A new report from Webmarketing123 shows that social networks perform differently depending on whether you are a B2B or B2C marketer when it comes to generating leads.

It may not surprise many legal marketers to learn that Facebook performs best for B2C law firms and LinkedIn works better for B2B firms. What you may find interesting is how large the gap is in some areas:

Even though LinkedIn outpaced other social networks for B2B marketers in terms of generating leads and sales, Facebook also made significant contributions for lead generation and sales for B2B – 39% of B2B marketers said that Facebook generated leads and 19% reported sales directly from their Facebook efforts. Twitter ranked third.

For B2C marketers, Facebook and Twitter performed best, followed by LinkedIn.

What this latest data shows is the importance of maintaining a presence on all social media networks for generating leads and sales. But you also need to realize how people are using social networks – the fact is, social networks are now being used as personal search engines for people looking for reviews and recommendations on products and services. 

Instead of viewing social networks as a time-suck, law firm marketers need to realize that social media sites are evolving into referral engines that can deliver prospects and clients quickly and affordably.