That's right. Your website has never generated one single lead, and it never will.
It may capture leads, qualify leads and convert leads, but it will never, ever, generate leads.
Think about it. How does someone end up at your website? No one just types it in randomly. Somehow or another, they heard about your site Read More...

 
Most private equity funds (and the equipment finance industry) are well behind the VC industry with regard to their use of social media. Jeff Bussgang, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners, calculates that of the approximately 1,000 venture capitalists in the US actively seeking deals, 10-15% blog.  Sarah Tavel, Senior Associate, Bessemer Venture Partners, calls this Read More...

Some people have this crazy idea that automating content to their Twitter profile will be effective. Besides the fact that, for any real business trying to reach real people, it doesn't work, you also run the risk of ending up with something like this:

There are a couple of key lessons here for business owners Read More...

I just learned that the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation has finished their study on "Social Networking for the Equipment Finance Industry 2010".  The executive summary is available at http://www.leasefoundation.org/IndRsrcs/MO/SocMed10/ ; the full study is $300.  The author is Suzanne E. Henry.
The study shows that B2B social media marketing in the equipment finance industry is Read More...

Viral marketing is a hot buzzword these days. It's a simple enough concept - get others to spread your idea and before too long, thanks to the beauty of exponential math ("I told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on."), you've reached a lot of people.
The challenge is, how Read More...

I'm on a panel tonight at Social Media Club Austin talking about the connection between SEO (search engine optimization) and social media. I'll be focusing on long tail keyword research, an essential core strategy for businesses looking to use social media to bring targeted traffic to their website (which, let's face it, really should Read More...

I enjoyed participating in a panel tonight on "Market Research for Entrepreneurs", as part of the Founder Institute's first series of New York programming.  The other speakers were Nicholas Butterworth, President & CEO, Diversion Media; and Steven Haines, President, Sequent Learning Networks.  
 
My slide deck is below; I'd love to get your feedback.
Free Market Research Read More...

 
I had lunch yesterday with the founder and CEO of a successful, technology-savvy nonprofit.  Unsurprisingly, he was very concerned about reaching his fundraising goals for 2009 (and thereafter).  We brainstormed about ways that some of the concepts in The Virtual Handshake could be used to help in his situation.
One of his challenges is that donors Read More...

Following are my notes on Liminal Group's 2009 Sales & Marketing Symposium, which took place Wednesday.
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First speaker: Paul Greenberg,
author, CRM at the Speed of Light: Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century, President, The 56 Group, LLC; founding partner of CRM training company, BPT Partners, LLC. At the end of 2007, he was the Read More...

 I enjoyed last night's panel on Power and Impact of New Media: Coping with the Economic Crisis at the Harvard Business School Club of New York. My notes follow. 
 
Biographies of the panel participants:
Harris Diamond is CEO of Constituency Management Group (Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG.). The group includes IPG companies in the areas of public relations, public Read More...