How do you use social media as a marketing tactic? That’s what lots of people are trying to sort out, and there’s no established best practices or simple answers. Marketers are still experimenting and learning what works and what doesn’t. A big part of the challenge, of course, is that social media are fundamentally about people connecting with people for their own reasons.
That’s relevant and valuable for marketers. But there are still plenty of marketing activities that don’t fit with social media in obvious ways, and one of them is generating sales leads.
And so I read Valeria Maltoni’s recent MarketingProfs Daily Fix piece, Throw Social Media in the Mix for Lead Generation, with some interest:
While one can definitely use social media tools to nurture leads, the question remains if it is viable for finding leads in the first place. The first question is where to go to have a highly targeted environment to prospect. Will that be the same place where all your competitors are? I believe in integration, so the interest created by a social media tool should be augmented and supported by an invitation that entices people to check you out and buy your product or service (what marketers call pull).
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When using social media tools, you will need to develop an equivalent for people to signal to you that they are raising their hand to talk about business. Embed a call to action button at the end of your blog posts, for example, that provides readers with a choice: link here for further reading on this topic or click here to talk to us about a need you have or a problem we can help you solve.
Which means, of course, using social media as what they are: ways of fostering connections and community among individuals. This makes business sense: a company whose people are knows in online communities will be a place that people turn when they are ready to make purchases.
But I’m not sure I’d call that lead generation, because it doesn’t lend itself to the kind of process definition and analysis that make traditional lead generation techniques quantifiable and accountable. As one of David Reich observes in a comment:
It’s not very scientific, I know. But I’m not sure how else to do it at this point. If you approach it as simply promotional for lead-generation purposes, you may as well just take out a banner ad.
He’s right. Social media are unlikely to ever fill the role of a lead generation program: delivering qualified leads to a sales organization for action. Yes, social media activities will bring new customers in. They will help keep customers. They will help companies understand their customers better.
But true lead generation? I don’t see it. What do you think?