How to turn social media engagement into real business results

Social media is one of the most powerful tools for lead generation. Yet many small businesses still treat it as a branding-only channel. That’s unfortunate because social media can be a direct source of sales conversations and partnerships.

This article explores how to use social media to generate leads, and which tools can help you get even better results.

Why social media is a goldmine for leads

According to the HubSpot 2024 State of Marketing report, social media marketing is now the top channel for marketers in terms of investment. This trend reflects a growing recognition that platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook can be highly effective for lead generation—especially when paired with a good strategy and weekly consistency.

When your target audience sees valuable, relevant content from you regularly, they start to pay attention. And when the timing is right, they engage.

The challenge? Turning that engagement into action. Especially, in B2B sales it takes more than one interaction to close the deal.

But first, how do you grow your brand and start attracting leads?

Six tips to attract and convert more leads from social media

1. Start with value-driven content

Great lead generation on social media starts with understanding your audience. Once you’ve nailed that, you start creating differents sorts of content that speaks to them.

At Willow, we follow the Six Pillar Framework for social media success. Among other things, it helps you with:

• Sharing valuable insights to position your business as an expert
• Showcasing personality to build trust
• Being consistent to stay top-of-mind

Each post should serve a purpose such as, educating, inspiring, or sparking conversation.

2. Use different content formats

It’s not just what you post, but also how you present it. Different content formats serve different parts of the buyer journey. Some effective lead-generating formats include:

• Carousels that break down a concept step-by-step
• Short-form videos with a strong CTA at the end
• LinkedIn documents or checklists that are easy to download and share
• Thoughtful insights into current industry topics to spark discussion

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3. Understand what drives interaction

People engage with posts that speak to their needs, reflect their values, or challenge their assumptions. A well-timed post on a trending topic or a relevant pain point can trigger meaningful responses.

Robert Cialdini’s principles of persuasion—like authority, reciprocity and social proof—are particularly relevant here. Demonstrating expertise and highlighting success stories can make your brand more compelling without being pushy.

4. Engage actively and respond fast

When people comment or message you, that’s a sign of interest. Quick, personalised responses can turn those signals into meaningful business relationships. Unfortunately, many B2B companies use content scheduling the wrong way. They use a social media management platform for a  “set and forget” approach rather than as a strategic tool to post content at the right time while also engaging with others.

Learn how to engage effectively and avoid letting those touchpoints go cold.

5. Put AI to work for you

Smart tools can reduce the manual effort of content creation. Willow AI helps you write social media posts based on your website content. It saves you lots of time but makes sure you stay authentic. (Who’s interested in working on their personal brand, can use our new tool: Will).

This lets you focus more on strategy and interaction—where your human touch makes the biggest difference.

6. Track and follow up

When companies finally manage to create a consistent social media agent that attracts interest from potential customers, they fall short in the next steps... They engagement but nothing happens. Leads get lost in DMs, emails, or forgotten comments.There’s no follow-up.

This is where our partner RogerRoger can help.

RogerRoger is a shared inbox and task manager that integrates beautifully with Willow. It helps teams track every social interaction, assign follow-ups, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

How does lead follow-up with Willow + RogerRoger work?

When you have a small team, every opportunity counts. Combining Willow and RogerRoger means you can easily create content and track the engagement you get. It can easily save you a few hours per month and make your work quite a bit easier.

Willow helps you build a social strategy that attracts attention, and RogerRoger helps you capture that attention before it disappears.

Here’s how it works

• Write, schedule and publish content through Willow.
• Track engagement and analyse what works to create better content.
• Route social comments and messages directly into RogerRoger’s shared inbox.
• Assign leads to team members, set deadlines, and track outcomes.

Care to learn more?

Book a free consultation and we’ll walk you through how to set it up.

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