How to qualify leads from social media in five checks

The five checks

1. Fit: does their profile match the kind of customer you serve best?
2. Interest: did they say or do something that shows a need you solve?
3. Timing: did it happen recently? Interest fades within days.
4. Authority: can they decide, or do they influence someone who can?
5. Reachability: can you actually message them on this network, or only follow?

Signals worth ranking up

• Asking for a recommendation or a tool.
• Complaining about a competitor or a current solution.
• Describing the exact problem you solve.
• Engaging with several relevant posts, not one.

Signals to rank down

• An empty or private profile with no detail.
• Engagement that is only a reaction with no words.
• Someone who sells what you sell.

Where Avocado Leads fits

Avocado Leads does the collecting, ranking and pacing part of this work. You paste a post, a profile or a search, and it saves the people who commented, reacted, followed or match, then scores each person from 0 to 100 on buying language, how recently they were active, how well they fit your business and how reachable they are.

It then runs a paced follow or connect campaign from your own signed-in browser, with a message after where the platform allows one. It never asks for your social passwords, and it keeps to hourly, daily, weekly and monthly caps for each network. The limits that come with each platform are on the platforms page, and the safety page explains what it will not do.

A simple scoring sheet

Give each lead one point for each check it passes: fit, interest, timing, authority and reachability. Five points is a lead to contact today. Three or four is worth a message this week. One or two can wait or be dropped.

Do not chase precision. The point is to put the best leads at the top so your limited daily messages go to the people most likely to answer.

What to do with each group

• Five points: send a personal first message today.
• Three or four points: send a lighter message, or follow first and message after they follow back.
• One or two points: leave them. Revisit if they engage again.

Common qualifying errors

• Treating a like as strong interest. A comment with words says far more.
• Ignoring timing and contacting people weeks after they engaged.
• Scoring on follower count. A small account can be an ideal customer.
• Never revisiting a lead who engaged again later.

Key takeaways

• Check fit, interest, timing, authority and reachability.
• Score one point for each check and contact the highest scores first.
• Read a person's actual words before you message them.
• Revisit a lead who engages again later.

Questions people ask