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Is social media effective for B2B lead generation?
I’m probably biased, but I believe the primary objective of business-to-business marketing is driving sales of the company’s products and services.
Of course branding and awareness are also roles that can be played effectively by B2B marketing, but from my point of view these are only supporting roles—secondary to the primary objective of helping drive sales.
In many, if not most, of the companies that sell their products or services to other companies, driving their sales with marketing is best accomplished by using one-to-many marketing communications tactics: To be found by or to proactively contact prospective customers; to deliver key messages and offers to them; to motivating these prospects to become sales leads by their responding, providing information or taking actions that identify them as representing real sales opportunities that the company’s salespeople, reps, resellers and distributors can turn into closed sales and revenue for the company.
Other B2B companies try to skip the leads-to-salespeople-to-sales process, instead encouraging prospective customers to initiate purchases themselves from print or online catalogs and/or via order forms, e-commerce sites, phone calls or purchase orders. Yet many of these same companies eventually come to the realization that not every prospective customer is ready to buy now. So they grudgingly develop programs to proactively follow up with and try to influence these longer-term prospects to move forward in their buying process and to consider the company’s products or services as they approach their purchase decision points.
What’s all this have to do with social media?
I have been working hard, for at least a couple of years now, trying to use social media to measurably move the needle in regard to generating B2B sales leads and driving B2B sales.
I’m sad to say I’m not seeing anything beyond anecdotal results, either from my own extensive social marketing efforts, or from those of my clients.
So I’ve also been searching for evidence of leads and sales from social marketing everywhere I can.
However, the only clear cases of success I have been able to find have involved the people who sell products or services to others who are practicing or interested in learning more about social marketing—preaching to the choir, so of speak.
Examples that come to mind include David Meerman Scott, speaker and author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing & Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly, and Joel Comm, the Internet entrepreneur, speaker and author of Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time.
Some new studies that start to quantify the impact of social media on generating leads and driving sales have been recently released.
A blog post I wrote a few weeks back, How does social media rank in influencing business technology purchase decisions? talks about a recent Forrester Research study that looks at social media’s influence on the business technology buyer. Unfortunately, it does little to quantify any actual leads or sales results.
Michael Stelzner, best known as the author of Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged, recently released his report on the results of a survey on social media marketing that he’s using as bait for the Social Media Success Summit he’s producing in May. Although "Generated qualified leads" and "Helped me close business" were listed as benefits seen by the users of social media, they were near the bottom of the list of eight choices, and no information was given about actual numbers of leads, sales or ROI. I think it is interesting to note that most of those who said social media helped them generate leads and close business have been active in social networking for years and/or are investing more than 16 hours a week in it. By the way, some of the results in Stelzner’s report may be biased, considering that only social media was used to promote survey participation, starting with a tweet on Twitter that got retweeted by others and was seen by Twitterers’ networks on other social media including Facebook and LinkedIn.
Regarding social media’s impact on B2B sales, last night I read a briefing from B2B sales guru Dave Stein’s company, ES Research Group, called Do The New Social Media Enable B2B Selling? about a survey they recently conducted. It reported that a large majority of the nearly 400 B2B sales professionals who participated in the survey said they are using LinkedIn and approximately a third of them said it has helped them win sales sometimes or often. Not bad! However, only a small number of them reported using any other social media, and only a small percentage of those users reported that those media helped them win sales.
Marketers, please keep in mind that these LinkedIn users are B2B sales professionals, leveraging it to make one-to-one sales contacts—not marketers trying to use LinkedIn as a one-to-many lead-generation tactic. Again, so far, I haven’t found any B2B marketers who have been able to share concrete numbers regarding leads and sales from their marketing via social media on LinkedIn or anywhere else.
A side note: To learn more about how the B2B sales industry is leveraging social media, software and the Internet, consider attending Sales 2.0 in Boston on May 21.
My quest for quantitative proof that social media is an effective tactic for generating B2B leads and sales continues.
I remember a mentor of mine once saying, "Mac, don’t confuse activity with productivity." I think that thought applies to social media. Sure it’s getting a lot of activity, but is it really productive at meeting what I believe should be the primary objectives of B2B marketing—driving leads and sales?
I’m hopeful that at least a few—among the thousands of B2B marketers who have jumped on board the social media bandwagon—will soon be able to prove, through quantitative data rather than one or two anecdotes, that their social media marketing programs are helping drive more leads and sales for their companies.
