Best of LSMR: How to Find New Leads Through Social Media
…we set out to become a more approachable company and in the end, it helped us also to fill the sales funnel in a really, really massive way.
Social media can be overwhelming, but you can get a return on your investment if you commit to doing it right. Johannes Amon proved that at Zeiss and in this episode, he explains exactly how to my guest host, Kat Kozyrytska.
Here are the Key Takeaways:
You have to start, slowly if necessary. It may seem like a lot of added work to produce the content for those channels, but your workshops, events and trade shows are excellent opportunities for easily generating content in addition to the content you already have (but may not have recognized as useful).
There will definitely be some training of your internal team around what content is useful as well as the benefits and that takes time.
Each channel requires a different approach. Facebook and Instagram are for better for branding. LinkedIn and Twitter will generate high quality leads. Johannes described his strategies for getting influencers to follow Zeiss on Twitter. Setting up regional channels is extra work, but it’s helpful to have a global team so you can be active and respond on Twitter at any time of day.
If you thought blogging was dead, think again. Having a blog, Flickr and YouTube channels and connecting them all tells Google what you are about and has massive SEO benefits that can save you money on paid search advertising.
You must recognize it is more than a year-long project. The future is coming regardless, so it’s better to get started now. Johannes left us with some strong words about short term initiatives:
I’ve seen it too often that companies do some kind of management project initiatives, which run for one year. If you want to go digital, if you want to go online, if you want to establish new communication channels – and I promise every single company, you will get new leads through that stuff. If you plan to do this as a management initiative for [only] one year, don’t. Just don’t start.
About My Guests …
Johannes Amon, also known as Hannes, has been a guest on LSMR previously while he was working at Zeiss. In that interview, he described for us the process of developing an app for Life Science Marketing. Johannes specializes in online communications in marketing. He’s currently on a sabbatical looking for new exciting opportunities.
Kat Kozyrytska is the Academic Marketing Manager for North America at Sartorius. Prior to that, she was the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Hofstra Group. She has a Masters degree in neuroscience from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
