If you think social media is the most powerful tool to generate more leads, you’re probably right.

But only if you use it strategically.

Nearly 75% of Internet users are on social media, the Pew Research Center found. Where else could you find that many leads?

“If you haven’t incorporated social media into your prospecting activities, you are working too hard,” says Lorraine Ferguson, author of The Unapologetic Saleswoman, sales trainer, coach and associate with Sandler Training.

So stop working so hard. Use these strategies to effectively generate more leads in the most popular social media platforms.

Facebook generates leads

Nearly two-thirds of companies focus most of their social media lead generation efforts on Facebook, according to research from Social Media Examiner. Here’s how:

Run Lead Ads. They’re the most obvious lead generator with Facebook. You can pay to place them in front of your ideal customers. They include instant contact forms so people can show interest in your product or service by confirming their contact information already in Facebook. You can request any contact information or ask custom questions to gather email or business information, give price estimates or plan follow-up calls when they click on your ad. Facebook offers enhanced versions of ads, too – video, Messenger and mobile ads that can be redirected to one-click sign-ups, with Facebook collecting and sorting the data for you.

But not every potential lead will want to interact with you through an ad. Here are other approaches.

Post it. Facebook posts are the most natural way to move people to your landing page. The key is to get posts right.

Pick one specific goal for each post and only include content that hits it
Keep it to just about 70 characters. Engage prospects quickly with a short list, fill in the blank or question
Include an image or photo with a link, and
Make it easy for people to click through to the landing page where you capture contacts.

Go live. Post employee or customer interviews, clips from events, behind-the-scene footage (that’s brief) to pique interest. Facebook users spend more time watching and engaging with live video than with anything that’s recorded.

Create a webinar. Try creating a custom event page for your webinar. You can invite users, fans and followers to a regular cadence of events (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually – some sort of predictability so people know if they miss one, they can get in on the next one, which you’ll alert them to once they sign up). Then as you send more invites and the number of attendees increases, you can build buzz with alerts and teasers on the event. Bonus: You can repurpose the webinar for content in future blogs or posts you share on Facebook.

Switch up your call to action. Capitalize on this often-overlooked lead generator. Instead of just setting your call to action (CTA) as a branded “contact us” or “sing up” click, then letting it rest, change it often so it never becomes background. Facebook lets you track how each call to action does, so you can see what works better than others. You can change the CTA to fit in with the latest marketing campaign (like “Sign up” or “Get in on this”) or a product launch (like “See it now” or “Buy Now”).

Change your cover image. Same goes for the cover image as for the CTA: Change it often – to coincide with your webinar, a product launch, industry award, etc.

Create and post content in an instant. Facebook’s Instant Articles speed up the time it takes to load your copy – and the time it takes readers to download it – as much as 10 times, Facebook says. Instant Articles generate 20% more clicks and are shared 30% more than regular mobile articles. And you don’t need a CTA because Instant Article captures the audience data through Facebook, rather than directing readers to your landing page. (Facebook pulls the data once readers confirm their details.)

LinkedIn generates leads

LinkedIn is a more powerful lead generator for B2B organizations, but don’t underestimate its role in B2C lead gen. One study found it’s almost three times as effective for lead generation as other social media platforms.

“Buyers are wary to have a conversation with someone they don’t know, and LinkedIn solves that problem for sales professionals,” Ferguson says. “Be aware that your buyer is checking out your LinkedIn profile before accepting a call from you, so be sure your profile is up-to-date and compelling.”

Then try these tactics:

Make more of the connections you already have. LinkedIn Sales Navigator helps you get a list of LinkedIn profiles, Twitter handles, Skype accounts and other tools associated with email addresses in your Gmail contacts. Then you can align the lists and send personalized LinkedIn invitations from your inbox.

Understand the depth of the network. You want to find, follow and connect with power users in your industry or customer base. Sales Navigator also helps you see how big the network is for so-called influencers and determine if they’re people you want to connect with to increase your visibility and connections.

Be organic. You don’t have to buy or build lists (on the individual level, anyway). Take a few minutes every day to click the “connect” button on the “People You May Know” list that LinkedIn posts in your feed. Add personal notes to each “connect” opportunity to increase the likelihood that those 2^nd and 3^rd connections will become 1^st. Caveat: Only connect with people you know or share a mutual connection because if you pretend to know someone, you’ll annoy people and more likely lose leads.

Be on the lookout. You can generate leads by spending time investigating the connections of the people you are connected with. Find people who can benefit from your solutions and make notes of who can introduce you and how.

Join and participate in groups. You can more easily target people who are like your current customers, in your industry or have an interest in your products or services by being part of groups they are. Get involved in the groups by sharing insight and offering valuable information – but not selling.

Update regularly. Post an “update” nearly every day. Use it to share a link to a helpful article or post a video relevant to your customers and potential prospects. The more you update, the more likely you’ll be known when you try to connect with leads.

Call in the troops. Ask colleagues and employees to share your professional and company content. After all, half of them already post in social media about your company, one study found. Their reach can generate new leads.

Know who looks at you. LinkedIn Premium (for individuals) and Sales Navigator (for companies) allow you to see who’s looked at your profile. Look at those updates, click through to learn more about the people who look at you and reach out to connect.

Sponsor updates. Get your content more visible in the LinkedIn feeds of people who would most likely find it valuable. Native ads should be paired with genuine valuable content such as in-depth articles, eBooks and guides. Engage leads with images and copy that build intrigue. Write headlines that clearly tell leads how they’ll benefit from reading more.

