How do you engage a lead on social media?

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Want to generate high-quality leads without burning through your resources? Social selling might be your answer.

This isn’t about spamming DMs or mass-liking posts. It’s about meeting prospects where they already are, understanding what matters to them, and building trust before you pitch.

Social selling done right feels less like selling and more like solving. It’s the art of being visible in the right way, at the right moment, to the right people and showing up relevantly when the timing hits.

The essentials of social selling

Why use social selling?

Let’s state the obvious: cold outreach is getting colder. Your prospects are immune to generic copy. They don’t want to be pitched, they want to be understood.

That’s where social selling flips the script.

Nearly 80% of B2B prospects now come directly from social media. Why? Because that’s where attention lives. And attention is the currency of modern prospecting.

When talking about intent data, today we are focusing on visitors’ websites, but don’t forget the other types of intent you can track inside of LikedIn like: people that have attended an event, people that have liked your post or commented, you can see all of that inside of LGM.

Kevin Patrick – Co-Founder @ Astris Partners

Social selling gives you:

Laser targeting without ballooning your CAC
Warm leads who are already familiar with your face
Scalable outreach—powered by automation but grounded in human signals
A content-first way to build trust before the pitch

Traditional outreach is getting harder every day. Social selling isn’t just another channel–it’s becoming THE channel for B2B sales.

Viktor Hatfaludi – B2B Sales Expert

La Growth Machine turns this into a machine. Identify prospects who:

Engage with your content
Visit your profile
Follow your company
Leave a comment that screams, “I’m evaluating tools like yours.”

Those aren’t just likes, they’re signals. And they’re where your next deal starts.

Choosing your platform: where social selling works best

You could technically do social selling anywhere. However, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook aren’t created equal.

LinkedIn is the heavyweight champ for B2B. It’s where business gets done.

Why it works:

You’re not interrupting, you’re showing up in a context built for conversations
Sales Navigator turns the feed into a high-precision radar for your ICP
Personal brands win here. And the algorithm rewards consistency.

X (Twitter) or Threads are fast-paced, but still gold for thought leadership. Less direct selling, more community-building.

Facebook and Reddit are underrated. They are excellent for niche communities, group interactions, and running ultra-targeted ads. You should be, too, if your prospects are active in Facebook groups or Reddit communities.

The prerequisite to increase your response rate: social warming

Imagine walking into a networking event and going straight to the hard sell. Cringe, right?

Social warming is your digital handshake. It’s how you show up before the pitch, so when you send the DM, it’s not from a stranger but someone familiar.

What social warming looks like in the wild:

You visit a prospect’s profile, they notice
You drop a thoughtful comment, they remember
You show up again on a post they engage with, they start to connect the dots

That’s three touches before a message. Suddenly, your outreach isn’t cold anymore.

Your name in their feed before the message = familiarity = trust.

Viktor Hatfaludi – B2B Sales Expert

And yes, LGM automates all this: profile visits, profile following and engagement. It’s warming done with precision.

LinkedIn prospecting: A step-by-step guide

Step 1: Choose the right LinkedIn plan

If LinkedIn is your playing field, Sales Navigator is your home-court advantage. You get:

Better filters = better targeting
InMail = direct lines to key accounts
Saved lists = easy reactivation and drip nurturing

Think of it as CRM-lite for outbound.

Step 2: Find your prospect’s contact Info

Access is everything. Getting it right matters.

LGM’s Waterfall Enrichment pulls data from the best sources, Findymail, Prospeo, Datagma, and cross-validates it with EmailListVerify + Bouncer. This means fewer bounces, more replies.

Quality data isn’t just about deliverability. It’s about sending the right message to the right inbox.

LGM Team

Step 3: Optimize your LinkedIn profile

Your profile is your silent seller. Every comment, message, and post drives people here. Don’t waste the click.

Visual impact

First impressions matter—visually.

Professional, friendly photo (yes, a smile helps)
Had a custom banner with your brand or offer

Compelling headline

Your headline is your hook. It’s the first thing people read—and you’ve got less than 30 seconds to make it count.

To make your headline stand out:

Focus on outcomes, not job titles
Speak directly to your audience, make it relevant to their goals or pain points
Be specific about the value you deliver

Recommended format:
[What you do] + [Who you help] + [What result you create]

Examples: “Sales Strategy Consultant helping B2B SaaS companies double their conversion rates”

Strategic profile content

Your LinkedIn profile should tell a clear, credible story that shows prospects how you create value and why you’re worth their attention.

