First things first – Thought Leadership before lead generation in your social marketing strategy

ROI is hard to prove for social media marketing, but most executives intuitively realize that social media is good for building thought leadership.  With credibility comes trust.  With trust comes referrals. So are firms putting the cart before the horse when linking social media investment into lead generation activity?

As @B2Bento commented in a recent #B2BChat: “Without crossing the thought leadership and engagement bridge – jumping to lead generation is suicidal”.  His comment implies that if thought leadership and engagement strategies are first worked out, the next step might or should be lead generation.  I concur.

I certainly believe that the overall marketing strategy and the thought leadership strategy need to be mapped out together.    And  of course from that strategy spring tactics around lead generation and brand building. We are all in this together.

Thought Leadership Campaigns – Can they be measured?

Many think of Thought Leadership development as a necessary duty but an initiative that cannot be measured in terms of leads or revenue. Nothing could be farther from the truth.  In fact, every Thought Leadership campaign should be part of an overall strategic marketing plan that specifies expected results from the marketing investment.

One easy example comes from webinars or real time moderated social media events.  At every opportunity the customer or prospect should be asked to “raise their hand” and identify themselves.  If you have a marketing automation system, it’s quite easy to cookie the individual and start building their lead score.  With every interaction, whether thought leadership related or not, the lead becomes that much more valuable.