Businesses can use social media to engage their audience and encourage digital word-of-mouth. The big question is: how do you increase leads with social media, so you can ultimately turn them into sales? In this blog, we share four ways to help you increase leads with social media usage.

Put in the time to create high quality content.

Simply starting Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts for your business will not increase your sales leads. You need to give people a reason to go to your social media sites, and a reason to keep coming back. Business owners need to think about the content they choose to share. For example, posting a picture on Facebook will get you a higher level of interaction than if you post a plain text status. Photos are often seen by more people and more often shared. Post things that your current and potential customers will find appealing and be more apt to like and share. Those crazy cat photos work for some business demographics, but not for most. Think about what your customer's ask you about, and share information to help answer their questions.

Treat everyone like an individual.

Fans and followers of your business will be at different levels of the sales process. Some people will have never heard of your business before and others will already be big fans. You want to maximize the opportunities by connecting with your customers who openly talk positively about your business or products, and then tell their friends and family about their experience. But you don't want to alienate other current and potential customers Visitors to your social media pages, potential customers in this situation, do not want a business to only post aggressive sales pitches. Think about how you talk to a customer face to face. Do you only talk sales, or do you strike up a small conversation? Similar to how you adjust your sales pitch based on customer needs, you must adjust your sales pitch while engaging your fans on social media. Remember, customers want to know what's in it for them.

Invite people to your website and retail location.

Once you've engaged people on popular social media sites, invite them over to your website or retail location. Your fans are interacting with you online because you have something to offer. Now is the time to get your fans into your brick and mortar store or to your website. Entice them to learn more about your products and services with blog posts, sales, and events. The more the customer becomes aware of what your business is all about, the more likely you are to come away with a sale. The same methods that you use to make social media work for you, will also work towards driving traffic to your website and retail locations.

Maximize your posts by tracking the best times to post on various social media sites.

The way a business uses Facebook is different than the way they should be using Twitter. The same goes for other social media sites such as Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, and any other site. Depending on the type of business, different social media platforms work better than others. Check your analytics within your social media sites to determine which posts got the most engagement and when. Twitter is busiest during the week, so there's more competition. By posting on the weekend, you get more interaction with others, but less of an audience. Facebook interactions are more likely to happen during the day before 3 p.m. for some businesses, and after 7 p.m. for others. Trial and error will help you