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Social Networking has become an effective platform offering a great opportunity to generate debt leads. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc are being increasingly used as an alternative strategy for generating concrete debt leads.

There are several creative ways that you can use to network and develop Facebook lead generation using the right techniques.

Choosing friends interested in networking – there are millions of people on Facebook for different reasons and it is for you to choose those that are interested in networking rather than dating and making new relationships. Having the right people to start with is your 1^st step towards attracting debt customers. Starting a casual discussion of mutually interesting topics and then guiding the conversation towards your goal of getting information from the people, will help you identify your potential leads.

Email subscriptions – this can be one of the best ways to maximize your network by including an email/newsletter subscription form on a side bar of your Facebook profile. This will help you build your newsletter distribution for capturing more leads and generating sales.

Make special offers – when someone is looking through your fan page of your Facebook business profile, it is possible that they have an interest in what you are offering or at least may be interested in the information and knowledge you are sharing. This can be the best time to show them a reason to learn more about your products and also offer them free trials. If you can provide them a link to contact your customer support or enable a live chat to answer their questions, this can be a great way to generate quality debt leads that can convert to sales.

Using a mix of free and paid content – you can create and publish blogs and post the link to it on your Facebook page. Sharing knowledge and informative content can greatly boost your networking success in generating leads.

However, it is important to understand that the secret to generating leads using Facebook is in providing useful information and not in marketing yourself or sounding like a sales person. Often people make the mistake of directly marketing their products and pitching their business on personal profile pages which can lead to their profile being deleted.

Following are some important points to keep in mind while generating leads on Facebook:

• Upload your photo to add more credibility
• Fill in all the necessary information below your photo so that people can easily know more about you instead of searching for your information. Also, add your blog URL.
• Join groups that interest you and state the reason for joining the group.
• Send friend requests to people you would like to communicate with but avoid too many requests at one time to prevent your profile from being deleted.
• Show active participation in your chosen groups and try to comment on the topic in discussion in the group.
• Try socializing with other people in your News Feed
• Show appreciation of other people’s posted work
• Share your knowledge and information through conversations and your blog posts, videos, etc and avoid any sales pitch.

Image via CrunchBase

Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc have become a great online resource for generating leads if used correctly. They have become one of the best alternative mediums for introducing a business to the target market and building a list of potential leads.

This article outlines 5 best strategies that can be used to attract debt consolidation customers using twitter in the right way.

Build your network actively – the 1^st step towards building your database of debt leads is to add people who could be potential clients in your industry and frequently tweet valuable content. However, avoid any direct sales pitch or spamming people. It is also a good practice to re-tweet posts of other people as this indicates that you are reciprocating. When you do this, there are higher chances of your own posts and information being re-tweeted which means your potential leads can grow significantly.

Using twitter advanced search – the advanced search feature in twitter makes it possible to filter searches based on a lot of parameters. This includes complex filtering of keyword searches as well. You can create an advanced search around your topic relating to debt consolidation in order to identify your potential debt leads. For instance, if you want to know if anyone is asking about debt consolidation help or the procedure, you can do a search using the term debt consolidation.

Addressing people’s questions – most often people ask questions, complain about something or search for stuff on twitter and they are happy to have someone answer their questions. With this, you can send out tweets addressing their questions relating to your business and turn up debt leads with a higher success rate.

Converting your network of people – once you have built your credibility, rapport and trust with your close network, you can simply let them know what you do. You can also create good landing pages for converting your potential leads into profitable sales. It may not be possible to build trust with every person at the same level, but there may be quite a few people who may not have any problems if they were led to your landing page whose link you would have occasionally tweeted. When your visitors land on your tweeted URL or your landing page, they can know what you are offering, why they need your help and why they should choose you for debt consolidation help.

Tweet about what you do – you can share information on what you are working on and what you offer and when people find the information helpful, they may ask your suggestions and this will build better relationships to get you closer to your goal of procuring leads. If you have a blog with informative content about your business, you can expose the new audience to it on twitter by using TwitterFeed. TwitterFeed syndicates the content of your blog and distributes it across twitter, getting you more traffic and increasing the chances of finding potential debt leads.

