The role of social CRM and its potential impact on lead generation in business-to-business marketing

The implementation of social media technology into a firm's marketing strategy has been a significant discussion for many sales organisations. Currently, only a fraction of business-to-business (B2B) organisations are using social media (e.g., Linked-In and Twitter), for reaching potential consumers. Thus, these media tools are underutilised in the sales and marketing process or often non-existent. With the evolution of the internet and Web 2.0, adding a social media strategy, also known as social CRM, to a company's marketing initiatives may provide a competitive advantage to firms who are able to cultivate the benefits. In this paper, we review how social CRM can be utilised in the prospecting process and customer engagement strategy. Also noted are some best practises for implementing social CRM in a B2B marketing environment by analysing current companies' integration of this new method for interacting with prospective clients.