Lead Generation Through Social Media

Published on 23 Jul 2013 at 3:33 pm.
Filed under Marketing,Social Media.

Social media provides small businesses new opportunities for lead generation. By engaging users they can turn consumer interest into sales.

Twitter Lead Generation Cards

Last year I discussed how you can use Twitter Cards to improve social media marketing. With a few lines of HTML added to your site you can turn your tweets into a rich user experience. Twitter still requires approval for use of Twitter Cards. This approval time has greatly improved in that time.

Yesterday they announced a new Twitter Card. The Lead Generation Card is a simple new card that acts very similar to the Summary Card. The differences are:

1. URL to your company’s Privacy Policy.
2. A customizable call to action button.

When the user clicks the button their name, twitter handle, and email are automatically sent to the company. There is no confirmation between the click and the information being sent. Be aware of this if you would like to test it out. I learned this when testing an offer from @Priceline.

Lead Generation Cards are in beta-testing mode. A global launch is coming soon. In the mean time I suggest applying for the Twitter Cards if you have not done so already.

Lead Generation Through Facebook Page Tabs

Screenshot showing off Facebook Page tabs.

Lead Generation on Facebook requires more effort on your part. It requires you to create something called a Page Tab that you can apply to your Facebook page. Page Tabs has moved over the years. At the time of this writing they are the buttons on the row that displays your hours, phone number, and location.

Facebook Page Tabs are simply web pages on Facebook that have another page loaded into them. Facebook requires that these pages be accessible over a secure connection. These pages can have anything you want.

Users do not need to go to your company’s page to get to the Page Tab. You can email or Tweet the URL for the Page tab. You can also share the tab to your Facebook followers.

We here at Brand Builder Websites created a Page Tab that displays excerpts from 5 posts from this blog. By default it will display an image we created unless you have already liked our page. This was a design choice on our part. This is not something that Facebook required.

You should follow best practice for lead generation. Offer the user access to premium content that is only given after they have completed a call to action.

This post was originally published as Lead Generation Through Social Media for Brand Builder Websites.