The Funnelholic

I just wrote a post on InsideCRM on facebook and linkedin to a certain degree. The key here is that there still isn’t a really easy way to gather a large mass of contacts out of either application but there will be. Linkedin is opening their API and I guarantee the first thing people will make is the ability to aggregate a large number of contacts. Facebook already is open and will have something built soon if there isn’t already. I haven’t see one, but the reality is there are more and more adults using this application. Net-net, in the next four months, expect linkedin and then facebook to over-take the Jigsaws, Spokes, Hoovers, Demandbase and all the other online contact aggregators.

Today, I hear more and more stories of linkedin being THE place that sales people are using to find the “right” guy:

• I personally use it all the time. By the way, quick tip: I tell people “I found you on linkedin”…then they know it was their fault. For fun at work, I will still just generate leads in companies sales guys cant get into
• My buddy is at a big tech company that buys every web password like hoovers, etc. He has a guy in India building a database for him from his linkedin…Every time he meets a new IT client, he gets them immediately to be linked to him
• Questions and answers has become a good place to find leads…either asking questions that draw out your type of client or finding your type of contact asking exactly the question you want to hear. In my case, I typed in a question about appointment setting call centers and everyone came out of the woodwork
• For god’s sake, how can you not like a contact database that is updated by the very people you are trying to find!

Facebook will take linkedin out because of the “fun-factor”. More adults are coming on by the minute to do everything from work to sharing pictures to sharing experiences with friends. This will probably be the site people update more often. I mean, if you just play with facebook for a minute and go back to linkedin you feel like you are looking at a 1996 Geocities website. Net-net: I guarantee you both are major contact generation factors in 3-6 months with facebook winning the marathon.

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