It’s true…social media marketing really does generate leads

Those who still doubt the potential of social media marketing to bring in new customers should consider research just released by Hubspot. The latest State of Inbound Marketing study finds that 62% of businesses say the channel has become more important in generating inbound leads in the past six months.

Prior studies have extolled the virtues of LinkedIn for acquisition purposes, and indeed, the professional networking site has seen the most dramatic annual gains. Some 57% of marketers now say LinkedIn attracts new customers, compared to 41% in 2010. Such growth is fitting, given the increasing business logins on the site.

Hubspot has revealed that Twitter and Facebook are also now viable sources of both clients and sales for among up to 42% and 48% of businesses respectively.

Social marketing is notably proving successful for both B2B and B2C marketing, the survey confirms, although brands are quite rightly taking different approaches.

LinkedIn is voted most useful amongst over half (61%) of B2B companies for lead generation. For B2C marketers, Facebook remains the channel of choice, cited as a valuable source of customers by 67% of respondents.

The client-luring benefits of social are not limited to conversations on networking sites. Tying in social marketing with SEO will make your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter marketing work even harder for you.