With Social Media being one of the primary methods of marketing for small businesses these days, a good follow-up system is crucial if you want to stay in the game.

Do you have a process in place for getting back in touch with anyone and everyone who shows interest in doing business with you? A method of catching all those leads who may be trying to decide on an investment of goods or services?

If you don’t, you’re quite possibly leaving money on the table.

There’s a critical piece of the business success puzzle many entrepreneurs are missing, and that is the follow-up.

Think about it. How many times do you reach out to a business or service provider with the intention of making a purchase, but for some reason or other, you don’t. It happens to me all the time. When the inspiration initially hits, you make some phone calls, gather some information, and sit on the decision for a little while. Sometimes, longer than intended. I know I want such and such a service, but if it isn’t an immediate need, I may just put it off.

Do you know when it might resurface and become a priority again? If one of those businesses comes back to me asking how I’m doing and if I’ve reached a decision yet.

Nine times out of ten (that is a non-scientific number), this simple step may result in a sale.

For instance, if I’d contacted an attorney and inquired about preparing a will or legal document, an insurance agent because I was looking for a new type of coverage, or a speaker if I was looking for a keynote for my next event … the act of following up could result in hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Minimal effort for significant gains.

Today in the age of social media where things move so incredibly fast, those of us in business must be prepared to follow up more quickly and efficiently than ever before. All it takes is one Tweet that doesn’t get replied to, an email inquiry that sits in the inbox for too long, or a voicemail that is never returned, for you to lose a potential sale. And, if that person takes to the social air waves about how unresponsive you were, you potentially stand to lose much more.

Here are a few ways you can boost your follow up game.

• Set up an autoresponder for your Facebook Messenger, letting anyone leaving a message know when you’re in the office and when they can expect a reply. It’s easy to do and you can even customize your message to provide people with a list of FAQs. Go ahead and get creative. Just go into your Facebook Page settings, click your Messenger settings, and go to Response Assistant. At least that’s how you do it at the time of this writing. Facebook tends to change rather quickly these days!
• Hire a team of online marketing experts to manage your social media channels so you don’t miss any leads. These professionals can also help you set up a lead funnel so all the follow-up tasks for social media are taken right off your plate.
• Set up reminders in your calendar to follow up with email leads, two or three days after they inquire about a service. Make it part of your process. Reply to a lead? Send them a personal email inviting them to schedule a time to chat with you – make sure you include a link to your opt-in and invite them to subscribe to your newsletter. Follow them on social media, or make a point of following up with them some other way.
• Set aside a few minutes each day to touch base with cold leads that never went anywhere, but still might be viable. Ask how they are doing – if they are still in the market for x-y-z, and then encourage them to contact you if they still need your services, or if you can ever be of help to them in the future. Inform them about any services or products you have that may be of interest to them.
• If someone gives you a shout out on Twitter or Facebook in response to someone looking for the service you provide, thank that person publicly and invite the prospective new lead to send you a direct message if they would like to chat. If you already know the person looking for services, you might want to follow up with them via a personal email in a couple of days to check in, in a polite, non-aggressive way.
• When someone connects with you on LinkedIn … always send a message thanking them for connecting (even if you initiated the contact), and let them know you’re there if they ever need anything. Do NOT, however, add them to your email list unless they ask you to do so!

Do you have any additional follow-up tips for this age of social media? If you do, I’d love to know what they are … just leave a comment!