Social media is a great way to generate leads for your business. However, between Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Blogs, Youtube, Flickr… the possibilities are numerous. Marketers need to set goals and create a marketing plan in order to stay focused. A study from MarketingSherpa shows which social media platforms are the most efficient at generating leads for B2B and B2C.
Blogging is the most constantly efficient platform for getting new leads, both for B2B and B2C. This is not surprising since blog posts bring considerable value to their readers.
For B2B, LinkedIn seem to be the most effective lead generating platform. Indeed, LinkedIn users are online to display their experience and services on their topic of expertise. It is also the network the least obstructed by distracting information.
Facebook is the clear winner when it comes to B2C. With more than 700 million users, Facebook as the largest audience out of all the social media platforms. It is also a place where users go to relax, and share in a very informal settings a lot more prone to attracting customers rather than businesses.
Also noteworthy is Twitter, better than Facebook for B2B but better than LinkedIn at B2C. Youtube and other video sharing sites are also worth mentioning, especially if you are marketing complex or highly visual information.
I consider this post a data point for social media platforms from inception to now. It's going to be interesting to see how much they change over the coming years and to take part in helping company's interact and engage with customers using these various platforms.
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