Ongoing Changes to the Blog Color Scheme

If you're visiting this blog right now, you might be encountering difficulty reading some of the text that displays in the right-hand column. We're still tinkering with the new design and its attendant color scheme. Stay tuned for legible text in the very near future. ...

SEM feeds social media activity that leads to leads

Last week, we looked at how search engine marketing (SEM) leads not only to good search engine optimization (SEO), but also to a Twitter frenzy. But can activity in social media lead to, well, leads -- and closed sales, for that matter? Yes.

Forty-eight percent of businesses have generated qualified leads by utilizing social media, according to a survey of 880 marketing professionals whose responses are compiled in the Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Presented at Social Media Success Summit 2009, this white paper by business research expert Michael Stelzner also reveals that 35 percent of these same participants have witnessed social media marketing closing sales for their business.

The report itself includes a great deal of data on who's using social media and the results they're seeing. For those in talent management, we've already established that TMT's approach to SEM can provide a big boost to a company's SEO, which runs a high likelihood of inspiring a flurry of activity on social media sites such as Twitter. All that's necessary is a presence on social media in the first place.