Effective marketing starts with developing a strong value proposition. The next step is to get it across to your audience. While it may sound simple, putting it into action begs a few questions. How do you determine the strength of a value prop? What are the best ways to reach your target audience?
Marketing expert Nik Sharma says he considers many different media available to his brand. “Where can you talk about the benefits of that product that’ll actually bring people in and get them attracted?” he asks on the Shopify Masters podcast. “A lot of times, it’s social media.”
By publishing valuable content to your social media accounts, you can announce your value proposition to all your current followers and also attract new customers to engage with your company. Here’s how social media lead generation works and how to use popular platforms to generate leads for your business.
What is social media lead generation?
Social media lead generation is the process of using social media platforms to attract potential customers (or “leads”), acquire their contact information, and nurture their interest in your company. People broadly refer to this activity as lead generation. It can help you identify high-value prospects and encourage them to convert into paying customers.
For example, social media lead generation might entail posting an image with a link to your newsletter sign-up page. The users interested in your brand and its products will follow that link, register, and start receiving your marketing campaigns, becoming qualified leads in the process.
Retargeting vs. remarketing social media leads
Converting potential customers to leads can take several touches, and advancing new leads to sales leads and sales leads to customers can take several more. This process is known as nurturing leads, and retargeting and remarketing can help:
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Retargeting.Retargeting social media leads involves using paid ads on a platform to engage prospects who have already interacted with your brand on social platforms but have not yet converted or taken your desired action.
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Remarketing. Remarketing reengages prospects who have already filled out a contact form or otherwise provided you with their information but have not yet become customers. You can use email, SMS, or messaging tools on social media channels to remarket your brand to these individuals.
Both strategies can help you nurture leads, which encourages their progress through the sales and marketing funnel until they reach conversion. Consider using lead magnets for retargeting ads and limited-time offers or exclusive promotions in your remarketing campaigns to achieve your desired results.
Lead generation strategies for the top social media platforms
Social media lead generation is typically part of a business’s larger social media marketing strategy—and as with most social media marketing efforts, success requires a platform-specific approach.
Nik recommends that ecommerce business owners start with organic social media lead generation. “You’re creating content on short-form platforms that give you reach without any pay,” he says. “And then you see what does well, and whatever overperforms … that’s a good indicator to now move that over into the paid side of the mix.”
When it comes to social media lead generation, you’ll also need to consider the actions your chosen platform permits, who uses the platform, and what value users expect the platform to deliver. Here’s an overview of how to use these popular social platforms to support your lead generation efforts:
With more than three billion active users worldwide, Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform. Its user base represents nearly 40% of the total global population and 57% of internet users worldwide. If you sell products online, there’s a high probability that at least some of your target audience members are on Facebook.
Using Facebook for organic social media lead generation can be tricky, but it’s not impossible. Best practices include focusing on audience engagement instead of post reach, interacting with your audience in the comments sections, posting questions and inviting responses, and creating a community with actively managed Facebook Groups.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, lets you run social media ads designed to help your business generate leads. These lead generation ads can link directly to lead capture forms, drive potential customers to Facebook Messenger, or encourage them to call your business. Meanwhile, Meta’s audience intelligence tool can provide valuable insights into your target audience, such as their demographics and topics of interest, helping you to optimize your campaign.
Instagram has two billion monthly active users worldwide and favors high-quality visual content, making it a popular consumer choice for product discovery. As a brand, invest in high-quality product photography and lean into lifestyle imagery. Say you sell socket wrenches: Instead of posting a catalogue photo of your wrenches on a white background, consider a portrait of a man working under a truck against the setting sun or a pristine cedar workshop featuring perfectly organized tools.
Keep in mind that the platform doesn’t allow links in grid post captions. You can sell products through Instagram Shop, but you can’t drive directly from a photo of your newly released sweatpant overalls to a lead form on your website. You can get around this by adding a link to an Instagram Story, which the user can tap to go to your designated webpage.
Alternatively, you can direct users to a link in your Instagram bio. This adds a step between engagement with your content and lead capture, so try offering potential customers something of value. Lead magnets are one popular option. A lead magnet is a gated content asset you deliver to a user’s inbox after they submit a lead capture form, such as a report containing proprietary data or curated content on a specific topic.
LinkedIn is a professional social media network with more than one billion members worldwide. Its ability to facilitate professional connections makes it one of the best social media platforms for business-to-business (B2B) lead generation strategies.
LinkedIn can be a valuable platform for outbound lead generation efforts. In outbound sales, your team makes first contact with a potential lead versus the other way around. Search for people (or businesses) by industry, job title, or other factors; view a brief overview of their professional and educational history; and discover any relevant professional connections. For example, they may have a relationship with one of your current clients that you can leverage when trying to establish a relationship.
LinkedIn advertising follows an objective-based system, with your three options being brand awareness, consideration, and conversion. Design a lead capture campaign with conversion as the goal and build an ad that will drive users to your lead capture form. You can also use LinkedIn’s own lead generation forms, which allow customers to submit information already stored in their LinkedIn profiles.
TikTok
TikTok is a short-form video platform, and its user base skews younger. More than 70% of TikTok users are between the ages of 18 and 34. TikTok users favor entertaining content, and authentic organic content tends to outperform content from brands.
Like Instagram, TikTok doesn’t allow links in posts, but it lets businesses get around this with ads. TikTok’s lead generation ad campaigns feature instant forms, which can sync with your company’s customer relationship management (CRM) system and minimize the number of steps required to capture leads.
You can try cracking the TikTok algorithm on your own with the hope of going viral or work with influencers as affiliate partners. The latter strategy can help you cater to users’ desire for authentic content by other users rather than content by businesses. Include a link to a high-value lead magnet that your affiliates can add to their TikTok bios.
Unlike most social media platforms, Reddit is organized by subject-based groups known as subreddits, or subs. Each sub has its own set of rules and cultural norms, and some maintain specific guidelines about the types of content they allow. Volunteer moderators (mods) enforce the subreddit rules, and many actively remove low-quality or duplicate content and ban violators from the sub. Moderators swiftly remove any blatantly promotional content—instead, use your unique expertise as a business owner to provide value. Many Reddit users consult the platform for advice, so focus on building a community, visiting subs relevant to your products or services, and answering user questions genuinely.
For example, Sock Candy is a sock company that saw users organically sharing photos of how the brand styled its pieces. “We are not directly marketing on Reddit,” founder Mary Gui explains on an episode of Shopify Masters. Mary went on to create a personal Reddit account and started posting her own mirror selfies featuring her socks, without explicitly identifying herself as the founder. “People like seeing my outfits and almost all of them have my socks in them, and they’ll be like, ‘Where are your socks from?’ I’ll be like, ‘It’s from Sock Candy,’” Mary shares.
Social media lead generation FAQ
Which social media platform is best for lead generation?
The best lead generation platform for your business will depend on what you’re selling, which platforms your target audience uses, and audience behavior on the platform. Generally speaking, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and LinkedIn are popular social media lead generation platforms.
What social media strategies have you used to generate leads?
The best social media lead generation strategies vary by platform, but general best practices include publishing valuable content and encouraging discussions to keep audiences engaged.
How do you measure leads on social media?
Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok offer built-in lead generation tools to help you evaluate performance. You can also use Google Analytics to analyze landing page referral sources or look for a social media management tool with lead attribution functions.
