Identify Cold, Warm & Hot Leads On Twitter

You know that millions of people use Twitter on a daily basis, offering vast potential for finding leads. Keywords, hashtags and social bios are built-in breadcrumbs leading you to a feast of prospects. But how do you know which trails will lead you to your marketing cornucopia? Here’s a strategy on how to spot the best target prospects and know who is hot (sales-ready), who is warm (needs more nurturing) and who’s downright chilly (forget it).

1. Profiles are a great immediate temperature gauge. Twitter profiles can quickly help you weed out the cold leads. Do they have an egg for a profile picture? That’s probably a cold prospect. You want to see a professional-looking photo (or at least not one shot during spring break). Are they using their own name or something like @OMGunicornsaremyfavorite? Does their profile link to a company website or an Instagram account filled with selfies? You’re looking for professionalism, and hiding identity (or oversharing it) is a strong sign that a Twitter user isn’t a hot prospect for you.

2. It’s not really a popularity contest, but... Does your prospect have fewer than 15 followers? You’re looking for engagement, and a lukewarm following is a sign that your potential lead isn’t a regular Twitter user. Followership, however, is not an end-all-be-all sign of a hot or cold prospect. Hubspot uses a graphic by LeadSift to demonstrate a logical progression of questions: Your prospect might have a low following, but have they sent more than a hundred tweets? If yes, keep going. If no, they’ve pretty much frozen you out. But do consider multiple factors before moving on.

3. Set up a framework for qualifying leads. Now that you’ve established professionalism and engagement, hone your focus on that prospect’s hotness. We like to use the acronym BANT (Budget, Authority, Needs and Timeline). Determine whether your prospective lead has the Budget to purchase your offering – which is largely connected to whether your prospect has the Authority to purchase it. Or can they influence the decision-makers? What are your prospects’ Needs – i.e. what can your product solve for them? Find the pain point. And lastly, what’s the Timeline your lead has in making a purchase? How can you tell? Look for keywords.

4. Those keywords are the key. A strong Twitter profile can contain keywords that can help you to quickly discover hot qualified leads. Job titles, professional interests, pain points and other information is often contained within those tight 160-character Twitter bios. Salesforce suggests watching for phrases like “anyone recommend” or “advice on” – those are signs the prospects is looking for something. That’s hot.

5. What else are they tweeting about? How regularly and consistently do your prospects interact with others (again, engagement). Are they responsive to those who mention them? Do they tweet about the same kinds of things that your company also tweets about? What kind of content are they sharing, and are they using hashtags that others in the market are using? If they’re consistently off-topic, you’re looking at a warm lead at best.

6. Who’s hot right now? Those are the leads that meet most of your target criteria. Maybe they retweet articles relevant to your company, or they’re an influencer in their industry. Perhaps they have a pain point that can be solved by your product. Those are your hot leads. Connect with them through content and make sure they find their way into your marketing database.

7. Keep the warm leads on the burner. A warm lead is one that has some promising traits, but might not be an immediate prospect – maybe they don’t have the budget for your product, the authority to pull the trigger or the right timeline. Maybe they don’t have 1,000 followers, but they tweet consistently within your market interests. Engage these leads through content and moving the conversation to Direct Messages. When they’re ready, they’ll know who to come to.