Twitter has 288 million active monthly users. Over a third of these users never post anything themselves, but use the social media site to consume content — mostly on a mobile device. More than half of Twitter users retweet interesting posts. Twitter is secondary to Facebook for most businesses, but 34 percent of marketers have generated leads on Twitter and 20 percent have closed sales. We feel this number could be much better if marketers follow these 8 quick tips for Twitter lead generation.

8 Quick Tips For Twitter Lead Generation

1. Search for popular and trending hashtags.

Tools like Hashtagify.me, Topsy and Hashtags.org make it easy to keep a pulse on what people are talking about. This can help you find blog topics that will convert and join conversations that are relevant to your business. Look for people asking industry-related questions and be there to give a helpful answer. You can also use keywords like “recommendations,” “looking for,” and local city names if you’re a brick-and-mortar business.

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2. Use Twitter lead generation cards.

Brands like Full Sail and Priceline have used Twitter lead generation cards with great success. When someone clicks to expand your tweet, they’ll see an offer (such as a click-to-buy product, e-book download, webinar, subscribe, contact form, etc.) that they can respond to with one click. It becomes almost effortless for Twitter users to interact with a brand, as their name and email is automatically filled in for them and they don’t even have to leave the site to perform a designated action.

Image Source: Social Media Examiner

3. Optimize your media.

To make the best use of Twitter cards, consider their different uses and optimize accordingly:

– Summary card: Include a title, description, and thumbnail or featured image when a link is shared. Summary cards work best when you’re promoting a blog post or article.

– Photo card: Include a large, specially designed image like a quote or ad. Photo cards work best for branding purposes and making a visual first impression. You can also design a gallery card using multiple images.

– Business card: Include your address, phone number, email, and a professional head shot photo. Business cards are ideal for B2B communications.

– App card: Include information about your mobile app, along with a download button.

– Player card: Include a video clip or audio stream that plays the media right in your followers’ Twitter feeds.

– Product card: Include information about a product you’re selling.

4. Use Socedo to search bio keywords.

Socedo is one of our favorite new social media tools. You can search for target market customers based on bio terms and location. You can also filter out people by using negative keywords. The longer you use the platform and refine your criteria, the more intelligent suggestions it makes and the better the analytics data. After you connect with prospects on Twitter, Socedo automatically sends them a LinkedIn connection two hours later. You can also set up automatic “thank you” messages when someone follows you back on Twitter and connects with you on Linkedin. We like to include links to landing pages in this message and also track how many people click on the link. You can also split test your messages with the built-in A/B testing Socedo offers. Bottom line – if your target market and influencers are on Twitter, you need to check out Socedo.

They are currently offering a free 14-day trial for new users.

5. Watch for mention of your brand and competitor brands on Sprout Social.

Sprout Social is another tool we use frequently. You can search for Twitter users who have mentioned your brand or a competitor’s brand specifically by name. Use the keyword search frequency analyzer to find out when people are talking about keywords related to your latest blog post to decide on an ideal day and time for posting. Use the people search tool to search profiles by title and find your best prospects. Social Media Examiner goes into greater detail on the benefits of this platform (compared to TweetDeck).

6. Participate in live Twitter chats.

A tool like Twubs can help you find Twitter chats that are happening right now. You can also create a dedicated hashtag and a branded hashtag landing page for your marketing campaign, which will reinforce your brand and follow the conversation. Other places to find Twitter chats include Chat Salad and Tweet Reports. Get more info on hosting your own Twitter chat here.

7. Follow up with prospects off Twitter.

Twitter is a good springboard to sales, but it functions best when integrated with other mediums. For instance, you can gather prospects on Twitter, but connect with them through direct messages and emails. Automatically following up on leads via email within five minutes of a prospect taking action on Twitter has been shown to be very effective at shortening the sale cycle, especially if you send a coupon or special offer. Using tools like Socedo you can automate the follow-up process by connecting on Linkedin. If you aren’t using tools we highly suggest you manually follow up with qualified leads via email or Linkedin.

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8. Get help!

Mod Girl Marketing can help you gather more leads on Twitter by creating a strategy to grow your leads, building a more robust profile, posting on a regular schedule, interacting with followers, and monitoring social media statistics. We can help you automate more of your activities to save time and lead followers further into the purchase cycle. You may choose to invest in just a few hours of social media coaching and consulting to help you get started or pay us a monthly retainer and we’ll cover all the work for you. Get more information on working with a social media consulting firm here.