We're in the process of adding social media to some of the direct mail lead gen campaigns we're doing for our clients.

We're hoping that the addition of social media will make it a more engaging, richer experience, as well as a potential conversation starter for our client's prospects.

We're dealing with B2B technology companies and the biggest obstacle we run into is getting our clients to think differently about traditional DM campaigns.

Because social media is really just in its infancy when it comes to B2B, our clients are struggling with two basic issues:

1. Dealing with the fear factor associated with allowing user generated content to appear on their landing pages.

2. Allocating precious resources to monitor and engage with site visitors and the content we hope they'll submit.

We've had some success in getting clients over these humps by starting slowly. Instead of creating an open forum for comments, we're allowing visitors to vote (thumbs up/down) on content on the site.

Instead of free form comments, we're asking visitors to submit stories and offering a "prize" for any story that gets "accepted" and added to the site (that way our clients can monitor contest entries). Plus we're adding CMS capabilities that allow the Marketing staff to control when and what is added.

No results yet as these are just launching over the next couple of months.

Adding social media to traditional lead gen is a change in mind set. The client has to see the value it brings. I think it's less about driving people to specific actions, and more about complementing the call to action. It's about creating connections and a sense of openness between prospects and companies.

Lee:

I like your approach that takes into consideration the level of readiness of your customers and allows them to dip their toes into it.

Adding social media to the way companies have done anything requires a change in mindset. That is actually probably as hard as being willing to make the commitment to stick with it.

Providing choices that allow you and your customers to see what sticks or is popular is also a good way to collect feedback. Kudos to you for starting these initiatives with the customers in mind.

Valeria, I'm not sure if you can do lead generation via social media without actually getting involved in the "community." If you just pop in and crassly sell yourself, you probably will be ignored or castigated.

I think, given the tools currently available, it takes creating a presence online, participating and then, if you're lucky, someone out there may like what they see and call on you for business help.

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.

That's my take. Maybe there are other ways to do it, but I haven't come across them yet.

What I am saying (probably not too well) is that social media, for example a blog, can be integrated in lead gen campaigns, not replace.

"The social media alternatives to the white paper can be many - eBooks, activities and conversations that help your prospects further self qualify, posts containing opinion on trends and broad market issues, all the way to potential communities and portals with forum boards to help your current customers see the breadth of services and products you offer as well as what other customers are reading and talking about."

Instead of a one way mini site, make it a platform to give buyers more choices. Begin to extend your presence beyond an automated chat box, or an email form. I am thinking about potential extensions.

It will take a bit of trying for some businesses to find the optimal place between use of resources and what they deem measurable in time and $$$ investment.

Wearing my B2B hat and listening to the objections I hear every day about social media. It's an excellent way to demonstrate thought leadership. Are there ways it can be employed to nurture leads? Exploring with you here.

Valeria,

It's great to see folks talking the issue of B2B lead generation through social media.

I recently started working on a sales team for a company offering several solutions for those looking to outsource their back-end business functions.

Soon we hope to be blogging about one of our niche solutions in order to build brand and industry awareness, as well as to develop and nurture leads.

If we have some success (which we're not sure exactly how we're going to measure, yet), we may look to do it for our other solutions.

Here's a couple of the opportunities we've identified in blogging:

1) This particular industry is a niche with a high learning curve. We're often getting RFPs from folks who don't really know what they're asking.

They're talking about old technology, asking unrelated questions and in general, aren't soliciting the proper information.

And in doing online research, it's clear that there simply isn't a lot of information available on the topic.

We're really good at what we do - and we've been operating in this industry for a long time. So we're looking to offer an open forum to tackle some of the most important issues, as well as a general resource on common jargon, etc.

When companies are looking to outsource in this area, we want them to start with us - and we want to hold their attention with relevant, useful information.

2) We meet a lot of people who are in the early stages of looking to outsource. There tends to be big gaps between when we meet a potential client and when they're ultimately ready to seek a solution.

Therefore, we need some sort of "bridge" throughout that gap - something beyond the monthly phone calls to check in.

A blog allows us to offer a consistent, "opt-in" communication. At the very least, a potential client can get some basic info on the industry.

