Lead Generation Is Only Part Of The Social Media Marketing Story

I enjoyed Chris Brogan's post about the passion of Gary Vaynerchuk, and it sparked an interesting debate in the comments about the ROI of social media marketing.

On one hand, there were people arguing that of course you can measure the ROI - using things like vanity URL's and  by asking your clients. Even though the former assumes wrongly that most companies get a majority of their business via the internet, I'd have to agree.

Marketing through social media does generate leads, and that is measurable.

But it's only part of the story.

Because using social media well, can do so much more than simply generate leads.

Allow me to give you an example:

Mr Kent enquired through one of our websites about car hire. He came to us through Google search, so the lead was generated by our own SEO efforts, and that's what was recorded in my CRM software.

I replied with a quote, and then I did what I always do. I searched Twitter and found Mr Kent.

I didn't hit him with a message, or do anything, other than follow him. He followed me back. And I guess over the next day or so, he simply read my tweets about the island.

Then he asked me a question, and we had a conversation. I gave him some advice and some insider tips. This went on for another couple of days.

After a week or so, I got the car hire confirmation from him, and then he also elected to buy something else through our site.

I'm certain that our interaction on Twitter convinced Mr Kent to do business with us.

But I can't measure or prove that.

So he will forever be in my "books" as a lead generated via web search.

Here are some more:

1/ A template for a small business social media strategy

2/ How to launch your first digital product

3/ Don't fall into the "Cheap" trap

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