How Do I Identify Clients Online Using Social Media?

So to give you some context to my answer, you should check out my blog post on what a funnel is. I’ll give you a brief description of a funnel in the business context: 

A funnel is the journey you intentionally create for your client to find and work with you. 

This is a great question for us to move into after having defined what a funnel is, because this question assumes that social media is a part of your funnel. 

So, social media doesn’t need to be a part of your funnel. There are plenty of entrepreneurs who don’t have social media as a part of their funnel and they’re making bank, so I just wanted to note that before we dig into this. Don’t feel like social media is the only way you can grow your business, because that’s not true. 

Now, most people use social media within their funnels because it is free, accessible and user-friendly, which is great, but if you want to use social media in your business as a tool, then you have to be intentional about it. Because we’re assuming social media is a part of your funnel, the question shifts to becoming “where does social media sit in your funnel?

Social Media can be at level 1 or 2 in your funnel. 

Level 1: This would mean that you’re using social media to introduce yourself to people. This is how potential clients come to know about you and your services.

For example, if you have social media at the top portion of your funnel, you could be using the strategy of going live (by yourself or with a few colleagues). By using this strategy, you are driving traffic to your business and building awareness around the work that you do. 

Now, I mentioned going live with a colleague or two, because partnering with another person or business is a great way to expand your reach. The top part of your funnel drives potential clients into your journey, and by partnering with someone or another organization you are essentially, casting a wider net by getting in front of their audience as well as your own.

Level 2: This would mean you use social media to convert potential clients into paid clients. So social media won’t be the first way people find you, but it will be the second step in their journey to working with you.

The second level of your funnel is usually an opt-in opportunity, where you’re telling people either how to access the opt-in, and/or you're promoting your offer. 

For example, let’s say you went live with a colleague, new people learn about you and start to follow you. Now they're seeing your content on their feed and within your content you say: 

“Hey thanks for following me! I have this checklist or free module," or, "I'm doing this webinar, I’d love to see you there and here’s how you can sign up." 

People sign up for whatever experience you’re offering, and now people have the opportunity to learn more about your services and the next steps needed if they want to continue to work with you. 

One thing I want to say about using social media to bring in new clients is that social media has virtually no qualifiers or filters. What I mean by that is that basically anyone can follow (unless your account is private, which…if it’s a business account, it should not be private!).

There's no way of filtering out who your actual target client is from everyone else following you, which makes your messaging cri-tee-cal! You have to tell people who you work with and who you serve so that your target client sees it and gets fired up, while anyone else will probably just keep scrolling. 

That’s why, when you’re incorporating social media into your funnel, your messaging has to be crystal clear around who you are, and what services you offer. 

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