Companies are guardedly optimistic about social media, and the economic results that are going to derive from it, in 2011. Roughly 75% of all B2B buyers are active on the social Web, using social technologies at least once a month, according to a study released by Forrester Research. The same study also showed that 25% of all buyers are actually creating original content that has relevance in the purchasing process. However, more than a few businesses remain clueless on how sales and marketing can align around customers who are increasingly using social technologies.

In 2011, companies have three major questions surrounding social demand generation:

Sales reps need to know what success looks like: Companies, especially brands that sell B2B products and services, are wondering what the end result should look like when they’re selling to the “social customer.” While there are hundreds of examples of success in the B2C environment, B2B examples are less prevalent. Still, there are several brands that straddle the B2B-B2C fence and that have successfully used social-demand generation, such as American Express, Dell and Microsoft Advertising.

Sales reps and sales managers need to know how to create mission-to-metrics dashboards around their social customers: Aligning a company’s mission statement with social demand generation metrics is particularly difficult because many companies have not aligned their mission statements with their regular demand generation metrics. So, a first step would be to align a company’s (or a business unit’s) mission-to-demand-generation metrics (qualified leads, sales-accepted leads, performance per prospect segment).

B2B sales reps need to be able to attribute revenue to interactions with their social customers: To attribute revenue to interactions that your company is having with customers on the social Web, companies need to define the key types of interactions that would drive those revenue events. Here are a few suggestions to start with, straight from the buying cycle, and their social demand generation equivalents:

• Buyer recognizes his or her need: Prospect asks the brand, on the social Web or in a trusted social space, e.g. branded social network, for information about a product.
• Buyer’s need is quantified and described: Prospect posts a statement on the social Web that discloses need and, a perhaps, timeline.
• Potential suppliers are searched for online: Prospect posts on social Web: “I’m looking for a company that does XYZ . Can you recommend any companies?”
• Qualified suppliers are asked to complete RFPs: Prospect asks brand, via social networks, to join the bidding process.
• Post purchase evaluation: Customer writes on the social Web what he or she thinks about XYZ’s products.