Is there no future for generating leads on Social Networks?

I learned a good lesson on writing surveys. On last year’s Web 2.0 Tools Survey we asked B2B marketers what Web 2.0 media they had deployed in programs during the previous year.

It was only when I reviewed the compiled data did I realize that the marketers had responded from two perspectives: both as a B2B marketer and then in some cases, as a user.

How else could you explain the anomaly that the most favored wiki tool was Wikipedia and the most popular social network was LinkedIn despite no evidence that any B2B marketers use these media for lead generation?

Some social networks make their money on corporate recruitment. A year ago, the Economist reported that LinkedIn has over 350 corporate customers which pay up to $250,000 each.

In the March 22nd issue of the Economist, the unnamed reporter proffers a dismal view for the fortunes of social networks citing a couple of key examples:

- Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder stating that Google’s “’social networking inventory as a whole’ was proving problematic”. Google places ads on MySpace and owns Orkut.

- Facebook’s failed attempt to make money with its Beacon applet that announced the purchases of friends provoked a backlash and prompted an apology from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Yet the social networks continue to try to build a viable business model.

Today, MySpace announced a deal with three of the big four music labels (Universal, Sony and Warner) to sell music downloads, concert tickets and merchandise through a joint venture called MySpace Music.

John Murray of the Silicon Valley News is sceptical: “The idea sounds sensible in principle, but neither the labels nor MySpace has exactly been adept at climbing aboard the digital sales bandwagon, so we'll need to see the execution before deciding if Apple and Amazon have anything to worry about.”

Based on the research on Web 2.0 tools that we conducted last year and another study conducted by the ANA & B-to-B Magazine, social networks are amongst the least attractive media for lead generation.

So if you are looking to generate leads its best to focus on the top performing Web 2.0 media: blogs, podcasts, videocasts and RSS.

Its interesting to note that the Economist concludes the March 22nd article by noting that as social networks mature, the foundation for communication will move away from ‘walled gardens’ to open communications like email and RSS, thus rendering the early social networks obsolete.