After all the hype on the use of social media, the time has come to think about what has happened (or not happened). One thing is certain – using and keeping track of social media is a time consuming activity. Following LinkedIn, Twitter, XING or Facebook, can fill your day and often produce no useful results. So time consuming that there is a definite danger, that real life contacts and opportunities may be overseen.

While social media to produce sales relevant information, the task of separating the relevant from the mass of irrelevant data requires considerable effort and this should not be the task of sales persons. Further, the mass of information must be processed before any of the the data is entered into your CRM system. Further, it is important to decide how the information is to be used before starting down this road. is it your aim to create new contacts for your sales organization or to keep track of the activities of current customers?

Talking to a group of sales people recently, the general view was, that personal contacts are becoming more rather than less important than before. Certainly in B2B business, prospective customers are becoming increasingly resistant to E-Mail and Call Center contacts.