5 Ways to Generate New Leads with Social Marketing

Remember how we all learned the seven steps of the sales process at the beginning of our tourism career? Well, that's been turned upside down!

Advances in technology and social media are reshaping the way that tourism professionals are using the sales process, especially prospecting for leads. Let's examine five social strategies for generating leads:

Let's Chat!

Building brand awareness and new relationships is easy when you're able to have live conversations. The magic happens when you take advantage of:

1. Twitter chats. They're a great way to start conversations and receive immediate feedback. Ensure your Twitter chat success by setting a specific date and time and marketing your chat in advance.
2. Live broadcasts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat and YouTube are a great way to build your audience and your brand awareness. Again, market your live stream broadcast in advance to ensure a core audience. You'll find new prospects as people tune in at random. Don't relish broadcasting live? Watch this video to learn about a cool new Facebook Live feature.

3. LinkedIn groups are an often-overlooked source of conversations. Ask and answer questions and foster conversations.
4. Facebook groups are popular with brand and relationship building professionals.
5. Poll questions are an often-overlooked conversation starter. Polls are available on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. SnapChat polling is available with the app Polly, as well as a variety of Quiz apps.

While you may not know all the people who join these online social conversations, offering your lead magnet will help you collect valuable contact information from those who are interested in knowing you!

Generating leads is the foundation to building a successful business. Taking a bit of time each day to focus on prospecting is easy when you pick at least one of these tips and put it into play! Over time, you'll gain momentum and traction as your funnel fills with new leads.

Mark Twain said, "The secret of getting ahead is getting started."

Which one thing will you pick to get started TODAY?

Written by Catherine Heeg, an international speaker and trainer who focuses on social media marketing strategies for the tourism and hospitality industry. Join the conversation and connect with her at www.cmsspeaking.com and socially.

Photo courtesy of Catherine Heeg.