Image by Geek and Poke

I’m a huge fan of leveraging web resources, especially the new ones like social media that have popped up in within the past decade.  But, I’m going to play devil’s advocate.  I don’t think we know enough about social to solely rely on them for lead generation and monetization.  I believe that social media provides a platform to develop conversations that create relationships, which eventually may help generate leads.

The common stigma behind many digital marketing resources is that social media is directly correlated with conversions, and that it will directly generate leads.  It won’t – at least, not on its own.  While we are still discovering the use of all the different mediums that are available, I believe that a huge portion of digital marketing, particularly web 2.0, social media, and user generated content, is not meant to be directly tied to ROI.  It should be used as a complementary marketing tool along with advertising campaigns that are highly measurable such as paid search and online advertising.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn all have huge venture capital, but not because they provide a direct avenue for monetization.  Think about it – how many times have you clicked on an ad when browsing on Facebook?  And if you did, did the business get a conversion out of you (aka did you end up signing up for buying something)?  On the other hand, have you “become a fan” of a product/person or given a gift on FB?  More likely.

The perception is that the popularity and magnitude of these sites is a gold mine, and this is why many businesses are scratching their heads—wondering about this big phenomenon and how to use it to drive sales. The reality (for now) is that these resources need to be utilized as a way for companies to create dialogue, communities, and conversations with the public—kind of how brand marketing has been used as complementary tool with marketing plans.  The difference now is that web resources have created a two way street—creating push and pull marketing opportunities.  Rather than pushing your brand to the world, you can listen and understand your audience as well as reaching out to them.

You can measure the pattern of the traffic from social media (and other) sites using web analytics and other measuring tactics to better understand what your marketing/advertising plan needs to be.  And eventually, it will help drive leads through other marketing/advertising channels.

I believe this is the reason why sites like Facebook have such huge venture capital, because they have the critical mass that businesses want and need to reach their audience (known and unknown).  More companies should see the marketing research potential with web 2.0/social media resources first, rather than throwing big dollars to jump on a bandwagon that may or may not monetize in the long run.

Used effectively, these new web resources could make or break the success of a company.  Start a conversation or two, and see where the relationship takes you.