Is your business using social media to attract and retain customers, or simply making a lot of social media noise? This Leadtail guide will help your marketing and sales team align around social media goals that help you find, connect, and engage with prospects and customers to generate leads and sales.

1. Use Social Media
to Generate and
Retain Business
Prepared by Carter Hostelley
January 10, 2012

2. Why Social Media is Important?
• Your prospects and customers are turning to social media when researching
and making buying decisions. 60% of B2B decision makers now use
social media*.
• They are talking about brands and products using social media. You
need to know what they re saying to sell more successfully.
• Your competitors are also using social media, and talking to your customers
and prospects… don’t you want to join the conversation?
• Want to find, connect, and engage with prospects and customers? Then start
using social media!
*Social Strategy for B2B Marketing 2011 from Global Web Index

3. Lots of Ways to Use Social Media
• Find potential prospects
• Research prospects interests and hot buttons
• Discover mutual connections and get
introductions to prospects and influencers
• Get in touch and connect with prospects
• Generate interest in your products by
engaging your prospects and customers
• Deepen relationships with customers,
partners, vendors, etc.
• Leverage testimonials and referrals

4. How to Get Started?
1. Determine your social media objectives
2. Understand the social profile of your prospects
3. Select the social media tools you ll use to find, connect,
and engage prospects (and customers and influencers!)
4. Track and measure progress along the way

5. 1. Determine Your Social Media Objectives
• Build your company and professional brand
• Find and research prospects and key influencers
• Connect with more prospects and customers
• Engage prospects and customers to generate and
retain more business
Find Connect Engage

6. 2. Understand Your Customers and Prospects
• What are they saying online
about your brand or product?
• What social networks do they
belong to? (e.g., LinkedIn)
• Do they read, share, and/or create social content?
(e.g., blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn)
• Where are they active on the Social Web?

7. 3. Select Your Social Media Tools
Tools
Sign
Up
URL
Get
Started
h"ps://www.linkedin.com
h"p://learn.linkedin.com/
h"p://www.twi"er.com
h"p://support.twi"er.com/groups/31-­‐twi"er-­‐basics
h"p://www.facebook.com
h"p://mashable.com/guidebook/facebook/
h"p://wordpress.com
h"p://en.support.wordpress.com/ge=ng-­‐started
h"p://www.youtube.com
h"p://www.youtube.com/t/about_ge=ng_started

8. 4. Track and Measure Progress (More Tools!)
Tools
Descrip6on
URL
Measures
Monitors
Web
for
brand
and
keyword
www.google.com/alerts
Social
Engagement
men@ons.
Sends
email
alerts.
Social
Advocacy
Monitors
Social
Web
and
blogs
for
Social
Engagement
brand
men@ons.
Sends
email
alerts.
www.socialmen@on.com
Social
Advocacy
Track
interac@ons
with
fans
and
content
within
Social
Views
Insights
Facebook.
Must
be
page
admin
to
view.
www.facebook.com/insights
Social
Engagement
Social
Advocacy
Measures
an
individuals
social
influence.
Want
high
Klout
score
folks
recommending
brand.
www.klout.com
Social
Advocacy
Link
shortening
tool
that
makes
it
easy
to
track
www.bitly.com
Social
Referrals
and
analyze
clicks
and
referral
sources.
Monitors
Twi"er
for
brand
and
keyword
Social
Engagement
www.tweetbeep.com
men@ons.
Sends
email
alerts.
Social
Advocacy
Social
Audience
Website
and
blog
analy@cs
that
tracks
unique
visits;
and
inbound
clicks
from
social
referrals.
www.google.com/analy@cs
Social
Views
Social
Referrals
Insights
Website
and
blog
analy@cs
that
tracks
unique
www.youtube.com/t/ Social
Audience
visits;
and
inbound
clicks
from
social
referrals.
adver@sing_insight
Social
Views

9. Just Remember Before You Dive In
Do
Don t
Do
use
social
media
to
help
people
solve
Don t
use
social
media
to
do
a
hard
sales
customer
and
prospect
problems.
pitch
to
anyone.
Do
use
social
media
to
develop
real
Don t
think
social
media
means
just
having
rela@onships.
a
LinkedIn
account.
Do
give
people
reasons
to
talk
about
your
Don t
just
talk
about
how
great
your
product…
and
make
it
easy
for
them
to
do
so!
product
is.
Do
engage
like
a
real
person:
use
everyday
Don t
engage
like
a
corpora@on:
language,
give
opinions,
and
ask
ques@ons.
impersonal,
boring,
and
using
jargon.
Do
invest
in
social
media
for
the
long
term…
Don t
expect
instant
results
(sorry!)
just
like
you
do
with
regular
networking.

