Why Social Media is Not the Best Way To Generate Leads

Why Social Media is Not the Best Way To Generate Leads

Contributors to Entrepreneur publish their own opinions.

Lead generation is not all the same. With the ongoing evolution of digital marketing, marketers are placing greater emphasis on social media. Even though those platforms are probably excellent for raising brand awareness, they are not as good for engaging your audience—one of the most important growth KPIs for a startup company.

Due to supply and demand, one of the main reasons it's difficult to generate engagement on social platforms is because every friend, family member, and business is vying for the attention of potential customers. Who sees what is ultimately determined by the algorithm, and there's a lot of noise.

Any firm that wants to expand must first build an audience and then sell to them. For this reason, entrepreneurs should concentrate on generating leads through channels they own and control.

We are aware that reaching out to potential or current customers is essential to closing deals. We may measure engagement and open rates to determine how well we are reaching our leads.

Every day, Instagram users will log on for thirty minutes on average. Even though that's a substantial amount of time, not much of their focus is being directed on businesses. Brands with huge followings typically have a post reach rate of 12% and a story reach rate of 2%, according to BazaarVoice. Facebook's median engagement rate for all industries is 0.08%.

These figures are depressing and should serve as a major wake-up call for startups and small companies that are investing time, money, and resources in attempting to generate income via natural social media channels. Let's concentrate on the channels we own and have control over instead.

Building an email list gives you ownership of those contacts and gives you a direct line of communication with your audience, but it's not the only avenue. A person's address or phone number can also be obtained. Obtaining contact details is essential for one-on-one communication rather than depending on an algorithm.

Building an audience can be greatly aided by social media. Nevertheless, you run the constant risk of losing control of the discourse if your audience can only be reached through social media.

You won't be able to reach that enormous following you've worked so hard to develop if Instagram closes down tomorrow. In the future, TikTok may opt to emphasize advertising, which might cause your organic reach to vanish completely.

Moving prospects from social media to a location where the business can obtain contact information needs to be a top focus for businesses in today's digital environment. Direct engagement with potential clients will help you develop a sense of community, trust, and value—all of which will eventually boost sales and expand your company.

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