By Evan Rubenstein
There is a widely propagated mantra in lead generation circles, that cold calling has passed its use-by date and is no longer of any use. In fact there are those that would argue that the same is true for a number of other more traditional marketing strategies as well. It’s all about Online and Social media they tell us. These views usually come from experienced marketers, who’s opinions are generally highly valued. Invariably these marketers have a well established following, and are very active on various social media channels, with lots of followers. They blog, they read and comment on other people bogs, have their own websites, usually with a fair accumulation of content and are well versed in the do’s and dont’s of Online.
Compared to a typical, perhaps more traditional business, they are light years ahead in their knowledge and understanding of the Online medium. So it almost goes without saying that the concept of cold calling is quite foreign to them.
Consider the case of a business selling something new and different to businesses.
Generating a strong social media following is a big and long term job. To get to the point where you can start to use it organically (as opposed to paying for advertising on social media channels) as a lead generation source takes a concerted, concentrated and sustained effort. So if you are a new business, what do you do?
With social media now maturing, the novelty factor has worn off and it’s a serious and challenging medium to build a following from scratch. Prospective followers have wised up about who and what to follow and are by now actually trimming their friends and following lists, simply because of overload. Savvy business social media users make use of all sorts of softwares and services to automate and proliferate their message in their hunger for attention. The social media consumer, trying to stay in touch with family and friends and other items of genuine interest, is starting to switch out of the commercial-post-stream simply because it is, at its essence, just another form of advertising to add to the already heavy exposure we face on a daily basis as we go about our lives.
