USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS DEVOLOPMENT

​Social media has many attributes and successful intentions within an overall marketing plan. Finding the right goal for you and your business is the most important first step, especially as you seek to understand and determine return on investment for your social media implementation. Often, a goal for social media is increased number of customers, clients, or conversions. How do I use social media to achieve this goal is often a question. What tactics should I use? How do I know if it is working? When should I adjust my strategy?

Stay Connected with Your Prospects

Social media channels were developed with the intent to have conversations and interactions. Consider using your social media channels as additional touch points for your prospect list or those in your current sales pipeline. If you see someone share an article on LinkedIn, make sure to comment on it. Commenting on a prospective client's article serves as an additional reminder of you and your company. Perhaps, the prospect shares that he or she has received a specific award on their Facebook page. Don’t forget to reference the award in your next follow up phone call or email. Knowledge is power and information is valuable.

Find the Right Prospects

​Are you targeting a specific sized company or an industry in particular? LinkedIn’s platform allows you to apply filters to search and sort your connections and their connections to narrow down the right person. If you are specifically looking to find attorneys in Chicago, Illinois, you can leverage LinkedIn to narrow your audience.

​Here's how to leverage LinkedIn's connection filter:

1. First, apply your location filter. ​​

2. Then, turn on your industry filter to just be law and legal services. ​​​

3. Next, determine if you want to filter your specific connections (1st degree) or connections of your connections (2nd). You now have a list of prospects from your network or a list of people who can make introductions on your behalf.

4. Determine who is the appropriate point of contact and start reaching out.

Advertise to Your Ideal Audience

Social media advertising is a valuable opportunity to get your message or call to action in front of the right group of people. Whether you’re looking to target a specific location, age range, hobby, interest, or someone who has already shown interest in your website and didn’t convert — social media allows you to place your message in front of those targeted individuals through paid advertising platforms. 

Amplify the Reach of Your Message

Use your company’s social media platforms as a starting point for sharing content with your audience. Share or retweet the messages that your company shares on their various social media channels to your own audience. Add your own insights or personalize them to you and your network. Tag someone that you might think would find the information valuable or useful. ​

Consistency is Key to Success

Be consistent with your sharing and activity on social media. Don’t overwhelm your audience by inundating them with 15 different updates in one day or — on the other end of the spectrum — by becoming inactive for several weeks. Focus on your goal at hand for social media and don’t get caught in the vacuum that might exist if you aren’t focused. Allocate the necessary amount of time during your week to spend on these types of activities and keep them an integral part of the business development plan for your team.

How have you engaged with your customers and prospects on social media lately? What are some exciting  insights informing your own social media marketing strategies? 

​Let us know in the comments.