Use Sponsored InMail campaigns. They help you get your message through the other clutter and to the top of LinkedIn inboxes of people who are ideal leads. You can send clear, targeted content through InMail right when leads are using LinkedIn.

Twitter generates leads

Twitter is far-reaching with both B2B and B2C audiences. To use it to generate more leads:

Make your bio matter. Many organizations overlook the short bio section as a useful lead generator. In addition to a brief “who you are and what you do,” include links to your landing page, your most effective lead magnet, latest or best content.

Make your header matter. Add some lead-generating information to your eye-catching header. Add your business slogan or tagline, a CTA, new product launch, white paper or upcoming event.

Make your hashtags matter. Twitter is in constant motion and if you aren’t in sync with what your potential customers are watching, they won’t see you. Frequently look to see which hashtags are most popular in your industry, with your ideal customers and/or in your niche. You can track and analyze hashtag performance with Twitter Analytics and other free tools. Some tools can help you discover the meaning of hashtags (and understand what will work best for you) and create and define hashtags specific for you.

Look for leads. In addition to making yourself more visible to leads, you can find leads on Twitter. Use Twitter’s Search function to find, follow and engage with ideal leads. You can use the Search Box to find topics and users. Twitter will highlight results, suggesting related terms and people to follow. You can refine the search more to narrow down to those who are talking about and are interested in your niche. Then you can comment on their content, start following or write a tweet directly to them.

Build a list. Twitter moves faster than the pace of business. To generate leads you might need to slow it down with Twitter lists. With it, you can segment your audience into smaller groups so you can stay on top of their tweets, engage them and start to build a relationship. Build lists based on smaller niches within your expertise, customer/prospect behaviors or buying activity.

Maximize your tweets. To get more visibility for your content – and ultimately generate more leads – pin a tweet to your profile. Pinned tweets sit at the top of your profile so they’re the first thing people see when they get on your Twitter. Pin a tweet that links to your most effective landing page with an opt-in form or gated piece of content.

Get in on Twitter Chats. Jump in on Twitter Chats related to a topic you’re an expert on. Participants are allowed to chime in on most hosted chats. Some have invited guests who answer a few questions. Positioning yourself or your company as the invited guest would be key to generate more retweets, mentions, follows and leads. For the smoothest experience, your best bet is to join in through a Twitter chat app.

Run a contest. Contests are popular in nearly every form – and social media is no exception. Get your name better known with contests such as a sweepstake competition for the most shares, a caption competition, multiple choice questions and asking users to be creative with images related to your niche and hashtags. Just make sure your contest complies with Twitter’s promotion rules.

Run Twitter ads. As with any social media, you can use paid advertising to target audiences and generate leads. You can choose geographic areas, followers of a certain account or specific interests to target your Twitter Ads. At minimum, you can run them daily for a nominal fee.

Instagram generates leads

Almost 65% of businesses recognize Instagram as a useful lead generation tool and plan to create more stories to generate initial interest, the State of Instagram Marketing Report found. Here are top ways.

Keep it light and short with a quick CTA. Instagram is the least fussy social media platform. On the most basic level, create content that’s brief, fun, entertaining and in line with your brand’s personality to reach new and engage current users. Users are most likely to get to the end of stories that are between two and 10 frames, Delmondo research found. Put the most intriguing content and images upfront. Most people who exit do it on the first frame so you need to hook them immediately. Finally, ask users to “swipe up for X” at the end of your story and send them to a dedicated Instagram page.

Run ads. Like other social media platforms, Instagram also offers ads. You can keep it simple with photos. Or you can add videos, daily stories, carousel pin ads and collection ads. You can use lookalike audiences to target leads who are like your current customers or have visited your social media pages. There are tools to retarget audiences who might have visited your site or social media pages or abandoned a cart.

Humanize your Instagram. Sure, you’re a company, a brand, a solution – and you want to generate leads to buy into those things. But people usually connect better with other people than they do with a product or service. So create stories that include behind-the-scenes work, customer interactions and employee fun.

Tell your customers’ stories. On a similar note, helping people connect with your current customers can generate leads. Post photos of customers and a caption of what they like about your product or service. Follow a customer for a day and make that your day’s story. Get them to share from their Instagram to find more leads.

Run a takeover. Smaller companies and those new to Instagram have found success with “influencer takeovers.” You can partner with larger Instagram influencers for access to their audiences. You give them access to your stories for a day or so and they document what they want – which is ideally linked to your organization, product or solution.

Maximize your hashtags. Know the hashtags prospects likely use (based on your own marketing research) and use them in your stories, your main feed and your profile. That way, when users search your story hashtag, they’ll more likely find your other posts and become more familiar with your entire brand.

Add a poll or emoji scale. Ask questions using the poll or slider feature (when you take a picture or make a video, hit the peeling smiley face at the top of the story, then add your poll or slider). Instagram will track the results and reveal them as people swipe down later. You can reach out to the people who took the poll or slid your emoji.

Promote another cause. Engage with your users to promote a charity. Some organizations regularly share the stories of and profits with charities they’re affiliated with, which can help generate leads from other like-minded people.

About Michele McGovern

Get Access To Free Sales & Professional Development Resources

Join the ResourcefulSelling community where we provide insights, dish out strategies and cover all things sales – soup to nuts