I once heard a PR guy say he was a “manager of expectations” which appalled me for its reductionism since, as a PR gal, I consider myself an “opener of possibilities.”  Still, as more companies turn to social media to generate business, I find myself filling both roles.

We’re delighted James Ball found our social media sales funnel illustration of value and used it to deepen the conversation about social media R.O.I.  As a social media PR and marketing agency, we use social media on behalf of our clients and our own company.  In our work in both areas, we have found:

The 1) use of social media and 2) sales are not causal and conditional, i.e. if a company uses social media, then a new sale will result. 

The use of social media can bring potential clients and customers to the "top" of the sales funnel, beginning the sales process.  As James Ball writes in Visualizing Social Media ROI on Social Media Today, “Social media channels are ‘touch-points’ whereby you can effectively convert conversations into leads.” 

From the “manager of expectations”: 

That potential customers come closer to the top of a company’s sales funnel because of the value of the information and conversation they find in the company's use of social media is a fine and reasonable expectation to have.  Expecting immediate use of social media to result in immediate sales will result in immediate disappointment.

From the “opener of possibilities”:

No more profound truth about how business is ultimately done exists than this: 

“It’s who you know” fosters the trust that results in word-of-mouth referrals that result in handshakes on deals.  Especially online, "It's still who you know."

The optimal use of social media is to share the "who" of a company, what products and services it offers, and to engage in conversations - just like at a dinner party or in a grocery store line - that foster mutual “It’s who you know" on those subjects and others that serendipitously arise. Demanding a
one-to-one correspondence between the use of social media and direct sales limits the opening of possibilities.

We want to thank James Ball for using our illustration for Social Media Today.  He expanded an online conversation, cited us as the source, and linked back to the original post.  First class.

You're welcome to share this graphic by Kelsey Sarles for Handshake Media, Incorporated, a social media public relations and marketing agency and parent company of Handshake 2.0. We only ask that if you quote it or use it, please cite its source and include a link.  Here is a .pdf version of  Populating the Top of the Sales Funnel Through Social Media.