Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 There are hundreds of differing opinions regarding the effectiveness of using social media for lead generation. This is my opinion and it comes from over two years of trial and error using what I consider to be the best tools available for the social media marketer. Social is an essential channel for the modern marketer to have a presence, but it can’t become the number one revenue driver all by itself. Instead, it needs to be integrated into the overall marketing mix to truly reach its potential. Social media leads must be nurtured. Social leads are often not ready to buy and need to be nurtured properly. Throwing thousands of unqualified leads into your funnel every month is a complete waste of time if they are never going to buy your product. So target appropriately and keep your content strategy focused on the pain points and hot topics around your target personas. Content fuels social for sure, but having too much content that is way too broad can be a waste of resources. Social plays a key role throughout your entire sales pipeline, beginning before prospects are even identified (while they research and follow your thought leadership on social media sites), to after they become customers (as they remain loyal customers through retention and cross and up-sell opportunities). Inbound is not enough. I cannot stress this last point enough. Using inbound alone to generate leads with social media is like hanging out with only the same group of friends from elementary school your entire life. Adding a bit of paid promotion is the only way to break through to the coveted friends of friends, or second degree connections, while targeting social users and growing your overall reach. Inbound alone is not your answer, it’s part of the equation for success. If a lead falls into a funnel and no one is around… What good is putting all of this into practice if you cannot track your success and determine if these leads are turning into customers? It’s not. Make sure you are using a platform such as marketing automation to track lead source. I prefer to track each channel individually so that I can tell which one is most effective. Then, I break down the cost per lead and compare it to other sources. In a nutshell So there you have it. The truth around social media leads straight and to the point. The bottom line is that social needs to be integrated across your entire marketing strategy in order to be effective. It’s also not going to be free as it requires staff and a budget, but that’s another blog post altogether. Of course there are some details I skipped over here, but I invite you to download the Definitive Guide to Social Marketing for a full lesson. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article originally appeared on Modern B2B Marketing - Marketo Best Practices Blog and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C Author: Jason Miller Follow @JasonMillerCA Currently rocking the content and managing the social media strategy at Marketo which was recently named fastest growing private company of Silicon Valley. Fascinated by the science of marketing and truly humbled to be working alongside the smartest folks in marketing automation and revenue performance management software. In addition… View full profile ›More by this author:12 Insights for Visual Content Success with InfographicsKittens & Bacon: The Most Viral Infographic EverWhat Your Desk Says About You [Infographic]