The Business Side of Social Media: 1 of 2
Over the past decade, social media has evolved from a novel marketing tactic to become a key contributor to business strategy. Still, many companies view social media as not quite worthy of a seat at the big-kids table, and are reluctant to dive in.
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The fact is, the right strategic approach can turn social media into a bona fide tool for lead generation and nurturing. Here are few key things to consider and remember:
There are many pathways to your sales funnel.
Today’s prospects enter your sales funnel from a variety of directions — and at different stages in their decision/buying process. A substantial percentage of these prospects are already using social media as part of this process. In fact, it’s not uncommon for prospects to be 2/3 of the way through the decision process before they even make contact with a member of your sales force.
Engagement is no longer a straight line.
It’s time to rethink the old pipeline mentality. Think of the leads-nurturing process as more like a magnetic field. The goal is to attract prospects to stay connected within your sphere of influence, until the cumulative attraction is strong enough to move them to the next step.
It’s about making yourself useful.
Social media is an environment that isn’t naturally suited to the hard sell. The art of using this subtler but highly influential channel is to provide useful information to your audience, while establishing a natural dialogue that will be mutually beneficial to both you and the prospect. In our next blogpost, we’ll look at what this means in greater detail.