Social media grows in importance for companies doing B2B lead generation. Use these 9 tips to generate a customer through social media.

1. 9 Tips For Generating A Customer Through Social Media
By Abinaya Harish
We've previously blogged about how
social media helps with marketing
efforts. Along with the growing
importance of social media in B2B leads
generation, Inbound Marketing* has
proved to be the most effective
marketing tool, according to the report
State of Inbound Marketing in 2013. But
just how important is social media?
- Social media contributes 14% of
marketers’ total pipeline in 2013 and an
additional 21% of marketers report that
social media has become more
important to their company.
- Facebook leads social media in lead
generation, with 52% of all marketers
sourcing a lead from Facebook and 74%
saying Facebook is important to their
lead generation strategies.
- Company blogs and LinkedIn are in the second place, with 43% of marketers
generating a customer from each of these respective channels.
- Twitter also records strong customer delivery potential, with more than 36% of
marketers (source: State of Inbound Marketing in 2013).
When these marketers can generate a customer through social media, why not you?
To be one among those marketers, use these 9 tips to generate a customer through
social media.
• Keep it simple – As long as the content is useful, simple and informative,
people won’t mind following a post from your company.
• Don’t spam – This is one of the biggest no-nos in marketing. Not only could
this hurt your brand image but can also hinder your marketing reputation. This
includes sending mass event invites and messages to like your brand from
your personal emails.
• Effective responses – Acknowledging customer posts or answering their
questions is important when it comes to social media. It takes two hands to
clap and for customer-marketer interaction to take place, inbound marketers
must make an effort to engage with leads or customers on social networks. In

2. most of the situations, same-day replies are a must, as most users expected
quick responses in this digital age.
• No clustered updates – Avoid making multiple updates within a short time
span, as it may be seen in the same light as spam. This could annoy your
social media followers and you may lose the long-term attention of your
audience.
• Address by the name – If your are going to send a reply (via email) for the
feedback or posting a comment, address the recipient by the name of the
company or his personal name. This will build a strong relationship between
you and your prospect/customer.
• Highlight important posts – If your brand has any very important updates;
e.g. acquisitions, sales, or features in news articles; you can highlight them in
your page's timeline. This helps promote these updates rather than have them
lost in a wall of text.
• Private messages – People may send you private messages on these social
media. You'll find that most of these messages will be customer service-
related, such as enquiries, so make sure to check and reply them as promptly
as you can.
• Be genuine – Nobody wants to have a conversation with a robot. In every
interaction you have on social media, be yourself as much as you possibly
can. Personalized interactions make the other people feel like you actually
value and care about their interests.
• Customized images – Having personalized images for your cover picture will
attract more customers to your website, particularly your landing page. If your
website looks bland, the customer will likely not be interested.
Here are few examples of companies who have attained top positions in using social
media as a part of their business:
Facebook
• Amazon loves to engage their followers with interesting questions and visual
content that link to relevant products on their website. (HubSpot)
• Kickstarter keeps its followers engaged with news about new projects and
opportunities to invest in. (HubSpot)
Twitter
• Burger King does a good job of tweeting pretty frequently and actively
replying to and interacting with its followers. (HubSpot)
• Vogue Magazine has a consistent rhythm for their tweets that give its
followers a nice stream of content. (HubSpot)
LinkedIn

3. • Starbucks feature a number of helpful articles about retail related companies
and keeps its followers up to date on how the company is currently
progressing. (HubSpot)
YouTube
• RedBull is a content producer at heart and has been recognized by the digital
industry as an innovator for all things content-related. It posts one to three
videos per day.
Social media is the face your company shows to the world through the Internet, and
it is imperative that the impressions you give are positive to both long-time followers
and people that have just recently discovered your social media page.