word of mouth

Musing about Social Media and its lead generation effectiveness

12/01/14 09:51

Social Media is a major part of any B2B sales or marketing strategy that we endorse for our clients at My Lead Agency. It doesn't mean we always enjoy or embrace social media. Despite the typical verbosity of my blog posts, I don't always have a lot to say. I'm good with 2-4 character posts ("Yup", "Nope", "OK") rather than 140 characters, and blogging can sometimes be downright painful. I've got so much to do during the day that social media can sometimes be an afterthought. With that all said, is it effective for lead generation? Well, as it relates to inbound marketing, it's critical however we need to keep perspective; it's still only one tool in our bag of business development weapons. In other words, stay focused on developing a comprehensive and holistic approach to your lead generation efforts; do not get tunnel-vision and believe social media is the answer to all of your sales pipeline woes. Trust me when I say that many companies we work with have been barraged with sage advice preaching that social media will fill their coffers. With that as the inspiration for today's post, I decided to go have another look at the MarketingSherpa 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report and see what the numbers say about this topic.
When asked to indicate the effectiveness of social media for their organization, the answers were as follows:

16% - Very effective
59% - Somewhat effective
25% - Not effective

What's interesting about these numbers is how MarketingSherpa chose to interpret them: "the majority of B2B organizations perceive this as either a very effective or a somewhat effective tactic.". Personally, I see the glass half-empty on this one. That is, that the majority of B2B organizations perceive this as somewhat effective or not effective at all. And, it should be noted, my "majority" is bigger than MarketingSherpa's "majority" when you add up the numbers. So, that tells you that the experience of most marketers is somewhat still out on the impact of social media. Of course, many pro-social-media pundits will simply claim that these organizations aren't effectively using social media, nor do they have the expertise or resources to implement it properly; and they would be right in most cases. That said, it's just another affirmation that social media, like any marketing tactic, must be implemented intelligently.
If I drill down further on this topic, MarketingSherpa asks the question "Which of the following social media tactics does your organization currently use? Check all that apply". The answers are intriguing:

87% - Participating on company branded or managed social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
64% - Microblogging on company branded or managed microblogs (Twitter, Jaiku, etc.)
64% - Blogging on company branded or managed blogs
62% - Sharing content on multimedia sites (YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare, etc.)
59% - Using social media to improve search engine rankings (SEO)
41% - Social media news releases
33% - Blogger or online influencer relations
30% - Sharing email content with social media sites
21% - Advertising on blogs, social networks or other social media sites

So my takeaway here is that companies engage what requires the least amount of effort, such as Facebook and Twitter. Everyone can do a small little update here and there. That's not too time consuming. However, blogging does take more time and effort, as does content creation and SEO. Influencer relations can take an especially long time, as you need to develop a relationship over time; that will only happen if you have something valuable to say or great content to contribute. MarketingSherpa actually has another chart that details the perceived level of effort required for each of these initiatives, which fundamentally documents our noted assumptions.
Alright, let's bring this blog post home and reference the chart that really means something to those within the organization responsible for revenue: Please rate the following tactics for their level of effectiveness in achieving social media objectives (1 star is the lowest level of effectiveness, 5 stars is the highest level). For brevity, I'm going to add up the percentages for those who answered 4-stars, or 5-stars, into a single percentage, as that percentage reflects a strong perception of the tactic's effectiveness in achieving the organizations's goals for social media. For our clients, that goal is almost always lead generation.

44% - Blogging on company branded or managed blogs
40% - Using social media to improve search engine ranking (SEO)
34% - Blogger and online influencer relations
30% - Sharing content on multimedia sites (YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare, etc.)
30% - Participating on company branded or managed social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
24% - Microblogging on company branded or managed microblogs (Twitter, Jaiku, etc.)
20% - Social media news releases
24% - Sharing email content with social media sites
17% - Advertising on blogs, social networks or other social media sites

So what's my takeaway from this? Organizations are not optimally using social media. While Twitter and Facebook are good, and often fun, they are not ranking well enough on achieving corporate objectives relative to the investment required. On the other hand, blogging, SEO, influencer relations, and content creation is more successful at achieving those goals.
Why?
In the end, deals occur because of relationships. One party trusts another to help them resolve a pain they have. Trust is built slowly, often after repeated demonstrations that a vendor has skill, and a track record of success, such that a Buyer's objections, and fear of risk, are mitigated. The vendor becomes credible. As is often the case behind earned trust, word-of-mouth implies credibility. When a trusted advisor refers a vendor to a friend (virtual word-of-mouth), the vendor is perceived as credible and trustworthy. That's what content does for you. It puts your knowledge in a consumable format. That content is then shared among friends. If it's deemed valuable, trusted Influencers reference and endorse you. Blogs also convey personality and are a more personal way of referencing and delivering content. Content builds SEO. Content becomes a sales and a marketing tool; it's embedded in your processes with things like lead nurturing or objection handling. And all of these factors generate inbound leads which then results in measurable lead generation success.
So there you have it. My musing for the day. Sorry I went a bit long. I did admit initially to being verbose with my blogs. I'd love to hear your feedback.

Tags: content, lead generation, business development, SEO, word of mouth