These tips on using twitter for lead generation can help in maximizing the potential offered by this social network. It is important to use this medium correctly to attract debt leads and increase the sales closing ratio.

As I increase my use of social media one thing strikes me–There are so many debt leads floating around. It seems like I’m always seeing people complaining bout money, credit cards, house payments. Others are talking about all the money they are blowing at college, the mall, the bar. Lots of debt customers just waiting for you.

Simply adding these people to your various social networks is like stocking the pond. Here’s how I keep my radar up for opportunities.

Keyword Searches

Start with keyword searches on your various social networks. Many of them will feed you conversations and discussions in real-time. Just do a few searches and find a good refined flow of chatter about debt, credit cards, spending, budgeting, and other finance terms. Then blend in modifiers like need, problem, pay, or trouble.

These simple searches will start to show you a new world of consumer debt problems.

Facebook, Twitter, Google Alerts

Where should you search for these debt problems? Where the people are, naturally.

Start with the most popular–Facebook. Chances are as soon as you start adding Friends to your network you will see indicators of debt problems. However, for real debt lead (potential) volume I suggest start a Fan Page. Focus your Facebook page on debt education and you will attract debt problems like flies.

Second to Facebook, I like Twitter. The fundamental question is, "What’s Happening?" and boy do people tell you. Even something as personal as financial woes are flying across the network. Add to this the efficiency of Search.Twitter.com and you have another ready flow of debt relief prospects.

Finally, although not as sexy as real-time social media like Facebook and Twitter, Google Alerts is still a good source of debt leads. I add my debt keyword searches into Alerts and gobble up lots of people talking about debt problems on their blogs and social networks.

RSS Feeds

Watching all of these debt problems flow by can be overwhelming. Even worse it can be distracting and waste your time. The truth is most are not ready to close, or even inquire into your debt relief services. That means you need to find an efficient way to monitor these streams over time. RSS is the best solution.

Most of these social networks and real-time searches can produce RSS feeds. You don’t really have to understand the details of the technology, but if you subscribe to them in a RSS reader (Google Reader) you will have a steady flow of social media debt leads to supplement your debt lead buying.

Lead management continues to pick up steam in marketing and sales circles. As more and more consumers move online for their mortgage and debt relief research smart businesses are adjusting.

Why do you need to adjust? Because when mortgage and debt customers go online they behave differently.

The Good Old Days

In the good old days customer found you because of a post card, the yellow pages, an attractive storefront, or a referral from a friend–today, they Google you. So, why are things so different?

In the old days there was a tendency for you to get contact right when the customer was ready to do business. For example, they already had a house picked out, they had made the decision to refinance, or they were at a breaking point with creditor harassment. Google and the simplicity of the Internet has changed this timing.

Now people search Google just out of curiosity or interest. As a result they come across information about mortgages and debt settlement that makes them wonder, “Should I be looking into these things?”

By the way, this is why aged mortgage or debt leads can be so powerful. People that don’t get this change in consumer behavior are dropping these leads on the floor. And you are getting them for pennies on the dollar.

Sales Cycle is Longer

The obvious result is that you are going to get prospective customers into your sales pipeline a lot earlier. This is great. Or is it?

There are many missed opportunities because of this shifting and lengthening of the sales cycles. That is unless you have a process to manage it. This is where lead management can be a competitive advantage.

Loading in leads into my lead management system can put my follow-up on autopilot-sending emails, reminders to call, or responding to task items. Unlike spreadsheets, sticky notes, and legal pads lead management is like a virtual assistant. It keeps me top of mind with all my clients.

Loyalty is Harder to Gain

Another important factor to consider is that relationships, real relationships, are harder to form with the rise of the Internet. Sure you probably have hundreds of people on you email list, Facebook, or Twitter but none of them touch the customers you used to meet at their kitchen table.

One of the ways to combat this distance is using lead management to give them a more frequent and personal feeling. Again, with the ticklers and emails that remind you to just check-in and say, “hi!” will get you to a real relationship faster.

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“You have a new follower.” That is becoming more and more a part of our daily lives. Online networking and socializing is as common as having a telephone to communicate with friends and family-even businesses. Don’t forget that in your marketing and sales strategy.

