Social media is here to stay. Since initial offerings like MySpace, it has captured the minds and attention of the world. Businesses are still only touching the tip of the iceberg in terms of the potential this platform has to offer. There are a variety of social networks available now, but it’s important to focus on the ones that matter to your business. For many businesses that boils down to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. In this blog post we are going to focus on how to leverage LinkedIn and turn it into a reliable lead generator for your web design business. Here’s a quick rundown:

Make sure your personal and company profiles are fully developed.

Nothing says credibility on social media like a fully developed personal and company profile. It’s all about the little things like a professional profile photo, detailed work history, recommendations etc. Be sure to post links to your website on both profiles, as well as examples of portfolio work. Make it easy for people to trust you! You will be surprised how far dotting all your I’s will go.

Join groups relevant to your profession AND your target segment’s business.

Getting your brand in front of the right eyes requires a two-fold strategy on LinkedIn. You need to improve your standing among your peers, and get active where your target customers are. To start, join web design and development groups. If you are a freelancer, join freelance designer groups etc. Next, figure out where your target customer segment is active. Are they small businesses or enterprise? Tech or retail? Create a customer profile to truly understand your target, and then join groups where key decision makers are active. For instance, if you realize that you need to go after a CIO in a company, check out his/her profile and groups and start contributing in those!

Stay top of mind in yours newsfeed and groups.

The most important part of turning LinkedIn into a lead generator is staying top of mind. People forget about each other fairly quickly online, so the only way to combat that is by remaining active. Be proactive in connecting with people and networking. Scan your newsfeed every day and congratulate people for new jobs, anniversaries, great articles etc. Making others feel valued goes a long way on social media! The same goes for groups that you are involved in. Post questions, share articles, and comment on discussions. People seeing you continually add value to conversations will begin to think of you as a thought leader. Becoming a thought leader is the ultimate goal of social media because it makes everything else come easier. The people you interact with online may not need a web designer at that exact moment, but they will come back to you when they do if you cement yourself as a thought leader!

There are a bunch of great tools out there for social media that you have to pay for. There are also some awesome tools that won’t cost you a dime. For a lot of SMBs, there isn’t really a ton of wiggle room in the budget for social media tools. For that reason, it’s important to take advantage of all the freebies on the web. For example:

HootSuite

HootSuite is to social media tools as Google is to search engines. It’s the industry leader, hugely popular, and packed with features. It’s also a freemium product, where you get a lot of the features in the free version, but can pay extra if you want more advanced tools. HootSuite allows you to simultaneously post from multiple accounts, schedule posts, create custom searches and reports, and much more! It’s very effective at displaying all of your social media feeds in a concise and intuitive manner. Give it a try today if you haven’t already, it’s not like it’s going to cost you anything.

Bit.ly

You need to use a service like bit.ly if blogging and sharing dynamic content is an important part of your social media presence. This service allows you to shorten URLs, which is great for networks like Twitter. The real benefit though is that it tracks clickthroughs. This will help your marketing team see what types of content are performing the best, at which times, and in what region. It’s an incredible amount of insight for a free tool.

Klout

Klout was the new kid on the block not too long ago, but has since become a mainstay in the social media world. It is the first major effort at creating platform that measures influence across social platforms. And frankly, it’s done a pretty good job! The Klout team is also continuously revising its algorithm so it keeps getting more accurate. There are a bunch of cool features like who your top influencers are, and who you influence the most. If you want to create promotional campaigns Klout has ‘Perks’ which are deals that companies can offer to thought leaders in a certain industry to create buzz about their company. For instance, a $30 gift card to Starbucks in exchange for tweeting about a new coffee drink. Klout is also integrated with other services like HootSuite, quickly cementing its status on social media.

Once you create your initial blog schedule, get your ideas together, and start writing, you have to avoid making easy mistakes. There are a number of things you should NEVER do, especially if you want to use your blog to build traffic and online exposure.

Duplicating online content.

This should be a no-brainer, but you should never copy someone else’s content and try to pass it off as your own. This will not help your search rankings, because search engines look out for this sort of behavior and will remove your post from results. Also, you could get into some legal troubles down the road if you aren’t careful. When it comes to blogging, it’s ok to use other articles as inspiration, but it’s not ok to copy them word for word.

