True. Social listening can be used as an automated way to find leads, no matter what your business is. You can also find leads at different stages of your buying journey. Providing you with key consumer insights, and opportunities to sell.
Consumers are talking about you, your brands, and your industry. All you need to do is listen.
What is social listening?
Social listening is the use of a tool or platform to search across social networks and the web, to analyze consumer conversations in real time. This can help identify when consumers are talking about your brand, and how they are discussing it.
Social listening strategies are a more advanced form of social media monitoring, which only monitors mentions of your brand. Social listening is much broader and covers your brand, your competitors, and your industry trends.
You can learn more about it in our social listening guide.
How to use social listening to find awareness leads
Awareness leads are social media users at the top of your funnel. They haven’t heard of you yet, but they have identified they have a problem and are looking for ways to resolve it. That’s where you can step in.
To find awareness leads, search for phrases that relate to consideration alongside your product or industry categories.
How to use social listening to find consideration leads
Consideration leads are the target audience that have found several solutions to solve their needs but aren’t sure which one is right. They want someone to justify one product or another before they take their next step.
To find consideration leads, relevant keywords should include specific brand names, products, or services within your industry. You will find consumers considering you against your competition.
How to use social listening to find conversion leads
Conversion leads are those that are on the cusp of buying. They’re fairly certain they know which product they want, but something is stopping them. It might be a cost barrier, it might be one minor element they need confirming.
Focus on finding leads that specifically mention your brand or products, that ask what other consumers think of you.
How to respond to leads found through social listening
This is the tricky part. Consumers aren’t necessarily looking for you to become part of the conversation, yet. They want third-party advice, not a salesperson sending unwarranted DMs.
Instead, try to:
Answer pain points
Pay attention to the issue the lead has, and see if you can provide them with a solution to meet their need. Better still, provide third-party content that shows you meeting their needs, to prevent you from coming off too salesy.
Identify solutions for future conversations
Look at how people respond to the questions these potential leads set, and feed that into your marketing strategies. If certain benefits come up often, create content to highlight them. If your competitors are being recommended more, look at why, and devise an action plan to change that.
Give a nudge where it is needed
Some conversion leads might only need a slight nudge to become a sale. A well-timed discount code, special offer, or something that adds a sense of urgency could be all you need to get your lead over the final hurdle.
What else can social listening tools do?
It’s true! Social listening can help you find leads, and when used effectively, can be an essential part of your lead generation.
But this is just a flavor of what you can do with social listening. You can learn all about Talkwalker's Social Listening capabilities by clicking below.
