Social Media has Tipped

Written by Jeremy Miller

It's the future of lead generation

Social media is not a trend, and it's not something teens and tweens do in their basements. Social media is real, and it's essential for your business development efforts.

I confess, I am still fairly new to social media. I have been active on Facebook and LinkedIn for a few years, but I didn't really see them as strong lead generation platforms. I participated because they were fun; probably the same reason most people got involved with social media in the first place.

My eyes were opened up last year when the phone started to ring. We got one lead from LinkedIn. It was pretty cool. Then we got another, and another. At first we thought it was a coincidence, but then we started tweaking our activities and being more purposeful. Now we see social media as the future of our demand creation programs.

Social media is so much more than search

For the past 5 years 50% of LEAPJob's leads have come from Google. We typically generate a new customer per week through our search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

It makes sense. When a company needs to hire a sales person they search, "sales recruiter Toronto." And LEAPJob comes up first. We have maintained top search rank for our targeted searches since 2005. We have been very purposeful in our SEO efforts and invest an hour a week on SEO. These efforts have paid for themselves many times over.

SEO is only the starting point though. Search delivers us leads, but it doesn't build relationships. Social media does. People participate in social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to connect, learn and share. They participate to build relationships.

Social media is your database

Networking is a tactic to build relationships and meet new people. It's a tactic to grow your rolodex. The same goes for social media; it's your database.

How many social media connections do you have?

Do a tally. Add up all the people following your firm in social media sites. How many fans do you have on Facebook? How many followers do you have on Twitter? How many connections do you have in LinkedIn?

Combine your social media connections with the number of contacts you have in your CRM system. This is a good indicator of your reach. It lets you know how many people you can proactively communicate with on a monthly basis. The larger your reach, the more leads you can generate.

The goal should be to get your social media reach larger than your internal database. Your internal database should be qualified contacts, but the same doesn't have to be true in social media. You will have customers, bi-standers, consultants, competitors and everything in between following you online. That's ok. These people are all interested in your industry, and what your firm has to say. Get them involved and interact with them.

Don't worry if people who are never going to buy from you are following you online. The interested buyers will seek you out, and call you when they are ready to buy. Even better, these leads will come in pre-qualified and have an established relationship with your firm. Their interactions with you in social media are as relevant as face-to-face meetings at local networking events.

Get started in social media now

Building a database takes time. It's not like you can buy a list of 50,000 followers. You have to work at it.

Time is of the essence, because the relevance of your company's social media properties are only going to grow. You need to allocate the appropriate amount of time to build your communities, and develop the systems for nurturing and growing them. These practices require skill and commitment. It's not going to happen overnight.

Conversations don't start themselves. You have to create and nurture them. Take this approach to social media, and create really good content that sparks engagement. The more people you can engage the more business you will generate.

Check out what we're doing in social media

I encourage you to get involved, and participate in our social media programs:

LinkedIn Group
The Sticky Branding group discusses digital marketing and branding. We are sharing ideas and thoughts on how to build brands that sell themselves online. We'd love to add your voice to the group. You can join here.

Facebook Page
Follow us on Facebook. Click the "Like" button to become a fan, and stay up-to-date with our latest content. Add a comment and tell us what you think at http://www.facebook.com/StickyBranding.

Twitter
Follow us on Twitter http://www.Twitter.com/StickyBranding. Send us a tweet. We always want to hear from you.

LinkedIn
And last but not least, please connect with me on LinkedIn. Feel free to send me an invite request to Linkedin @ LEAPJob.com. My Linkedin profile is http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremymiller

What do you think?

I very much look at these social media trends as the Wild West. We're all trying to figure out the tools and the dynamics, and understand how they apply to our businesses. What's your take?

Jeremy Miller -
	Jeremy Miller is a Partner with LEAPJob, a sales recruiting firm in Toronto, Canada. LEAPJob recruits sales professionals and sales leaders for many of Canada's most recognized companies. Their clients range from the Top 50 Employers to smaller organizations building their first sales force. For more information visit http://www.LEAPJob.com . You can reach Jeremy at 905.281.3090 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Read More >>
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