Ideally, a potential client could recognize our dedication and expertise in the field.

Ideally, a potential client could engage us, ask a question, post a comment, etc. - thereby bridging that aforementioned gap.

So, as has been suggested several times now, blogging is not something we expect to be a magic lead machine.

Rather, we see it as an additional tool - something we can drop at a tradeshow as in, "Hey, we blog about this, check it out."

Or something to help in SEO to draw in the info searchers.

And perhaps a way to develop a new standard RFP for the industry.

Again, great topic!

I just blogged about this conversation - it's a great topic.

I agree that social media activities are a great complement to lead gen - but they are not lead gen. Just as writing white papers, speaking engagements for your staff, hosting webinars, etc. are all great complements but not actual lead gen.

In a B2B environment once you say "this is a lead gen program" you've created an expectation that the program is going to have certain processes, metrics, and an expected ROI - things that you will not have for social media. So I think we need to be careful in how we label these things so that expectations get set appropriately.

On the process side, my experience is that once you say "lead gen" you've got the sales force chomping on the bit to start talking to people - that's challenging enough when you have prospects in mid-program who are showing interest but not ready for a sales call yet. For a social media program, sales presence at the wrong time is disaster.

Lead gen programs work best when there's a context of thought leadership. If your company doesn't have credibility, you can generate leads, but you're likely to have disappointing revenue results. Social media is part of building that context so that lead gen is taking place in an environment where prospects recognize your credibility and are inclined to do business with you.

Great conversation, thanks for raising the topic.

"Adding social media to traditional lead gen is a change in mind set. The client has to see the value it brings. I think it's less about driving people to specific actions, and more about complementing the call to action. It's about creating connections and a sense of openness between prospects and companies."

I think Lee has the right expectations there. As a caveat, I think it's crucial to choose the venues wisely, (if using communities or forums or platforms other than your own) because while the internet does make the world a smaller place, the fact is, we really only want parts of it to be smaller. Some unmoderated forums are where too much time and personality disorder meet, not to mention potential ulterior motives. There's great potential there, but I think also some downside to jumping in blindly.

Cale:

Thank you for sharing such an in depth report. At this juncture we are all experimenting and learning from what we see and hear. To your excellent points:

1. Education is key. Especially in highly specialized businesses there is a tendency to think from the inside out. When, as you discovered, the marketplace needs your expertise but may not know about it.

2. Fabulous way to build a bridge with useful, relevant and possibly sticky content.

The RFP seems to be such a painful process for many. Testing new ideas may get us all started on the way to building a better one. Good thinking indeed.

John:

One of the reasons why I raised the issue here is that there are so many smart marketers experimenting with these tools themselves. Yes, social media tools are definitely fit for lead nurturing as alternatives to white papers or stand alone follow up.

As I researched the topic, I also started seeing (just like with SEO) some facile tips on buying lists through suspect sources without validating or scrubbing the data. And I thought, here we go again. The post was also a great way to get the discussion going and into the great knowledge database that is the Internet -- with your valid comments and push back.

At my own blog I talked about two examples of how social media is *the* lead gen tool for Global Microbrands and small businesses -- those that really do not have a sales force chomping at the bit. But where the sale is contingent upon seeing what are you going to get by buying.

I think it depends on the niche. Some B2B industries will respond better to social media lead gen than others. And even then, you have to find which tools work best for you (blogs, twitter, etc.)

B2B lead gen is best built on networking. Social media is the medium, not the message.

@void where prohibited -- before doing I highly recommend testing and learning. Also asking yourselves questions like what is the worst thing that could happen here? And planning a response accordingly is a must. All solid marketing communications principles, just applied to new media.

@Nathania -- it is a medium. It is the modern version of the telephone. As I wrote in a post at Conversation Agent not long ago: "Social media is not the conversation. It's the room in which you hold the conversation. It still comes down to saying, doing, or producing something valuable for your customer." And it absolutely depends on what you are selling and how channels are set up.

You could check out our site www.docstoc.com - we have a lot of examples of professionals who are getting business leads by sharing their documents/content. I think it's a good example to what you were writing about, hope this helps.

Jason