This is my first blog in 2010 but I cannot help reflecting about something that happened to me in 2009 – it left me thoughtful for most of the Christmas holiday which, for me as a European is over 2 weeks. In December I was discussing social media with 60-odd field marketing managers from around EMEA and we discussed customer reference programs and lead management among other things. While they clearly understood much of what I was saying to them, they equally clearly resented this one slide which is entitled: “The day in the life of modern marketer”.

Forrester slide

I admit: ‘tis not a great slide. It doesn’t reflect that this is a “todo” list for a role, not one individual. Not everybody in Marketing for a technology vendor should be publishing in social media – what a cacophony that would produce! But there is a grain of truth in the slide and a grain of reality in the reaction I got. Many more-experienced marketers feel that they do not need to get involved in using social media at all – they prefer to stick to their practiced offline-marketing skills. They will tend to encourage their younger colleagues (or an agency?) to do this work for them.

Another thing we discussed was who will be responsible for nurturing leads once they are classified as marketing leads and not sales leads. Should there be a central resource to do this or should field marketing get involved. Well, there I have one distinct opinion. The type of engagement required to nurture leads is a person-to-person interaction over social media – there must a real person representing the vendor who is perceivably local and even ultimately contactable for the prospect. No factory marketing group can replicate that personality.  

Any comments from your side? As always, I look forward to hearing from you. 

Always keeping you informed!

Peter