In the meantime, I’m going to consider marketing through social media to be a tactic more appropriate for branding and awareness, and think of LinkedIn as an effective sales tool for B2B salespeople rather than B2B marketers.
But when my primary objectives are generating leads and driving sales—more difficult than ever in today’s challenging business environment—I’ll skip social media and instead use some of the many other B2B marketing tactics that already are proven to be productive.
Marketers: What measurable results are you gettting from using social media to generate B2B leads and sales?
If you have any quantitative data that shows the effectiveness of social media as a tactic for generating B2B leads and driving B2B sales, please tell us more about it.
Mac–
Very thought-provoking post. I just did an experiment to test marketing to LinkedIn groups vs. Twitter exposure, and LinkedIn won, 271 page visits to 2. Not the leads or sales data you asked for, but telling…more on my recent blog post, http://www.refreshweb.com/blog. I follow up on the comments on LinkedIn posts, and in this case have 3 leads from 271 page views…not huge, but well worth the effort.
Posted by: John Rasco | Apr 13, 2009 at 8:13 pm
At the holidays I tend to get a number of business gifts in the mail, yet I think it’s hard for the sender to quantify the return on those gifts. And I am already seeing the local golf courses packed, but I think it’s hard to quantify the ROI on a round of golf and some beers for a prospect. Sometimes you just know something is working so you go with it. Also, outside of creating leads, there are some concrete things that social media can do- like link building. If your social media improves SEO, and SEO helps your business then social media is working. Now, if you want to start quantifying it, the easiest way to start seeing some results is with unique URLs. Whenever you promote an asset that is attached to some sort of conversion form use a unique URL that will pass the lead source of social media through to your CRM. Then see if any of these leads create sales.
Posted by: Maria Pergolino | Apr 13, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I completely agree, “don’t confuse activity with productivity”. Too often people are preaching “Join the Conversation” and to get in there and “Participate”. But participation doesn’t equal marketing. Participation by itself will not accomplish any marketing objectives. I think the key is to participate in a way that helps consumers move along the so called sales funnel. People have gotten so overwhelmed with the “Cool” factor that they forget and “confuse activity with productivity” and never generate a lead.
Posted by: LJ Jones | Apr 14, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I think there are some real questions regarding how best to leverage social media for B2B lead generation and sales. There are some clear winners (such as Dell’s efforts) that include B2B along with B2C.
And, of course, there are small wins for many firms who get recommended via Twitter (who knows of a good web design company in Boston) but it is still early to know how effective twitter will be for the average B2B company.
Posted by: JC Cameron | Apr 14, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Maria, Thanks for your comments.
I agree that social media can get you links, which help with SEO. And that brand awareness is a benefit of social media too.
But in today’s tough economy B2B marketers are being asked both to drive leads and sales, and to be “accountable” for their contribution to hleping the corporation meet its goals.
“I’m sure it helps…” isn’t good enough. Sadly, the B2B marketers that measure that way wind up sending me their resume when they are looking for a new job.
The B2B marketers that focus on driving leads and sales, and can prove the impact their marketing programs have on both tend to keep their jobs, get bigger budgets, and maybe even get a promotion and raise.
-Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 14, 2009 at 2:59 pm
LJ, Thanks for weighing in.
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 14, 2009 at 3:04 pm
JC, Thanks for commenting.
You mention “clear winners” like Dell. Where is there any data publshed on the leads and sales results of Dell’s B2B marketing via social networks?
Also, does an answer to someone asking their network to recommend something/someone fall into the category of “B2B marketing?”
-Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 14, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Hi, Mac. Just started following you on Twitter. Very thought provoking post and a great blog. We are finding Social Media to be a better branding/PR tool and are looking at other media to gain a prospect/close a sale, both for our clients and for Elymedia. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
Elyse
Posted by: Elyse Tager | Apr 14, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Elyse,
Thanks for joining the discussion and for your kind words about this blog.
I’m glad to hear that at least a couple of B2B marketers, including you, seem to agree with my conclusion that social media is a better vehicle for branding, awareness and PR than it is for prospecting and closing sales.
And thanks for following me on Twitter. I’m honored!
