Today is the second day of the Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.
On Day One, Mark Wilson, VP Marketing, Sybase presented a unique perspective on social networks. Mark can be seen on the far right of the photo of the panel on Marketing for Sales Success (click on the photo to expand the photo size).
The topic of social networks arose in an unexpected scenario: Mark Wilson advocates using social networks for lead nurture.
This comment was unusual in the context of a sales conference and in that Sybase has traditionally used a marketing automation tool to nurture leads that are not yet sales-ready.
Mark’s perspective was that a social network was a great forum for prospects to connect with Sybase customers and fans. Mark favors neutral or third-party networks vs. Sybase sponsored networks.
More posts to follow on the conference.
Follow this link to my photos from the conference.
2 Comments
Robert,
Interesting. Hopefully social networking will be more effective for B2B lead nurturing than it has been for B2B lead generation.
Although I’ve been actively searching for it, up to now I haven't seen much evidence of social networking having a quantifiable impact on B2B leads and sales. Anecdotes, yes. Quantifiable results, no.
Branding and thought leadership might be legitimate justifications for social networking in the B2B world; influencing prospective buyers’ perceptions of your company/products/services. But generating leads? Not so much.
Another fall back justification of social networking is being found by the search engines. However, that might be better accomplished by spending that same time and money focusing on organic search engine optimization of your website instead of spending it on social networking.
Back to B2B lead nurturing: It seems to me nurturing of B2B sales leads via social networking might work if you can get your not-yet-qualified or longer-term leads to sign ups for blog feeds, to follow your tweets, or to join a network or group in LinkedIn, etc. Have you seen anyone doing that successfully?
Sincerely,
Mac
mcintosh@sales-lead-experts.com
401-294-7730
Mac,
According to most of the research, social networks are being leveraged for demand generation much less than other social media. Blogs and RSS are much more prevalent than social networks in lead generation programs.
The number of success stories on lead generation through social networks is low.
I wrote of one software developer who is successfully using social networks for lead generation.
I agree – if I had limited resources most of my funding would go to SEO.
Thanks for your comments.