George Krautzel discusses driving lead generation through B2B communities. Toolbox.com has over 3 million monthly visitors across IT, HR, and finance communities, providing a platform for professionals to share knowledge. Trends show increasing consumption of user-generated content and acceptance of vendors participating in conversations. Tactics for lead generation include promoting assets to engage audiences, building a presence to listen to customers, nurturing leads within communities, and creating advocacy through customer champions. Social media requires continuous investment but can quickly engage audiences, while traditional campaigns directly tie funding to results but impact ends when campaigns end.

1. Driving Lead Generation Through B2B CommunitiesGeorge Krautzel, Co-Founder and President

2. 2ContentsToolbox.com BackgroundTrends in the MarketplaceDetermining the Right EnvironmentLead Generation in B2B CommunitiesSwing Thought – Where This is GoingQ&A

3. 3Toolbox.com Background

4. 4Who is Toolbox.com?Mission

5. Provide an online platform that enables professionals to easily share knowledge with their peers

6. Existing communities

7. IT (11 years), HR (1 yr), and Finance (

8. More than 3.0 million monthly unique visitors

9. Over 2.6 million pages of practical user-generated content

10. Advertising services

11. More than 800 advertising partners, including: IBM, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, DellWhere Toolbox.com Lives in the Media Space5User-Generated Content is communication, specific appeal

12. 2-way conversations between friends

13. Personal experiences, socially driven

14. Content is communication, specific appeal

15. 2-way conversations between peers

16. Personal experiences, best practicesEditorial Content is carefully vetted, broad appeal

17. 1-way conversation from experts to readers

18. News, consumer interests, and trends

19. Content is carefully vetted, broad appeal

20. 1-way conversation from experts to readers

21. News, case studies, best practicesConsumerBusiness

22. 6Trends in the Marketplace

23. Shift #1: Increase in Consumption of UGC (Trend)7Trend: consistent increase in social media consumption across IT job rolesHow many hours during an average week do you spend online consuming or participating in the following media types? Source: Toolbox.com/PJA IT Social Media Index, Wave 4, June 2009