Aseem Badshah
Unfortunately, only 44 % of companies are using any kind of lead scoring system. Of the ones that are, most are using basic website activities to power most of their scoring and completely ignoring the buying signals social media could provide.
Considering the fact that 2.1 billion search queries happen on Twitter every day, it’s clear that plenty of buyers are starting their research on social media. While email engagement and website visits provide important insights, these actions are only taken by leads deeper in the research process and are actively looking for a solution.
Social lead scoring allows you to track early-stage buying signals from leads before they engage with you directly or even know you have a solution to their problem. By tracking behavioural social data you can fill in a major knowledge gap in your lead scoring and begin tracking and engaging with your leads long before they find you.
Behavioural social data are the actions taken by your prospects on social networks that indicate they may be a good candidate for your solution.
There are several searches you can perform and keywords you can monitor to identify behavioural social data in your existing leads and to prospect for potential leads. Here are 5 types of social data that should influence your lead scoring:
1. Hot Topics in Your Industry
What are the topics your industry is currently talking about? While someone talking about #contentmarketing might not be actively searching for a lead generation solution, the odds are higher than if they were discussing the new season of Stranger Things.
Research different topics and keywords and constantly adjust their weight in your lead scoring.
2. Hashtags of Major Conferences in Your Industry
Attendees of industry conferences should be a target for your sales and marketing. Even if you aren’t attending the conference, your lead’s attendance is a strong indication that they are learning about new industry trends and evaluating different solutions.
If you are attending the conference, those keywords should be weighed even higher to allow you to engage with other attendees before and after the show.
3. Engagement or Mentions of Influencers or Complementary Companies
If you partner with other companies or tend to get a lot of business from users of specific software, your lead scoring should track mentions of those complementary companies.
For Socedo, we track key technologies in the marketing stack like Marketo, Hubspot, and Salesforce because we know people who mention those companies are the right demographic and they’re actively researching or investing in their marketing.
Mentions of experts in your industry can also be an indication that a lead is doing research on a particular problem.
4. Follows, Mentions and Replies to Your Competition
Any engagement with your competitors should be an indication that your lead is either evaluating solutions like yours or is already a user.
If they are still evaluating solutions, this gives you a chance to convey your differentiators and gives your sales reps a reference point when comparing your value to that of competitors. Even mentions by customers of your competitor could be valuable. 53% of people will share bad customer experiences on social, giving you a chance to win their business.
5. Follows, Mentions and Replies to Your Corporate Twitter Handle and Our Executives’ Twitter Handles
It may sound obvious that engagement with and mentions of your company’s accounts should be monitored and scored, but a shocking number of brands fail to respond to social engagement. Follows, mentions, replies, retweets and other engagement could all signify different levels of interest that should all be weighed in your lead scoring.
This list is ordered based on how likely it is each of these behavioural social data points will indicate a warm lead. In general, a mention of your company or a competitor should be weighed heavier than a keyword or conference hashtag. However, this may not be the case for you.
Each keyword, account and action should be measured carefully to determine how it should affect your lead score. To help us weigh each piece of intent data we look at:
- How many leads initially came from a specific keyword.
- How many leads have interacted with a keyword at any point in their buying journey.
- How many marketing qualified leads and opportunities we have generated from each keyword.
This information will help you determine how valuable each action is for your sales team and help you customize your lead scoring strategy.
By adding behavioural social data into your lead scoring model, you are filling in a big piece of your customer’s buying journey.
When added to your existing lead information from your marketing automation and CRM, behavioral social data can help create a much more complete picture of your lead’s main concerns and struggles. It also helps your sales and marketing teams engage with leads at exactly the right time with exactly the right message.
Looking to learn more about how behavioral social data can power your marketing funnel? Check out our ebook, “Using Behavioral Social Data in Your Marketing Automation Platform to Convert More Leads into Customers.”