-Mac
P.S.Others reading this can follow me on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/B2B_Sales_Leads
(http://twitter.com/B2B_Sales_Leads)
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 14, 2009 at 6:25 pm
John, Thanks for sharing the results of your social marketing experiment. You are right, page views are not leads and sales. More of an “awareness” metric.
But you did get three leads, right? Can you estimate how many hours of work it took you to get those three leads?
- Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 14, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Hi Mac,
Thanks again for leaving your comments on my blog on this topic.
I agree that given the frothy nature of the social media market that the tough questions on business impact and ROI need to be addressed.
The link below leads to my blog post on social media ROI with brief success stories.
Simply put, the impact of social media can best be quantified based on improved search engine rankings, that in turn drive highly qualified web inquiries.
In other words, what is a page 1 ranking on Google worth?
For services businesses like yours (and mine), the thought leadership established through social media is vital to our inbound traffic.
Not to sound too cheeky
but how has your blogging impacted your search rankings? I see that your efforts in this area seem to be rewarded.
Look forward to more of our blogging discussions!
Posted by: Robert Lesser | Apr 15, 2009 at 12:09 am
Mac.
I think you’re missing the point of social media. Its not about demand generation between a vendor and its customers, its about enabling an open community of consumers discussing whether a vendor is indeed authentic to its offer or promise.
Whether a vendor chooses to participate is irrelevant to the community; its participants are more concerned about what product or service is going to take care of their concerns based up the experiences of the community.
Social media enables a conversation between customers; the vendors role is 95% listening and then communicating what they are going to do to take care of either a missing feature or a breakdown. That public promise to the community will be a testimonial to whether the vendor is trustworthy and keeps their promises.
I also disagree that a B2B’s marketing function is primarily demand generation; that is contextual work and can be outsourced to great companies…what is core to a great B2B marketing organization is developing market intelligence, competitive intelligence, customer intelligence, and developing powerful offers that uniquely differentiate a company in the mind of the customer. This is the hardest work great marketing teams do, and yet it is so misunderstood and underestimated.
Alan McNab
Posted by: Alan McNab | Apr 15, 2009 at 12:12 am
Alan,
Thanks for your comments.
However, I’m not sure I agree with your assessement that “I’m missing the point of social media.”
The main point of my post is that I’ve concluded, at least for the time being, that social media isn’t a B2B marketing tactic for lead generation.
Based on your comments, it seems you agree with me on that point.
However, I do think social media has roles to play in B2B, and generally agree with your points on that subject.
Regarding yoru comments about B2B marketing in general, I agree about the importance of market/competitive/customer intelligence and differientation (the application of which is often called “Positioning”, as in Al Ries and Jack Trout’s famous book on the subject).
Yet, I still believe that B2B marketing’s primary function is demand generation.
If not, then what’s the point of the market intelligence and differientation?
-Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 15, 2009 at 1:06 pm
[...] what extent) your company should get involved in social media, there’s a good article called Is social media effective for B2B lead generation? on the Sales Lead Insights B2B Marketing blog which suggests that there’s not much evidence [...]
Posted by: Can you get sales leads from Twitter, Facebook, etc? (from Business Marketing Online) | Apr 15, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Mac.
Yes, thanks for the correction, we are on the same page regarding social media as an unproven demand generation tool.
And, yes again market intelligence and positioning (ala Ries and Trout) is done in order to target and create demand for products and services.
However, I don’t believe that demand generation is the reason de’etre of marketing – it is contextual and can be outsourced. I think that there is more meaningful work designed to build trust and relationships with new and old customers, and that’s where social media can help.
Alan
Regards.
Alan
Posted by: Alan McNab | Apr 15, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Alan,
Are not trust and relationships actually lubricants to the objective of selling something?
Without revenue from product or service sales, trust and relationships alone won’t sustain a business.
What would happen to your company if somebody didn’t sell its services? I’ll be it would be out of business, sooner than later.
Alan, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I stongly believe that demand generation is the primary objective of B2B marketing. All the other roles its plays, although important, are just supporting roles.
- Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 15, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Excellent and thoughtful post Mac.
Posted by: Terri Rylander | Apr 15, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Terri,
That’s just what I needed to hear at the end of a long day. Thanks!
- Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 15, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Robert,
Thanks for commenting.
I agree that B2B markteing via social media helps with SEO.
