How to Spot a Lead on Twitter [Flowchart]

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To many salespeople, "social selling" equates to "LinkedIn." According to a survey conducted by PeopleLinx, 76% of reps understand LinkedIn's potential for sales, but a scant 16% see the value in Twitter for social selling.

This gap is understandable. While it's fairly simple to identify a good fit prospect on LinkedIn based on social activity and profile information, spotting a lead on Twitter isn't so easy.

But in the barrage of tweets that flood your Twitter stream each day, what are the signs that someone is looking to buy?

The following flowchart from LeadSift sheds some light on this tricky topic. Factors that can help salespeople recognize a warm or hot lead on Twitter include number of tweets, brand mentions, and recent activity. While it's not a perfect science (I'm sure there are some decision-makers out there who like Justin Bieber), this graphic can aid you in parsing out the tweets to pay attention to from the ones you can safely ignore.

(HubSpot customers: HubSpot's Social Inbox color-codes your customers and leads on your Twitter stream so you can can tell these things right away. Use it to save time and prioritize your Twitter engagement.)