Does it seem like all your lead generation strategies are failing while your competitors' continue to prove fruitful?

It seems like you're doing the same things your competitors are doing, but your results are vastly different. You wonder, not being able to figure out why your results differ so much. You do some research and then go back to the drawing board to tweak your strategies.

They fail, too.

You panic. Your mind begins to form pessimistic fantasies, overdramatizing your scenario through scenes of a dystopian world where your business has fallen at the hands of your overpowering, and ruthless, competitor. It seems like these fantasies are destined to become reality.

Hopefully that scene hasn't actually played in your head before. If it has, you probably need a vacation.

But, if you do struggle to understand why your strategies aren't working after you've tried numerous ideas, maybe it's because you're overthinking everything.

Sometimes you can overthink your lead generation strategies, and when they don't work, you double down and overthink even more. Maybe you need to take a step back and use something you're comfortable with, social media.

Below are seven simple strategies you can use to generate leads using social media. I'm confident that your mind will be clear and the leads you've been seeking will manifest themselves after you begin implementing these strategies.

Publish links to landing pages with gated content

If you've already started your lead generation efforts, chances are you already have some content offers (ebooks, guides, checklists, whitepapers, etc.) and corresponding landing pages created. 

Related: 7 Irresistible Content Offer Elements that Attract Online Sales Leads

Sharing a link to the landing page with the gated content is one of the easiest ways to gather information from leads. Though some of the people who click on the link might not follow through and fill out the form necessary to claim the offer, the people who do are showing interest in your business, and therefore, are great leads.

To ensure the leads you get through this method are as qualified as possible, you need to make sure that your content offer is relevant to your business or industry. Offering somebody. a free checklist on bedtime routines for better sleep might not translate to them being interested in your pet grooming business.

Below are a couple examples of what this can look like on Facebook and Twitter.

Want some leads this week? This ebook is the place to get started.

DOWNLOAD NOW >>> https://t.co/E6kq6rwbR5 #inboundmarketing pic.twitter.com/AvHz9c4YwZ

— DesignWorks Group (@dwgroup) May 22, 2017

Advertise on social media

You can use Facebook lead ads to capture lead information directly on Facebook or website traffic ads to drive people to a landing page where they can fill out a form to claim an offer and become a lead (much like the strategy above).

If you use CRM software, many of them offer Facebook ads integration, meaning your leads that come from Facebook lead ads will automatically be uploaded to your CRM. If you use a CRM software and it doesn't offer Facebook ads integration, it's still easy to get your leads from Facebook into your software. Facebook will let you export the data of anyone who filled out your lead ad form and then you can upload it to your software. It's that easy.

Learn how to get started creating Facebook lead ads here.

Create a custom Facebook tab

You're probably familiar with your Facebook tabs (Home, About, Events, Reviews, Photos, etc.), but did you know you can create custom Facebook tabs in order to optimize your business page for the goals you're trying to achieve? 

HubSpot has a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a custom tab here.

One way we're using a custom tab is by connecting a landing page for one of our free ebooks to it. 

Using a custom tab in this manner enables people who view our page to get more information about our content offer directly on Facebook, and then if they want to continue to download the offer, they can do so without ever leaving Facebook. The lead will automatically be uploaded to our CRM and we can follow up with the lead from there.

Use live videos

Live videos provide you a unique opportunity to communicate with your social followers in real time. They're also a great channel to generate leads.

One way you can use live video to generate leads is to gate your video. Often times, this method is used when hosting a webinar that people have to sign up for before the webinar. 

Another way is to use Facebook Live, Periscope, or any other live video provider to broadcast your video to a broader audience. There's a couple ways you can use this format to generate leads.

During your live video, you can prompt people to visit conversion points on your website or social pages, or you can pin a comment in your live video comment stream with a link to an offer and direct people to click on it. It will help your conversion rate if you naturally talk about content that is relevant to your offers during your live video. While you're talking about content that is similar to what your offer provides, you can tell people that they can download a free resource for even more details about the topic and then direct them to the conversion point.

Also, ask people to engage with your video by posting questions or comments. As you're hosting your video, you can choose certain questions and comments to address and then address the ones you weren't able to get to after your live video ends. Make sure you keep track of who asked relevant questions, and follow up with them afterward. You can follow up with them by replying to their comments with information that is related to their question, or by encouraging them to reach out to you on social media.

Use advanced social search

Social search is great for local businesses. Let's say you're a dentist and you want to see all the tweets that were posted in your city, during a certain date range, and contained the word "dentist." You can easily do that. Here's what it would like:

Using Twitter advanced search, you can now see what people in your city are saying about dentists. You can then go through the tweets and engage with people who are seeking help, have complaints about a dentist they visited, or are looking for recommendations. These people who are tweeting this sort of information are exactly the types of leads that you can turn into customers if you reach out to them.

You can do almost the exact same thing using Facebook. Let's say your a dentist in you want to see posts published in your city about people's teeth hurting. Here's what it would look like on Facebook:

Again, you can see people who are complaining about teeth pain (perfect leads), engage with them, and then suggest your business as a solution for their teeth pain.

Listen and monitor social accounts

We have a whole ebook on the importance of social monitoring and responding. If you're interested in it, you can grab it by clicking below

Social listening is all about tracking what people are saying about your industry, business, and competitors. Setting up social streams that monitor keywords and accounts can give you a leg up on your competition. For more information on how to get started, you can download our ebook or check out these blogs:

Why Social Media Monitoring Matters for the Success of Your Business

Social Media Listening and Responding: Tips and Formulas to Remember

Create a social selling strategy

According to Hootsuite, social selling is the art of using social networks to find, connect with, understand, and nurture sales prospects. Essentially, if you're using social media to market your business, social selling is your goal. Much like inbound marketing, social selling is the whole process, finding prospects, nurturing relationships, and delighting customers. 

This is done by providing content that is valuable to your audience. If your audience finds your content valuable, they will engage with it, at which point, you should engage back. This isn't done by continually trying to sell your business, but rather, by meeting the customer where they're at in their buyers journey and nurturing them through it. 

Some recommendations: Post content that is educational, fun, personal, and essential to a customer looking for an answer to a problem they might have. If someone is searching for an answer but doesn't know who your company is, an educational blog post published on social media is a great introduction; a post about how great your company is isn't.

Keep social selling in mind when you're posting content to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Leads will come if you put in the effort of posting content that is valuable.

Now that you know some ways to generate leads using social media, take a deep breath and get going! Leave your fantasies about your competition overpowering you in fantasy land and strike back!

For even more lead generation strategies, you can download our free ebook, The 30 Greatest Lead Generation Tips, Tricks & Ideas!