However, I wonder if I put the same time and money into optimizing my website (or my e-newsletter which gets me leads and sales but also gets found by the search engines) as I have in my blog, might I have gotten the same or better results? I suspect so.
- Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 15, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I think this article by Paul Greenberg, “Study Says Social Media Not Useful to Close Sales. Duh.” sums it up quite well, especially,
“When it comes to social networks and channels re: sales, there is some value, due to reputation and influence garnered when participating in the social networks including those identified above, but not to close deals. Their value is in developing the kinds of relationships that serve you over time, if you’re a sales person, in pursuing opportunities and finding leads and developing the kind of sales intelligence that provides you with the insight in making your job easier and better.”
For the full article, visit http://blogs.zdnet.com/crm/?p=504
Posted by: Nikki Groom | Apr 16, 2009 at 9:12 am
Nikki,
Thanks for commenting.
Paul Greenberg makes some very good points.
I’ve been told by B2B sales people that the main reason they like LinkedIn is they can use it to get through to individuals at companies they are trying to sell who they otherwise might not be able to find or reach.
- Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 16, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Hi, Mac. Thoughtful piece.
I’m going to agree with you in part and disagree in part.
I can completely understand how you take issue with using Twitter to directly elicit sales leads. It’s probably a very time-consuming way to go, and without scale tools, it’s probably a low-return endeavor.
But I disagree with your overall positioning of B2B marketing. One trap to fall into is for B2B marketers to be so focused on immediate revenues that they fail to invest in and build brand equity and/or to gain broader leverage for their marketing activities; the other trap to fall into is to forget that our customers, today, are multi-channel beings that make purchase decisions cross-channel. So we can’t just live in one place (on the phone or via Internet) just because it is convenient or comfortable for us, today.
Effectively leveraging Twitter for B2B marketing will not close a sale, per se; however, it plays a critical role in the influence and awareness process, as well as in the customer-education and ‘vetting’ process. This is critical both to building sustainable brand equity, from a strategic perspective, and to driving customer dialogue and nuturing, from a tactical perspective. And that’s just outbound marketing.
The other role is inbound. What are your customers saying? How can you evolve and refine your product positioning and messaging to better meet the needs of prospective customers. I think this is the other side of the equation — Twitter as mass ‘focus group.’
In fact, I think this is the more-compelling role Twitter can play in B2B marketing — providing a direct conduit into what customers are thinking about and saying, and giving us as B2B sales and marketing professionals insight that can drive our outbound marketing.
That having been said, effectively using Twitter in marketing requires tools that can gain economies of scale. Those tools are just now being developed, so if you’re having a hard time doing one to many or measuring Twitter … so is everyone else. But just because you can’t mesuare it yet doesn’t mean it’s not working or that you can’t find correlations.
One final note is that we should not lump all social media together. I’m just talking about Twitter here — which is really what I think you’re talking about. Your title of the piece is social media, though, and blogging is another type of social media (as you are doing here) — one that clearly supports inbound marketing and customer dialogue in a more one to many fashion. Would you lump blogging into the mix? I think we should draw clear lines about what we’re talking about.
Again, thoughtful piece, and a good dialogue. Thanks for driving this debate!
Posted by: Adam Needles | Apr 23, 2009 at 8:06 am
What a great article! I find that, when talking to small business owners who are schooled in traditional online marketing and sales strategies, this is often the same kind of thoughts they have about the relevance of social media.
I started using social media around the middle of 2007 and it wasn’t “cool” then. The reason I did was because I was floundering about trying to keep my business afloat in a world of PPC advertising and long, scrolling, hyped-up sales letters.
I simply wasn’t good at that type of marketing.
I can honestly say that yes, social media is a viable leads generation platform and, in reality, figuring out social media is what saved my business. Now I work from home full-time and am able to send my son to private school.
However, that doesn’t mean that social media is ALL I use. I am always trying to learn about other marketing strategies and would be thrilled to be able to simply “sell something.”
But, I’m just better at doing it this way so it’s right for me. Traditional marketing is right for many people too.
I say, do what works.
The one thing that I believe keeps traditional marketers and those with strong sales backgrounds is that they try and stick that type of advertisement and promotion into social media platforms.
It’s just a different medium all together and usually, sales tactics and blatant pitches will not fare well in the social media world.
