What Is Lead Generation?

Updated October 26, 2025

What Is Lead Generation?

Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers into prospects, with the aim of nurturing them toward becoming customers. In the context of social media, it involves using platforms to identify potential leads, engage with them, and collect information to support sales efforts.

Definition of lead generation

Lead generation takes place in the second stage of the inbound marketing process, and it plays an important role when it comes to converting visitors that you previously attracted to leads.

Furthermore, lead generation enables you to run more specific research and collect essential data about your audience from different demographic locations, focusing on their wants, needs, as well as their objectives, and preferences. This way you can constantly improve your services and add more value to your product based on verified information.

Simply put, a lead is a potential client that has shown interest in your products or your company’s services. The process entails a broad range of different tactics and strategies which, if applied correctly to each social media platform, can positively influence your marketing efforts.

Fun fact

A survey by eMarketer has shown that online visitors that have participated in live chats were more likely to buy a product (38%), and others said that they are willing to revisit their website in the future (63%).

Recommended for you: Content Syndication: An Effective Marketing Strategy for Lead Generation

Lead generation on social media platforms

Facebook created a feature that allows you to easily send your followers directly to your website through a call-to-action button placed at the top of the page. On the other hand, Twitter has incorporated a feature called “Twitter Leag Gen Cards” which enables you to generate more leads through a tweet without having to type in your website.

The lead generation cards take care of everything, they automatically collect your user’s name, email, address, and Twitter username into the card. To become a lead, all they have to do is to press the “Submit” button.

LinkedIn used to be one step ahead since its beginnings, they have created a form that automatically gathers useful information when it comes to their leads, by simply clicking a call-to-action button.

For a successful online lead generation strategy, it is recommended to have the right buyer persona in mind when creating the best suitable marketing campaigns.

Frequently Asked Questions

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