This post was contributed by Howard Larson, owner of Larson & Associates, a company designed for Target Marketing & Telesales Attacks for new account acquisition.
I think it is safe to say that Social Media Marketing is now considered to be a major part of a business-to-business marketing program. Yet, it is surprising to find that a lot of companies still underestimate its sheer power in the B2B world. Is Social still “the next big thing” to be taken advantage of, or are we past that? Is it just something to play around with, with no real practical ROI advantages, or does it really have some complicated learning curve in order to make it work? In fact, there are really only four rules to using Social Media Marketing: Keep it relevant, Keep it interesting, Keep it timely and Think twice before you post. Do that and Social Media Marketing can be a very powerful add-on tool to a telemarketing or teleprospecting campaign.
In Social we look to broadcast a company’s message and create awareness, so it can become a very powerful tool to create and push out a very narrow targeted message designed for a telemarketing program. The more focused the message, the stronger your reach will be. Social Media allows you to be more accessible to new customers and prospects in order to check you out and even interface with you. Therefore, make sure that your company’s profile is totally in sync with your message and the product or service you are offering. This is especially true for a launch of a new product or service, where any kind of market recognition is vital when combined with a lead generation strategy like telemarketing.
I almost always advise clients to either to use a micro-site or a landing page to draw in their targeted social media traffic. When you add in the element of telemarketing this strategy becomes even more powerful. A potential prospect needs a place to go and look at information that is directly related to the targeted message you are talking about and pushing out through social and telemarketing. You need to set up a spot where you can have your 3F’s (Friends, Fans and Followers) hit your site to get your press releases, company news, product information, blogs and any YouTube videos you might have. 
Larson Notes: Keep in mind that joining a social media marketing plan with telemarketing is a lot more powerful than just adding another business-to-business marketing tactic. This is a 1-2 punch of social and phone which often puts you right in the middle of a sales cycle.
It is important to know the audience and think of how you can extend the conversations from online to offline. And this is where b2b telemarketing and social media can make such an impact and take the “cold” out of cold calling.
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For the answer to your sales and lead generation problems call Larson & Associates at 847-991-1294 or email Howard at howard@larsonassociates.ws.
P.S. Howard’s company makes telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you should add telesales into your marketing mix.