As Twitter becomes more and more popular you need to be using it to communicate with your customers. What’s even better is you can connect simply with your leads and get keen insight into what may make your first call more effective.

Loading Aged Leads into Gmail

The first step in connecting to your aged leads via Twitter or other social networks is to get those leads (contact information) into your Gmail account.

Gmail has a simple importing feature to get them in your Google contacts. Then, most of these social networks allow for simple importing of Google contacts and searching for them on the network.

Getting Connected

Once a service like Twitter finds all your aged leads, you simply need to hit the follow button. There is an increasingly low barrier to reciprocating follows and connections, so the chances are the customer will follow back.

Listening for Opportunity

Once they are in your network you can quickly get to know the person and what may help your sale. In addition, you will be able to observe requests for help or assistance.

Now you will be able to help your customers when they are ready, not just when they pop in your call queue.

Ongoing Nurturing

Adding your aged leads to your Twitter, or other social network will aid in your lead nurturing efforts. Use Twitter or Facebook to announce changes in the market or your products. Simple messages regarding news and information are great for provoking new inquiries.

Connecting your leads to your social network could be as profitable as your direct mail or email marketing efforts. Try it today!

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“Consumer debt problems worsen.”

“Credit cards become increasingly restrictive.”

These are today’s headlines, but are you turning them into marketing messages? Being your prospective customer’s primary financial news source is a great opportunity. Chances are most customers avoid the business or finance section of their local newspaper. The information is too complex or simply makes their eyes glaze over-this is your opportunity.

A simple email, Twitter, or Facebook message every couple of weeks passing a link to a relevant debt story could easy produce multiple leads. Let’s design a simple campaign…

Searching for News

The first step in being a valuable source of financial news and information is to efficiently harvest it. My favorite suggestion is Google Reader; however, I do get a fair amount of good ideas from Twitter, Facebook, and increasingly FriendFeed.

Combine a mixture of traditional news feeds, like the online Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and CNN Money, with less traditional sources like smart bloggers. Here are a few I watch:

• TheMortgageReports
• HSH Financial News
  
• Calculated Risk
• Naked Capitalism
• Morning Mortgage Notes

A RSS Reader, like Google Reader will allow you to quickly clip and share important items.

Setting Up Your Broadcast

Depending on how you communicate with your customers you have a variety of options to broadcast these little bits of information.

I prefer the ease and reach of Twitter. This approach will also attract additional followers, which could become prospects. However, do not underestimate the power of good old fashion email. A good message or one forwarded directly from the news source can be powerfully viral. Each person you email is likely to have their own network of folks they forward interesting items to.

Make it Consistent and Routine

Probably more important than the content is the consistency with which you provide financial news. The more consistent your timing, frequency, and quality of coverage the more your clients will rely on you exclusively. If there is a feeling that you are the person who can, with credibility, be their source of financial services information they will unlikely look elsewhere. That means when they need help with finances-mortgage or debt-they are calling you.

Offer Your Help

Finally, never forget to offer your help in answering any questions or explaining the information in the news clip. This is you opportunity to educate, add more value, or solve their financial crisis/need.

News can easily become your secret marketing weapon.

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I really enjoy reading and listening to Chris Brogan. He has quickly become one of the rockstars of social media. Following him is sure to get you smarter and producing more sales with social media.

Lately, he has been talking a lot about Presence Management.  This is a critical concept in improving your credibility, trust, and reputation online. One step in building those online relationships that converts.

This is a great article on the “19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day.”

Are there other techniques and “chores” you do everyday to enhance your online presence?

What social media and networking sites do you use?

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• ActiveRain
• BrokerOutpost

I would love to hear of more examples and the best way to use them.

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Sometimes we believe that marketing is constantly changing. However, there are some principles that should always be on the top of your mind. These are marketing tips that will always return results.

Constantly Enhance and Adapt

The market and your customers are always changing. Markets go up and down. Customers go hot and cold. It is not always clear as to why they change or why a marketing campaign degrades, but look for trends and shifts in your metrics.

Your market process should have testing and measurement processes that constantly look for and adapt to these subtle changes.

Differentiate

One of marketing biggest goals is to make your products and services stand out from the crowd. Take a quick review of your marketing materials today. Are you saying something different? Are you making it clear what is different about you? Are you communicating that you are the market leader?