Ignore using social media to share your blog.

Blogs are meant to be shared, and social media is the best way of accomplishing that. If you forget to use social media, you are forgoing a free marketing tool that has unprecedented reach. You are limiting your blog’s exposure to its subscribers, when it could be reaching thousands, if not millions of people.

Forget to use analytics to track clickthroughs.

Using analytics is the only way to know which topics you are posting about are generating traffic for your site. Without proper monitoring you will never know which topics to ignore or focus on. There are a bunch of free options out there like bit.ly which you can use to track clickthroughs on URLs. Trust me, using services like these go a long way.

Forget to make content shareable on your blog.

Another easily made mistake is forgetting to include social sharing buttons/badges on your blog page. You need to make life easy for your users by streamlining processes. Many users might think your article is great, but don’t want to go through the ‘hassle’ of copying a link, logging into a service, and then sharing it. Social sharing buttons take care of this potential problem, and can help to create more buzz/traffic.

Social media is not just for young people. It’s for businesses too. It is obliterating barriers to sales, and becoming an indispensable marketing tool. Tactics like cold calling are a thing of the past. You shouldn’t need to cold call anymore. Here’s why social media is better:

Social media beats cold calling 11 times out of 10.

Cold calling doesn’t work like it used to. Thanks to the Internet, marketing analytics, and social media, there are much better ways to approach leads. When you cold call someone, your target usually doesn’t know anything about you. Social media lets you build a rapport, either directly or indirectly with your target. Connecting with leads via a mutual online contact, and nurturing them by posting in similar groups or discussions is much more effective than cold calling. Social media can create a personal relationship, and can help close a sale without having to come across as salesy.

Social media has incredible reach.

Social media can enable you to target anyone, anywhere, at any time. Cold calling limits you to a single point of contact. Sharing content online exposes you to your target and anyone else who sees your post. It simultaneously has pinpoint targeting, and massive reach. Your business is not limited to your geographic location. Want to talk establish a partnership abroad? Find key decision makers via social media, and forge a relationship with them. Social media is becoming an increasingly powerful tool that simply cannot be ignored anymore.

Social media is not just a lead generator.

Social media is not just a great lead generating resource. It’s a hub of information, FAQs, crowdsourcing, and much more. Having trouble understanding how to use a program, or need advice regarding inbound marketing? Take to Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and you will have your question answered. Need to the minute business rumors that could impact you? A custom search on Twitter can divulge a lot of breaking news, oftentimes before it hits mainstream media. Furthermore, social media also builds things like SEO for your business if you link back to your site. It is an outbound AND inbound marketing tool.

Part of inbound marketing is about generating demand for content. Another important part of it is becoming a thought leader so that you retain that demand. Becoming a thought leader is a gradual process. It won’t happen overnight. But once you become one, you will start to see great dividends! Check out these three tips on how to get started using only social media:

Maintain a consistent presence

Consistency is key! One of the most important factors for staying top of mind is keeping a consistent presence online. Create a social media schedule with planned blog posts, tweets, etc, and stick to it! People have short term memories when it comes to social media. If you stop having an active presence, people will forget about you. Also, consistency and more posts equates to increased credibility. Over time, your high value content and steady presence will have a huge impact on you becoming a thought leader in your sphere of influence.

Always respond in a timely manner

Do you like it when you send someone a text and they don’t reply for a few days? You begin wondering if there’s something wrong with you, or maybe something happened to the other person. It gets especially awkward when you see them posting things on social media, but still haven’t replied to you. The same thing is true for people who comment on your posts, or mention you online! Never leave a potential customer or partner hanging. Every person you interact with should feel valued.

Be personable, and go the extra mile!

People like to post things on social media about companies going the extra mile for them. Anything from a handwritten birthday card at a hotel to a free replacement from your favorite company can make an immediate impact on brand perception. When it comes to social media, the same thing holds true. While you may not be giving out products, there are other ways of making customers feel appreciated. Make it a point to go through your newsfeeds on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc and congratulate people on new jobs, promotions, birthdays, etc. Thank them for posting great content. Not enough companies make it a point to connect with people on a personal level. Again, making people feel valued will elevate your brand to entirely new levels online.