Focus on the sections that influence trust and conversion:

About section: Write it like a landing page, not a biography. Highlight who you help, the problems you solve, and the outcomes you drive.
Professional experience: Keep it current and relevant. Emphasize results over responsibilities.
Skills and endorsements: Choose skills aligned with your offer and ICP. Endorsements boost credibility at a glance.
Client testimonials or recommendations: Social proof matters. Let others validate the impact of your work.
Lead magnet (optional): Offer a downloadable resource, framework, checklist, playbook, to show your expertise and start conversations.

Value proposition clarity

Your LinkedIn profile should make your value obvious. In just a few seconds, it needs to answer three essential questions:

Who are you?
Why does it matter to your prospects?
How your solution solves their specific problems

Having an optimized LinkedIn profile amplifies the results of all your other actions. Every time you post content, it shines a light on your profile and drives traffic to it.

Tifany Clémenceau – Content, AI & LinkedIn Expert

LinkedIn SSI (social selling Index) is a helpful metric to assess your profile’s effectiveness. Your SSI score evaluates:

Profile completeness (headline, summary, contact info)
Network size and quality
Engagement levels (posting frequency, interactions)
Professional brand strength (endorsements and recommendations)

Step 4: Start social warming

Think of social warming as laying the groundwork before any sales conversation. Just like you wouldn’t walk into a networking event and immediately start pitching, your LinkedIn strategy needs a thoughtful warm-up phase.

Social warming is about creating multiple touchpoints that make your name and face familiar to prospects before you reach out. Here’s how to do it effectively:

Build familiarity through strategic visibility

Engaging with your prospect’s content isn’t just a nice gesture, it’s a strategic move.

As Viktor Hatfaludi says:

“The lead sees your face 3 times in their notification popup even before you send a DM = building familiarity = building trust.”

This early visibility makes your outreach feel warmer, more relevant, and more likely to get a response.

But it only works if you’re intentional. This isn’t about liking posts at random or dropping “great point” comments.

Focus on quality engagement:

Comment thoughtfully on insights they’ve shared, add something of value
Share your own perspective or experience that builds on theirs
React to milestones (new roles, product launches, company updates) with a relevant take

Done right, this creates a sense of recognition. When your message lands, you’re no longer a stranger—you’re already part of their feed.

Expand your sphere of influence

Your prospects don’t exist in a vacuum, they follow industry voices, comment on expert posts, and engage in ongoing conversations.

To earn their attention, show up where they already are:

Engage consistently with content from key thought leaders in your market
Contribute meaningfully to the discussions your prospects are part of, bring context, examples, or a fresh take
Leverage shared connections to build familiarity and credibility over time

The goal isn’t to be everywhere, it’s to be visible where it matters.
Position yourself as someone who understands their world before you ever start a conversation.

Become an active community member

Go where your prospects already spend time—not to pitch, but to participate.

Join relevant LinkedIn or Facebook groups, online forums, or Slack communities. Once you’re in, focus on building credibility through contribution:

Add value to discussions by sharing insights, frameworks, or relevant experience
Answer questions or help solve challenges in your area of expertise
Avoid direct selling, let your knowledge do the work

This approach takes more time than cold outreach, but it consistently leads to higher response rates, warmer conversations, and stronger positioning over the long term.

Step 5: Activate your social selling strategy

Turn social activity into a pipeline:

Content → Authority: Mix thought leadership with bold takes
Events → Excuse to follow up: Webinars, Lives, co-creation
Daily engagement → Visibility: 10 min/day = top-of-mind
Network growth → Pipeline: Curate connections, don’t collect

Step 6: Write high-performing outreach messages

Let’s keep it real: your first message is your cold open.

Make it specific. Make it short. Make it human.

Great messages do three things:

Reference something real (their content, their role, their comment)
Offer value or a reason to connect (not a product dump)
End with a soft CTA (“Open to connect?” works better than “Book a demo”)

And no: “Hey, just circling back” isn’t a follow-up. It’s filler.

Step 7: Respect LinkedIn outreach limits

No one likes a LinkedIn ban.

LGM experts recommend to stay under:

100–150 connection requests/day
30–50 profile visits/day
120 messages/day

Burning through LinkedIn limits doesn’t scale, it backfires. Play the long game.

Takeaways

Here’s your 80/20 for social selling:

Pick your battleground. LinkedIn is king, Sales Nav is your sword
Make your profile a magnet. Your messaging is only as strong as where it sends people
Warm up before you pitch. Familiarity = higher replies. Always
Lead with content, not requests. Posts > cold DMs. Visibility builds trust
Be human. Be helpful. Be relevant. Your prospects can smell the template
Let LGM do the heavy lifting. From enrichment to engagement, automate smartly
Track the right signals. Views, clicks, comments, connections are your social intent data

Your leads are already online. Your profile is already live. Your next opportunity is already watching.

Now earn the reply.

Social selling isn’t about shortcuts. It’s about consistency, value, and showing up like someone worth replying to.

Titouan – CSM @ LGM