Have you ever heard a B2B marketing person make the following case: "If you just get a single sale out of this campaign, then it will have paid for itself." To be frank, I am guilty of having thought along those lines at times. That perspective, while plausible, doesn't actually pay the bills.

Getting involved in social media can offer value to sales professionals, without requiring hours of time. In fact, there are a number of benefits to be gained by spending only minutes a week on popular social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Take advantage of these six guidelines for engaging in social media as a sales tool.

As a sector, online lead generation activities accounted for an estimated $2 billion last year. It's big business, and a difficult one to get right, given that a large number of those buying media to drive these form fills do so by taking principal risk.

Last year, you couldn't open a marketing industry email or attend an industry conference without hearing about social media, Twitter and Facebook. This year, data will become a huge focus: how to get it, what to collect, who to share it with and what to do with it once you have it. Recently, I attended two distinct events, an investment banker conference and a marketing conference, yet all of the talk was about data.