The social-media revolution has undoubtedly altered the way you generate leads. On a given morning, for instance, you might write a compelling blog post, tweet about it, summarize the contents for your LinkedIn group and join a relevant conversation at Facebook. All of these actions spark activity at your website, and by the early afternoon you have enough to data to determine who gets an immediate phone call and whom you will nurture.

But, argues Dan McDade at DemandGen Report, none of these new approaches changes the fundamental best practices for lead generation.

"While these tools offer new capabilities to interact with prospects more personally, more cost effectively and with more precise timing," he says, "it's critical in this new economy to apply tried and true marketing principles to make sure lead gen programs work." In other words:

• Your message must be consistent, relevant and aligned with business goals.
• You must know what action you will take when you get a lead.

"Careful documentation of your offer, including problems solved, features/benefits, and competitive differentiators, as well as market testing, are tried and true ways to make sure all your communications work together—from this morning's tweet, to this afternoon's phone call—and generate results," he concludes.

The Po!nt: While social-media tools have changed many lead-generation methods, the principles that drive a program's success have not.

Source: DemandGen Report. Click here for the full post.

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