“People Coming from Social Media Sites Convert to Sales Leads at a Significantly Higher Rate than Normal Site Traffic”

This is one of four important reasons why “Your Boss Should Care About Social Media for SEO,” according to ClickZ’s Crispin Sheridan. Of the four reasons, the “Social media sells/converts” is one of the most critical ones in large part because many organizations are still unclear as to ** HOW ** social media helps to sell or convert.

With regard to the topic of social media facilitating sales and customer conversions, Crispin shares the following:

“Social media marketing is a critical mechanism to influence and drive key business objectives. Interactive marketers who know the best practices to engaging prospects and customers on social sites can improve their business-impacting metrics, such as website visits, conversions, and sales, all while improving natural rankings.”

Crispin also cites evidence from Forrester Research and Business Week suggests strong payback for companies whose products enjoy positive reviews from social media users:

• 67 percent of Twitter users who become followers of a brand are more likely to buy that brand’s products
• 60 percent of Facebook users who become a fan of a brand are more likely to recommend that brand to a friend
• 74 percent of consumers are influenced on buying decisions by fellow users after soliciting input via social media

One of our clients, Dr. William Booker of Capitol Rehab of Arlington, is a strong believer of Crispin’s “social media sells and converts” school of thought. Since we helped to immerse his chiropractic and sports medicine practice into social, Dr. Booker has noticed that patients who call for appointments are extremely well informed and already warm-to-very-hot vs. cold callers.

Bottom line: Engaging with customers and interested third parties in the socialsphere helps to covert folks from a state of “cold prospect” to “warm(er) prospect.” Warm prospects usually are already feeling “warm and fuzzy” about your brand and your service or product offerings. They typically already have some familiarity with your business at this stage of the sales process and, by the time they opt to make contact, they are interested in learning more micro-detail about a specific product or service. I say “micro detail” because at this stage of the game, the warm prospect has already self-educated themselves about all things you. At this juncture, they typically are asking about very specific information they could not find online above and beyond what you have published online as well as what online reviews might disclose.

There are many other reasons why your boss should care about social but surely the “social media sells/converts” reason is one of the hottest ones, trust me. Customers and clients are always asking about strategies for “monetizing social” … a good strategist can show you how to maximize your social efforts to facilitate sales and conversions via best practices.