Following the leader always makes you #2!

Marketing Strategy Fits Product

This is a mistake that I constantly see in marketing–marketing doesn’t match what you are selling. Products (especially in debt and mortgage) are constantly changing and shifting. Are you marketing yesterday’s program or rate environment?

Make sure that all of your marketing messages tie closely to your products and sales process. Marketing should not only tell consumers what they can get from you, but also what to expect during the sales process.

Distribution is Critical

Consumers will never see your award winning marketing if it sits in some sales person’s desk drawer. Make sure you have a plan for distribution for every piece of marketing collateral.

Make sure that you message fits the medium. Your yellow pages ads should be different from a website banner, different from a blog post, different from a direct mail piece.

Diversify

You never can be sure what will work. It is important that you are always trying different things and different mediums. Get a plan and then test it. If you haven’t tried online marketing, Twitter, Facebook, or think that newspapers are dead; don’t be hasty in discounting any marketing method–test it.

What is attraction marketing? Don’t change the channel. This isn’t the latest MLM pitch. We are going to stay on topic and talk about mortgage and debt marketing. Granted this “attraction marketing” term is making its rounds in the MLM Web and email spam, but there are some fundamentals that are important to your own marketing and sales success.

People buy from people they like.

Inherently we are human. That is makes us hang around with and buy from people like us. Unfortunately, most of marketing and sales training avoids revealing ourselves to our customers. We hide behind corporate banners, marketing, and branding. Everyday that means we have to fight through the perceptions (many negative) that people have about our big companies or industries.

Like it or not most people don’t want to go have a beer with a debt counselor or mortgage broker, but our friends do it all the time. Why is that? Because when people get to know us without the negative label most of us are pretty cool.

That is what attraction marketing is really about. Let your personality, your passions, your hobbies show through. You will begin to attract customers that are like you. And guess what…these are easy sales.

How do you do this? Use all of the easy social media tools that let that happen:

• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter
• etc…

Find one or more social media outlets that you are comfortable using and unleash your true persona and let attraction happen.

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Chances are if you are visiting this blog you buy Internet leads. Starting with that assumption, I have a very important question for you. Do you have a mortgage or debt website?

Why is this so important? Think about your lead (your customer). They are Internet savvy consumers that went online to research and inquire about a mortgage or debt solution. Therefore, it is very likely that the first question out of their mouth will be: “What is your website?”

So, let’s take a few moments to discuss why having a website is so critical to being successful with Internet leads.

Internet Leads are Web Users

The customers that are your Internet leads are by definition Web users. They landed in your sales queue because of a website. They will expect to continue using a website to aid their mortgage or debt process. So, if you want to hold the attention of this consumer you need a website.

A website also gives you a built-in sales assistant. You can refer your leads to your website for answers and compelling information to do business with you. Even after you engage that lead, this customer will return to the Web to research and verify your sales process and products. Make sure you have somewhere for them to go. Otherwise, they will be using your competitors’ sites.

Building Credibility and Trust

Again, leads are Web users–they will instinctively go to the Web to validate you. Make sure that you have a professional website. One that quickly shows your prospects that you are experienced, credible, licensed, and legitimate.

Your website should provide detail information on your mortgage and debt products, testimonials, licensing details, and contact information. This will make your customer immediately more confident in working with you.

Increasing Referrals

A website also gives you great additional opportunity with that mortgage or debt lead. Having a website gives that happy customer a really easy way to refer their friends and family to you. Social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter make this increasingly important. These tools are used to quickly and easily push around links and recommendations.

Your website also encourages this social referral. Simple tools can make it easy to Tweet or Facebook an interesting article from your mortgage or debt site. This is free marketing with the added punch of a trusted endorsement.

Enhancing Partnerships

A website also gives you the ability to enhance your partnerships with real estate, legal, and accounting professionals. Making it simple to recommend and refer clients to these partners will quickly increase your own referral business.

Also, for the Internet lead (customer) checking you out for the very first time–these partners add value and credibility to working with you on their mortgage or debt solution.

Regardless of your lead buying strategy, you need to have a website component to improve the performance (conversion) of your leads.

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