How to Gain New Prospects using Twitter and LinkedIn

Social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Twitter, can serve as one of the cornerstones of your inbound marketing strategy. Using these tools, you can connect with a larger portion of your target audience, generate a greater number of leads and increase the number of consumers who visit your company's website. Below are some tips to help you get the most out of inbound marketing with Twitter and LinkedIn.

1. Stay organized.

Organization is an important component to any social media marketing campaign. Use automated software or manual records to keep track of each post you make, its topic of focus and how well consumers react. You should also keep records of any users who connect with your profile, as well as any interactions you have with them after they connect.

2. Use automation to your advantage.

Many of the tasks you perform using Twitter and LinkedIn can be automated to save time. For example, some software programs like Hubspot, Pardot or ExactTarget can post for you at predetermined intervals, send automated messages to connections and even manage multiple accounts with a single interface.

3. Use best practices for social media marketing.

Whether you are connecting with other businesses on LinkedIn or posting to consumers on Twitter, always adhere to the practices that have been shown to be most effective. Some of these practices include:

• Avoiding overt promotions and "sales" language.
• Making all of the content you post useful or valuable in some way.
• Targeting all of your content to the consumers who are most likely to make a purchase from your company.
• Updating your profiles regularly.
• Engaging in two-way communication with consumers.
• Responding quickly and effectively to any questions or concerns consumers pose via social media.

4. Give your business an authentic voice.

Be real on social media platforms. Engage and interact with your followers with genuine interest.  Using social media is a fabulous way to get to know your consumer base in an entirely new way.  It's an opportunity to put a real face on your business so don't waste it by being overly formal or stiff. 

So what? Your prospects and customers find you and connect with you in different ways.  Utilizing social media properly can help your business interact with customers on a completely different level.  As a bonus, they'll assume you're totally hip. Tweet that.

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