@Web20Empire
Posted by: Sheree Motiska | Apr 23, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Adam,
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
When I said that branding was a secondary objective to lead generation in BtoB marketing, I didn’t mean to imply it was unimportant, only that it is secondary to the marketing objective of driving leads and sales.
However, do I believe that in good times as well as bad times, branding needs to come along for the ride as marketers focus first on the prospects most likely to buy their products or services, and deliver messaging designed to move these prospective customers forward in their buying process; from awareness to consideration to purchase of the company’s products or services.
I believe the bottom line is that if nothing gets sold, there is no money for marketing, no need for marketers, and the company will eventually go out of business.
In other words, B2B marketing that drives leads and sales AND does a good job of branding is the most effective. A branding campaign that doesn’t drive leads and sales is at best a missed opportunity. Or worse, a waste of money.
Adam, I honestly believe that brand is built more by interactions with a company and its products or services than by its marketing. For example, a branding campaign promoting a company’s great customer service, doesn’t work if the actual customer service sucks. And if the money spent on that campaign was instead put towards improving customer service, the company’s brand would likely improve as a result.
Now, all that said, the thing that will change my opinion is evidence. Please show me some B2B examples of where the companies’ success can be directly linked to its branding in absence of other marketing designed to generate leads or cause a prospect to take a buying action.
Regarding blogging, after tracking every lead and sale at my company since the beginning, and analyzing the results of a few dozen of my large, medium-sized and small B2B clients, here’s what I’ve found:
Blogging, although useful as part of branding, awareness and SEO efforts, hasn’t driven leads or sales nearly as effectively as other b2b marketing media or tactics.
For example, my e-newsletter, in which I invested far less time and money last year compared to my blog, has pulled in far more leads and sales than my blog. In fact, I can’t directly link a single sale to my blog, but can link dozens to my e-newsletter.
And, yes, my blog does help with search engine results, but if I had invested the same time and money optimizing my company website instead, I believe I would have had a better ROI on that investment.
On a final note, Adam, please keep in mind that what my clients and I sell are usually big ticket, complex or technical, involve multiple decision makers, are mission critical and/or involve c-level decision makers. It appears to me that blogs are more effective at driving leads and sales for people selling books, course and other low-dollar educational materials to other bloggers or to people interested in learning how to blog or use social media.
- Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 23, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Sheree,
Thanks for sharing your success story.
Just curious: Can you estimate the number of hours you spend on social media per lead and per sale? And what is an hour of your time worth if you are doing billable or revenue producing work?
- Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 23, 2009 at 5:37 pm
[...] don’t just take my word for it. Here is a great blog on the subject that is written by a sales guru. The subsequent discussion provides great insight [...]
Posted by: Why include social media in your demand generation program? « Brenda Gelston’s Blog | Apr 24, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Mac,
A very insightfull blog post and meaningfull discussion. I’d also be very interested to read good case stories with proven ROI.
So far, our (limited) social media efforts are more about monitoring conversations, building an expert voice and building partner relationships than about lead generation.
About blogs and search engine ranking : it is my understanding that you’re supposed to integrate your blog in your website rather than setting it up as a separate domain name so the “google juice” it generates benefits your website.
Posted by: Philippe Cardyn | Apr 24, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Philippe, Thanks for joining the discussion.
the “expert voice” part is very important, even if it doesn’t directly affect lead generation. It may have a very positive affect during the consideration stage of the buying process, after the lead generation phase.
I think you are correct about integrating blogs with websites. However, some believe that having your blog in a different domain than your website, with lots of relevant links between them, might be better than hosting both in the same domain. That’s the advice I followed.
-Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 24, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Social media marketing today is definitely at the top of its peak as a widely used internet network marketing strategy. Whether it’s B2B or B2C, making yourself an indispensable source of information increases the odds customers will purchase from you. This is the concept of attraction marketing that is being tapped by socia media – develop ongoing relationships with clients and moving them along the buying path in your communications to greatly increase profits on autopilot. These clients will also bring in more business for you via referrals. The more helpful and valuable your information is, the more it establish your credibility and identity as an authority networker. The combination of internet network marketing and social media is a perfect attraction marketing strategy to reach potential customers anywhere in the world. Traditional marketing will never be able to target as precisely as social media marketing. Just imagine the social media profit you can have in being able to recruit people from different places.
Posted by: Authority Networker | Apr 29, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I have found both the original post and the comments on the post very interesting. We currently don’t use any social media but it has been something that we have been trying to evaluate and, I have to say, I have been struggling.
