LEADership by Louis Foong » Social Media

Is Your LinkedIn Marketing Strategy Generating Business Leads or Just More Noise?

Louis Foong — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:46:24 +0000

How useful and effective is LinkedIn for B2B lead generation? I’ll begin by saying what I have seen in recent times—I see LinkedIn as being a good forum of exchange for B2B marketers. Unlike more “personal” channels like Facebook, executives come together on a “professional” platform offering opinions and industry perspectives using LinkedIn Answers. Some of the most exciting management positions are sought and offered on LinkedIn Jobs. B2B events are announced and promoted using LinkedIn Events. Company websites and blogs are promoted via LinkedIn profile pages of organizations

Facebook: What have you done for me lately?

Louis Foong — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:00:14 +0000

As a B2B marketer your quest is primarily to find new, quality leads. You may have a mix of lead generation tactics and processes that have worked for you and some that didn’t. In recent times, you may have also tried Facebook marketing. Did it do something for you…by way of lead generation? I’ve been thinking a lot about social media and why it appears so exciting for marketers in general. So, does the leading social media channel, Facebook have B2B fans? I think it certainly does. Just like the star-struck fans of a Hollywood celebrity or pop star—fans that swoon at a

Let’s Put Social Media in Its “Place”…Remember that it cannot “Replace” Sales

Louis Foong — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:30:36 +0000

At a recent business networking event, an excited senior executive was telling me all about his B2B organization’s brand new social media marketing strategy. I was curious to know what kind of results the company is expecting to see. With much enthusiasm and palpable optimism, the executive told me they were planning to increase market share by 20% over the last year. Not a bad target I thought, although I did not ask for details on numbers. Yet, when I probed further to ask what other sales and marketing initiatives were being put in place to achieve that goal the answer shocked, but

Does Your Social Media Image Match Ground Realities…or is it up in the air?

Louis Foong — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:30:40 +0000

Big brands are quick to communicate their “brand promise” across marketing channels. With the rapid evolution and near total adoption of social media marketing, it is now much faster and easier to communicate with your stakeholders. What the big boys need to keep in mind, however, is that actions do speak louder than words. Your website, company blog, Facebook and Twitter pages can say great things about your commitment to quality, customer service, blah, blah, blah…but if your target audience does not see this reflected in actual experience with your brand then you have a problem

Marketing Resolutions for 2012—Pick One, Many or All!

Louis Foong — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:30:16 +0000

The number of people who get stumped by the question, “What’s your New Year’s resolution?” is huge. The pressure is all around and breathing down our necks…what if you are asked the question and don’t have an answer. We have all done it at some point; made up an impromptu resolution rather than appear laid-back and non-ambitious in front of people we believe are important to us. The thing is, on a personal level, making up resolutions that you really have not thought about and don’t care to strive for may be okay. After all, you are accountable to yourself. At an

A Review of the Top B2B Lead Generation Posts of 2011

Louis Foong — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:29:01 +0000

Looking back over 2011, first thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my posts and join in the conversation and improving approaches to B2B lead generation. If you are new to the blog or a regular subscriber, I thought it would be helpful to summarize the top five B2B lead generation blog posts of 2011 based on total readership, starting with the most popular: 1. Why Aren’t Your Sales People Following Up on Leads Provided by Marketing? It’s true isn’t it? That’s a fairly common situation in the B2B market. When the numbers are down and falling short of target,

Social Media for B2B and B2C—A Carnival of Grasshoppers?

Louis Foong — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:27:21 +0000

Many years ago I watched a TV show called Kung Fu where the blind Kung Fu master calls his young student a “grasshopper” as a term of endearment for one who still has a lot to learn. A quick Google search led me to a scene I remember and I’d like to share it with you. Take a look— Now I’m not claiming to be like Master Po—mainly because I am neither blind nor old! But I was struck at the time by the old man who could see and hear things that others (including the young “grasshopper” boy) could not. My reason for bringing this up here on my blog is because I see a lot of

LEADing Numbers: Connecting

Louis Foong — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:33:48 +0000

According to Wikipedia, there are 205 active social networking sites. When it comes time for your business to be involved in social media – which site do you choose? Who is using the site and which sites are your prospects using so you can try to get engaged in the conversation? If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know I am still challenging B2B marketers on how to effectively monetize social media for B2B Demand Generation but I thought it would be interesting to list some statistics about connecting with people over social media as a starting point. 1.

LEADing Numbers: Featuring Marketing Priorities

Louis Foong — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:09:18 +0000

Continuing our weekly feature of LEADing Numbers: 1. Top Three Priorites for US Marketers in 2011 are: improving segmentation and targeting, integrating into social channels, leveraging social data and increasing relevancy via dynamic content. 2. According to the SageFrog survey, the top sources of lead generation are, in order from most leads to the least leads: referrals trade shows and events online marketing email marketing public relations advertising direct mail telemarketing I think the question should have been which area is the most effective at delivering sales ready leads,

LEADing Numbers

Louis Foong — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:25:51 +0000

I thought we would start some regular features on this blog, starting with a weekly round up of interesting statistics and numbers: 1. 91% of email users have unsubscribed from a company email they previously opted-in to. (source: Hubspot). People whether consumers or executives only want to receive information and news relevant and interesting to them. What are you doing to prevent this attrition rate on your email list? 2. 41% of B2B companies and 67% of B2C companies have acquired a customer through Facebook (source Hubspot). Really? This still does not convince me that B2B demand