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Are B2B Companies ‘Socially Challenged’?

by patmcgraw on February 13, 2010

“I’m not seeing a connection between social media and lead generation today,” said Laura Ramos, VP-principal analyst at Forrester Research. “Social activity like Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and various social-syndication methods drive traffic and awareness, but there is much additional effort required to determine if that traffic translates to opportunity. I think the opportunity for social in b-to-b is in building a community, starting with your best customers.”

Sounds like a lead generation activity to me…be where your buyers are, offer valuable and relevant messages and offers, respond to those that contact you with an interest in your message and offer so you can quickly identify [a] sales ready leads, [b] qualified buyers, [c] key infuencers and [d] unqualified inquiries.

The problem is that most companies are struggling with source coding so they can’t tell if the individual came from [ex] Twitter versus direct mail that sent them to the corporate website where they saw the Twitter link…

Though Ms. Ramos’ comment about starting with your best customers is key – and one that I think is often overlooked by companies because (unfortunately) lead generation is far and away the #1 priority (versus retention).   Focus on your customers, strengthen the relationship and provide them with reasons to sing your praises – then watch the new customers come in the front door!

What do you think – can social media drive qualified leads for a B2B organization?  What’s the best approach to succeed?

Source: Socially Challenged, BtoB Magazine

  • Ted,

    Thanks for taking the time to comment - I greatly appreciate the feedback!

    I definitely agree that there has been a great deal of "Fire. Ready. Aim." when it comes to social media and strategy. Personally, I can't remember how many (too many) conversations I have had with business owners and C-level executives that started off with them telling me "We have to get on Facebook/Twitter!" only to have them admit that their desire was driven by an article they had recently read about social media.

    But we are early in the learning curve and I am hopeful that we can learn and improve - intuitively social media makes sense but if we are investing limited business resources, it needs to make dollars and cents. (Sorry, that was a bad pun.)

    Best,
    Pat
  • Like all things marketing, success begins with the objective, a strategy for the objective and then validation that the objective was achieved.

    I think social media such as blogs are great for softening the market and generating leads for BtoB. But you have to work at it and be honest about your objective.

    The weakness of social media at this stage is the difficulty of tracking and proof that the social media strategy achieved the objective at an acceptable cost. We must work harder to reinforce belief with more actionable information. And therein lies the challenge.
  • This past week I had lunch with a V-P of Development for a Retirement Center. He was familar with me from the blogs that I write. He knew enough about me that we jumped into the middle of a conversation that would have taken 20 minutes to get to, if it had not been for my taking part in the Blog world and using social media to promote them.

    This occurs on a more and more frequent basis. All I do is B2B, and the social media landscape has allowed me to create a brand for myself so people know what to expect when we meet face to face.

    Use Twitter, use Facebook, use Linked In, write and comment on blogs, give to others, be real, and the rewards will come in the future.
  • Scott,

    As always, thanks for sharing! And I agree with you - I think 2010 will be a watershed year (for some) as they figure out how to leverage social media.
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