I think the fundamental question is ‘Are your customers and prospects using social media and, if so, what are they using and how are they using it?’. Obviously this is far easier to ask than answer. However, as with all marketing, the most successful campaigns are going to be those where you understand your target market and communicate with it effectively.
With regards to the function of marketing, I understand where you’re coming from in one respect, but if we take your view a step further, it is everybody’s job, from the receptionist, through to the CEO, to generate leads. The company’s image is in the hands of all of these people and that can have a profound impact on its success.
I think where Alan was coming from is what marketers consider to be true marketing. I think it is true that most B2B companies are probably sales-led, and therefore the role of the marketing department in those organisations is designated as generating leads.
The true definition of marketing, however, is understanding customer’s needs and using this information to build products and services around them. The marketing communications process then helps to promote these products and services and aid lead generation. I think that a lot of organisations’ marketing departments are more marketing communications departments, rather than encompassing the whole spectrum of marketing. In a marketer’s ideal world, the marketing function would be the driving force behind the organisation and would determine the organisation’s product/service offering and future strategy. In this situation, the development team would develop the product/service according to customer requirements and the sales team would sell it. The marketing communications would certainly support the sales team, but as the products and services should have been developed according to customer needs, and the business benefits should be clear for all to see, marketing’s main function is not lead generation, but customer demand satisfaction. Sadly, many of us have to live with the reality that marketing is little understood or listened to and often considered as a sales support function.
So, back to topic. If the true definition of marketing is used, social media could prove to be invaluable (if your customers use it!) in order to determine customer requirements and then communicate the fulfillment of these. Personally, I don’t think that it is likely to prove hugely successful for lead generation (depending on the business you’re in, of course – if you are marketing something connected with social media, then I guess this may not be true).
That turned out to be much longer than I anticipated!
Sarah
Posted by: Sarah Nutbrown | Apr 30, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Dear Authority Networker,
Thanks for joining the conversation.
You clearly believe that social networking increases sales. However, can you provide any quantifyable data to prove your claims?
- Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 30, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Sarah,
Thanks for your thought-provoking comments.
It seems that many B2B marketers jumped into social media first, then tried to figure out how to make it work second.
Perhaps now is the time for B2B marketers to survey their customers and prospects to better understand the social media they are using and how they are using it. Then based on that understanding B2B marketers can determine which social media and tactics will actually be on target and have the best chance of positively influencing these prospects and customers.
- Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Apr 30, 2009 at 1:37 pm
[...] Is social media effective for B2B lead generation? [...]
Posted by: B2b Lead Generation & Online Companies | B2B Sales Leads | Jun 29, 2009 at 6:06 am
I have just come across this site and its really great and very informative. This was very a very interesting post with some great points on social media, I my self don’t use this but have spoken to friends and they seem to think that this is a great way to generate extra business, but I think that it is up to the individual. I look forward to visiting again.
Posted by: Wendy Silk Screening | Aug 6, 2009 at 3:06 am
I have not really got into all this social media, but have done a lot of reading about how effective Twitter had become that even little businesses have got onto it to bring in the money and that it is really working for them. So the question is how long will all this last and is it really a necessity?
Interesting topic and blog, I think that I will be learning a lot from here
Posted by: Sue | Promotional Gifts | Aug 7, 2009 at 3:58 am
Nice blog. From my personnel experience I have found that social media marketing leads are not very good converters. Maybe I just have bad luck.
Posted by: siya | Oct 13, 2009 at 3:33 am
Agree with you Steven, on adding the fun element into messages to increase their shelf life. It remains important, however, to be wary of trivializing the subject at the cost of making it light heated. Another parameter to consider would be the length of one’s message — I’d found The Conversation an enjoyable way to engage but also way too long to hold my attention.
Posted by: Ricky | Dec 13, 2009 at 3:53 am
I think the whole social media thing is about brand awareness. Economies of scale apply here. If you have 1000 people twittering, blogging or on some other social network like Linkedin you can start to create brand. “Oh I have heard of you from somewhere.” Versus Joe Beans doing a twitter here and there and hoping someone will call.
Like non direct response marketing it is hard to measure. I think someone called it a black art.
Posted by: Laurie McNaughton | Mar 8, 2010 at 5:16 pm