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.

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