Thank you to everyone who joined me last week for “Generating Sales Leads Using Social Media” workshop.
We had a lively question and answer session at the end and I want to publish some of the questions that we covered.
[bctt tweet “Don’t forget about your past customers; they have valuable insights that they will happily share with you.”]
I will be hosting an encore presentation, you can register here:
Without further ado, here are some questions asked during the last social media workshop:
Recommended Tools for Social Media Scheduling
Debbie asked, “What tools do you recommend for social media scheduling?”
Great question! Scheduling your social media posts is one of the easiest tasks you can automate in your online sales and marketing process. Think of this automation as a way to break away from having to spend all your time in front of the computer screen. I know you would rather be running your business and not stuck on social media writing posts.
I recommend a couple of tools for social media scheduling. The first is HubSpot, it is an all-in-one marketing automation platform. It is very robust, and sometimes small business owners have a hard time seeing it’s potential, but the ability to schedule and track the performance of your marketing efforts is without equal.
Another option is either HootSuite or Buffer. Both have advantages depending on what your objective is.
HootSuite excels at managing multiple social media properties, social media monitoring, and scheduling posts.
Buffer is more of a scheduler for content curators, where you come across content and went to spread out your posts rather than blasting your audience with 6, 7, or 8 posts in a short amount of time. Buffer — buffers — those posts over a period of time into the future.
Read more of my thoughts about marketing automation.
Creating Personas
Rick asks, “How do we know what our customers are struggling with when we are creating ideal personas?”
Another great question. Having a well-defined ideal customer — which I said is a fictional representation of your “perfect customer” must revolve around the immediate need of that person.
For example, if you sell home appliances, you will want to identify home owners within a certain geographical area who are in the market for your product. It is unwise to attempt to market and sell to renters, because they are not the decision makers when it comes to buying a new kitchen set.
When identifying the struggle facing your ideal customer, it is easiest — and often most effective — to go back to your existing customers and previous purchasers. Interview people who have purchased from you repeatedly. Find out what prompted them to choose you, what were they in the market for, why did they decide at that moment to complete a transaction.
Your past customers have a lot of valuable insights that they will happily share with you.
I have another post about this published here.
Social Listening
Marty Q. raised his hand and asked, “What does Michael use for social listening?”
Michael is a Seattle-area real estate agent I referenced during the workshop.
He astutely uses a combination of tools like HubSpot and HootSuite to “listen” for conversations related to his industry.
Social listening is a powerful way to find customers at the moment they are in need of your services. When a prospective customer is looking for a new car, for example, they may use phrases like, “car shopping” or “looking for a car” within their social media updates. Look for opportunities to provide value before the sale by asking intelligent questions to learn more about the needs of the client rather than asking for the sale.
I’ve talked a lot about social listening, and here, and here, and here.
Conclusion & Next Steps
These questions were just a few of those we tackled at the end of the social media workshop. Again, I will be hosting an encore presentation, which you can register for here.
Utilizing tools like social listening, social scheduling, and customer personas is a great start to creating a profitable social media sales plan to attract new customers.