#Instagood. #DebateNight. #tbt.
#ICYMI, social media rules. With an increasing number of hashtags, trending topics, and shares, the social sea is flush with leads. But while all of that data can be incredibly useful, the crowded waters have made it difficult for business leaders to tell a minnow from a marlin.
When casting a net for legitimate sales leads, social data is indicative of a lead’s interest level or readiness to consider a category of products. This information can help you figure out which fish to keep and which to throw back into the water.
When people conduct research, ask questions, or gather information to solve a business problem, their social data offers real-time signals that they’re about to enter the buying cycle. Routine social media actions such as follows, likes, or mentions are all readily available data. The trick is tapping into these social signals and scoring these leads appropriately based on their activity.
Keeping Score of Social Media Data
When someone is interested in your brand, he generally follows an established pattern: He follows you, clicks on one or two posts, and shares some of your content. He might even comment on a few of your posts or download a piece of content.
My company, Socedo, uses a two-tiered lead scoring model. We start by considering fit: Does this lead have the characteristics of someone we want to do business with? What’s the size of his company? What’s his job title? Does he have responsibility over social media or demand generation? What’s his industry?
We then look at technographics. The technology the lead already uses can tell us a lot about his sophistication level. If the person already uses a marketing automation system or a customer relationship management system, we consider him a great lead.
Once a lead passes our “fit” test, we score based on behavior or engagement with our content and key channels. We consider the lead’s direct interaction with us and within our social sphere. Did the lead mention an event we’re sponsoring or a hot topic that’s relevant to us? Did the lead mention an influencer we’ve worked with to create a webinar?
Our marketing automation system is set up to “listen” for these events and update lead scores whenever someone engages with our social media channels, website, or emails. We assign a numerical threshold to determine when a lead has enough points to be passed off to our sales team.