Social Media and CRM working together for better lead generation

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At the recently concluded Internet Week in New York, the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) hosted a panel discussion on social media and its impact on CRM. The resounding message from the expert panellists, all big names in the advertising and marketing industry, was that sales and online conversations (a.k.a. social media) are now inseparable and must go hand in hand. The essence of B2B lead generation has always been to help a brand find entry into the minds of customers. Planned or unplanned, orchestrated or inadvertently, brands are entering the customer mindset via social media channels. Businesses that recognize this and make efforts to take control of this process will emerge as the biggest winners in CRM profitability.

Today’s quick tip on how to use social media to improve your CRM for lead generation:

Make your social media channels fertile ground for finding leads. On your company website, your B2B lead generation efforts are ideally tied to a specific call to action and information gathering process that feeds your CRM database. In an online social community, however, there are potential B2B leads that you may not be aware of; yet these can become your biggest customers someday! Encourage a healthy relationship with your brand by providing interesting and useful information via blogs, forums, wikis, a Facebook page, Tweets and Squidoo lenses. Even without a compelling call to action or asking these leads for their contact information, you will be planting the seeds for great leads that will convert into customers when the time is right – i.e., when that B2B lead reaches a level of comfort and confidence in your company to want to get in touch with you.

There are social media optimization (SMO) professionals and lead generation companies each aiming to deliver results in their defined field of expertise. For B2B lead generation and CRM to work at optimal levels, you need a consulting service that finds common ground between social media and CRM. Rather than place your precious (and limited!) marketing dollars in the hands of a social media marketing company, choose instead a specialist lead generation company that delivers Strategic Marketing Services – leveraging the power of social media and CRM. I will share more tips on how social media and CRM can work together to improve your lead generation in my next post.

Have you successfully integrated social media with your CRM for better B2B lead generation? What are your opinions? Let me know at lfoong (at) thealeagroup.com or comment below.

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Louis Foong
Louis Foong is the founder and CEO of The ALEA Group Inc., one of North America's most innovative B2B demand generation specialists. With more than three decades of experience in the field, Louis is a thought leader on trends, best practices and issues concerning marketing and lead generation. Louis' astute sense of marketing and sales along with a clear vision of the evolving lead generation landscape has proved beneficial to numerous organizations, both small and large.

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