social media channels as a whole. Of these roughly 5,200 businesses, LinkedIn had a 2.74& visitor-to-lead conversion rate, while all of their other social media channels combined only had a .98% conversion.
This data should lead you to ask two important questions:
1. Why is LinkedIn superior for visitor-to-lead conversion?
2. How can your business take advantage of social media to generate more leads?
For most B2B businesses, LinkedIn makes sense because it is a career focused network. People join LinkedIn to post their resumes, connect with other business professionals, and participate in group Q&As about their areas of expertise and industry. Business can create profiles and showcase their talents, too.
People participate on LinkedIn expecting to conduct business and review and receive marketing oriented content. This isn’t the case on other networks. If you read my previous post, “Should You Have a Facebook Business Profile?”, you will see that most people don’t interact on Facebook expecting to buy something.
Here are four tips for social media success, regardless of the network.
1. Fit in with the social network’s culture.
Each social media network has its own personality; its own customs for engagement. If you don’t follow the generally accepted form of engagement, you will turn people away, and in some cases, you could find yourself banned or flagged for spam.
2. Be consistent with the quality and frequency of your content.
With the amount of garbage content and misleading sales pitches on the Internet and in social media networks, leads have become hyper-sensitive about getting to know, like, and trust brands before they buy from them. Don’t just post something to hit your goals of making a certain number of posts a day. People trust quality, and they trust consistency. You need to establish credibility before they will trust you. And you need to get them to trust you before they will follow through on your calls-to-action.
3. Pay attention to what content your target audience responds to.
Prior to the Web 2.0 world, content was king in marketing. Now, you need to combine excellent content with a talent for conversation. The quality and consistency of your conversation makes all of the difference. Fortunately, the social media sites understand that you want to connect with like-minded people, so some of them provide good visibility to what interests and likes your target audience has and what groups they participate in. With a little research, you can craft your social media campaigns to target their other interests.
4. Stay educated.
The old saying, “the only thing consistent is change” definitely applies to social media. This is necessary to keep the networks growing in this ultra-competitive industry, and to close the loopholes in their system for those who have less-than ethical intentions or have figured out ways to game their systems. As a result, you better invest in your social media education or in a qualified SEO firm.
All the Best,
Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide
