Social Listening – Get More Leads Without Advertising

What is Social Listening?

If you perform a quick search on the internet for the term social listening you’ll find quite a few definitions. However most of them will mention something about “monitoring all social media channels” and/or “tracking conversations around a certain phrase.” While those things are important to a social media strategy what we’ll be discussing here is a simple way to leverage your social media network to get more business leads.

Why your personal brand matters.

Last month in the post You Have a Personal Brand, we discussed the message your social media activity sends to others. Here we are going to build upon that and show exactly why that brand matters. Consider for a minute the type of person you want to do business with. Are they someone that makes inappropriate, unthoughtful statements? Makes you look at pictures of themeless making the “duck face?”  Or someone that calls or texts you 15-20 times a day to give you every minute detail from their life? Probably not. However we see posts like this on social media everyday and they definitely effect they way others view you, rather they tell you or not. If you are an entrepreneur that wants to attract business on your social media accounts they should only contain content that you would discuss with potential clients.

How social listening works.

Many business owners say their best leads for business come from satisfied customers, friends and family. However many business owners don’t consider the best place to interact with this group of people is on their personal social media! For example, say you own a roofing company. Then one day you see your third-cousin removed on your father’s side posts on Facebook that they have a hole in their roof. If you are practicing good social listening you can easily contact them to let them know that you can do the job. Unless they have another personal relationship with a roofer you will probably get the job. Why? Because they trust you and trust you’ll not only do the job right but do it for reasonable price. You’re family after all. The process of social listening extends your business network beyond the scope of people you come into contact everyday

Social Media is a Team Sport.

Finally the best thing about social media listening is that it works for almost any type of business no matter how big or small. However it works best when everyone on your team is actively using social media listening to generate new business. If you would like more information on how to turn your staff into a social media machine contact the pros at Milk Street Marketing today!