Why Social Media Monitoring Needs to be the Alpha and Omega of Your Online B2B Lead Generation Strategy

Posted by JasonB on August 10, 2009

Knowing who is talking about the need for your product or service, where they’re talking about it, and what terms they’re using is over half the battle in generating leads for your business online.   The fact is, social media changes at the “speed of conversation”, so the only way to stay in the conversation is to have the ability to follow it.

I get asked all the time “Should we be on Twitter?” or “Do we need a Facebook page?”  My response always consists of two questions; “Does your target audience look for information there?” and “Do your competitors use it?” 

Starting your web marketing strategy with monitoring social communities allows you to better understand where conversations are taking place, by whom, and the topics being discussed.   Learn more about your customers’ needs, wants, issues and frustrations.    Also observe how many people are visiting AND participating on each site.   

By monitoring your competition’s social network activity, you can gain an understanding of what they’re using, AND what’s working for them.   For example, if your competitor publishes a blog, but upon review you notice they have very few subscribers and/or no comments on their posts, then their blog has missed the mark and their target audience is finding useful information elsewhere.   Alternatively, if you see a competitors’ video on YouTube and it’s been viewed hundreds or thousands of times, it would follow that (1) participants in that industry are using video as a source of information and (2) your competitor’s message in that video has been well received.   

The data gathered during your initial monitoring coupled with information gleaned from its analysis should give you the foundation and benchmarks to begin your web marketing program.  If you’ve monitored properly, you should now understand what terms are being used by your target audience (now your potential keywords), what websites they are visiting (where you should place your content), and what tactics your competitors are using to achieve their search engine rankings (where they’re getting their message viewed and links to their site).   

However, as mentioned above, conversations occurring online change their location and topics quickly.   There are no “crystal balls” when it comes to B2B lead generation online.  After you’ve launched your web marketing program, you MUST monitor again to see what’s working and what’s not.   Monitor the traffic to your site and where it came from.  See if your social media tactics and tools are driving traffic, and make adjustments accordingly.      

Continue to keep an eye on your competitors’ tactics.  One strategically launched press release from a competitor can quickly change rankings on search engines, so frequent observation of their activities is key in out-maneuvering them online.

Your web marketing strategy should not just include monitoring, it should revolve around it.  Because monitoring social networks will tell you where to focus your effort, you shouldn’t be spending resources on social media tools that your target market isn’t viewing.  

As usual, let us know if you have questions or comments, or if we can help.  And please subscribe to receive future posts on B2B lead generation, both online and off.