10. The B2B Social Media Process
Find Connect Engage

11. Find and Research Prospects
• Your prospects are on social networks to engage with
colleagues, and share information about brands and
products.
• These same social networks make it easy for you to
find and research your prospects by searching profiles,
content, groups, etc.
• So go ahead and find prospects by searching:
ü Job title, industry, company, geography, education, etc.
ü Keywords related to your product benefits, the pain it
solves, and industry and competitor-related keywords too.
ü Industry, competitor, or product related events and content.

12. Connect with Prospects and Customers
Your prospects and customers are already connected to
their personal networks with social media.
Now it s time for you to connect with them too:
• Listen for people talking about your brand or product and find
ways to connect with them (use alert services such as Google
Alerts or Social Mention).
• Give your prospects, customers, and partners a reason to
connect with you by offering interesting content, relevant ideas,
and expert help.
• Share the content and ideas of your prospects and customers…
They ll appreciate it, and connect with you.

13. Engage with Social Media
Once you re connecting with prospects and customers, you
can now start engage them:
• Focus on helping not selling when communicating via social
media (show them you re an expert!). Remember: no one likes
the hard sell but everyone needs help.
• Acknowledge and thank others first, and then ask them to
take an action: registering for a webinar, downloading a
whitepaper, or getting together for coffee.
• Asking and answering questions is a great way to start the
engagement process.
• Generate interest in your products by engaging your prospects,
customers, and key influencers.

14. Examples Using LinkedIn and Twitter
Largest social network of business professionals
• Over 120 million members in 200+ countries
• Executives from every Fortune 500 company
• Nearly 2 billion people searches in 2010
Real-time information network
• 100 million active Twitter users every month
• Generate over 200 million tweets per day
• 13%+ of online US adults now using Twitter

15. Find Stage: LinkedIn and Twitter
• Do people search by job title, • Use Twitter search to find out
geography, and relevant keywords. who s talking about your brand or
• Search for decision makers at target products.
companies. • Use Twitter search to find out
• Browse your network s connections. who s talking about the pain your
product solves or other keywords
• Search your updates newsfeed for that your prospects talk about.
relevant keywords.
• User Twitter search to see who is
• See who s asking questions in talking about your competitors’
relevant group discussions. products, events, whitepapers, etc.
• See who s asking relevant • Share industry and product-related
questions using LinkedIn Answers. content… and see who starts
• See who in your network just following you!
changed jobs or titles.

16. Social Media Examples
Using LinkedIn you can do simple
and advanced searches for
People, Companies, Groups, etc.

17. Social Media Examples
Search your LinkedIn connections, search LinkedIn by title
(CTO), and listen to who s tweeting…

18. Connect Stage: LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect with former customers, • Tweet consistently with helpful
colleagues, classmates, etc. to content to build up your audience of
build your professional network. followers.
• Ask your network for intro s to • Follow people you d like to connect
connect with prospects. with (just remember they may not
• Connect to People You May follow you back.)
Know by referencing the • Retweet the relevant content of
connections you have in common. people you d like to connect with.
• Post content in your “status update” • Send thank you messages to new
and in relevant groups. (relevant) followers.
• Always thank people for retweets
and if relevant then follow them.

19. Social Media Examples
Connect with people you know,
former colleagues, and others that
LinkedIn recommends

20. Social Media Examples
Build followers by consistently tweeting, acknowledging
others, and following relevant people

21. Engage Stage: LinkedIn and Twitter
• Participate in group discussions by • Reply to those that retweet you to
asking and answering questions. thank and engage them.
• Get testimonials from your customers • Send a direct message to those
and partners. (Hint: write that follow you (customers and
recommendations for them). prospects) to engage them further.
• Comment, like, and share the status • Ask your followers a question and
updates of people in your network. engage those that reply.
• Send thank you invites after • Acknowledge followers when they
events, phone calls, meetings, etc. tweet valuable content by
• Get your connections to give retweeting them. Engage those that
introductions to prospects. thank you for retweets!
• Research people before meeting to
discover more ways to engage them.

22. Social Media Examples
Join discussions, ask for intro s, and get testimonials

23. Social Media Examples
Engage people by thanking
and acknowledging them

24. Set Measurable Objectives and Track Progress
LinkedIn Examples:
• Add 25% more LinkedIn Connections over next 90 Days
• Get 5 new LinkedIn recommendations (focus on
customers and partners NOT colleagues)
• Sign up for 5 LinkedIn Groups and answer at least 1
question every week
Twitter Examples:
• Do at least 2 tweets a day (every day!)
• Add 50 new Twitter followers in next 30 days (focus on
customers and prospects… NOT colleagues)
• Thank every person that Retweeted your content with a
personalized message
• Thank customers and prospects for following you and
ask them to take an action

25. Thank You!
Leadtail helps marketers, advertisers, and business
owners with their online marketing and social media
needs. Let us know how we can help you…
http://Marketing.Leadtail.com
http://www.Leadtail.com
http://www.StartupYourOnlineAdvertising.com
http://www.BestOnlineAdvertisingStuff.com
@Leadtail
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(888) 330-3236