Making social media work well is like walking on ice. The social platforms are forever changing their algorithms.
Gone are the days where 15% of your page followers on Facebook saw your posts. Today almost zero see them, unless they actively visit your page – unless you invest in Facebook ads.
On LinkedIn you get rewarded for posting, engaging and other things, by your posts being shown to more people. Of course, your reach is limited, unless you subscribe to a Premium account.
The writing is on the wall – to make social media really work as a lead generator, you need to have a robust system AND be ready to invest a little in advertising if you really want to reach more people.
Pick your platform
I’m not suggesting you start advertising on all your social platforms, but it is important to raise your profile on the one where your ideal client is most active.
How do you work out which platform is the right one?
That should be part of your ideal client avatar. If you have a detailed description of your ideal client, you should already have a clear idea about that so, if you haven’t done that yet, maybe create that first. You might find this template useful to do that.
If you’re still not sure a bit of research will help. Look at your existing clients social media. Where are they most active – not just broadcasting, but actively engaging with other people? How long is it since their last post, their last reply to a comment, etc?
I’m not suggesting that you totally ignore all the other platforms, you should maintain a presence, but your focus needs to be on the one where you’re most likely to get results.
Create a plan
As Hannibal Smith (the A Team – you have to be a certain age to get it) said “I love it when a plan comes together!” However, a good plan doesn’t depend on chance, it should be based on strategy and a clear follow through set of tactics.
Your plan should include:
- The subjects you will post about
- The style of your posts – e.g. image, text, infographic, video, etc.
- The frequency of your posts
- Your follow up and monitoring strategy
And, on your number one platform, what your paid advertising strategy will be:
- Your budget
- Your offer
- The headlines for your ads
- A clear call to action for each one – what do you want people to do?
- A testing process to see what works best (try different headlines, images, calls to action, etc.
You might also need to create a lead magnet and an automated funnel to capture interested people and enable you to nurture them. Remember, that unless you have a means of capturing their data, every penny you spend on their click is wasted.
A print ad costs money and the wider the circulation of the publication the more expensive it is – online ads are comparatively cheap. Most platforms allow you to set a daily cap, so you don’t suddenly find you’ve gone through hundreds of pounds. This can be as low as £5 a day.
Facebook, Instagram and TikTok all have this kind of advertising.
LinkedIn does offer ads, but a more effective way for most people is to use the Premium account and invest some time in reaching out and building relationships with your ideal clients. This is something worth exploring.
Monitor and measure your results daily – you should aim for a ROI of 1:4 (for every £1 you spend you make sales worth £4). That may seem low – but when you spend £100 and get £400 back it starts to look really healthy!
