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Smart law firms are using social media to generate leads. 55% of marketers have closed deals from social media leads, according to a report from Webmarketing123, “2011 State of Digital Marketing Report.”

The November 2011 report says that marketers have had the most success with Facebook, with 40.7% saying they have closed a deal from a Facebook lead.

Roughly one in 5 have also closed a deal from a lead generated on LinkedIn or Twitter. 68.4% of marketers say they have ever generated a lead from a social network, with Facebook (47%) again ahead of LinkedIn (34.8%) and Twitter (33.8%).

"Lead and sales generation activities dominate as the most important objectives for digital marketing campaigns," according to the report, far ahead of other goals such as building brand awareness, generating web traffic or building a community.

68% of marketers have generated leads from at least one of the three major social media platforms. As for spending, "as expected, B2B marketers invest 1/3 of their digital budgets on SEO activities, while B2C marketers invest most heavily in PPC," according to the report.

The results are based on an online survey of 500 US marketing professionals. Webmarketing123 is a digital marketing agency that helps clients convert online visibility into measurable results.

It's no surprise that the top four social media tools used by marketers everywhere (not just the legal profession) are, in order: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogs, with YouTube close behind.

The hidden gem in the study by the Social Media Examiner blog is that video marketing is on the rise.  A  significant 77% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2011. Businesses with 1,000 or more employees indicated YouTube is a key area of marketing activity.

 Respondents said:

• The #1 benefit of social media marketing is standing out in an increasingly noisy world.
• 2/3 of marketers said a benefit of social media marketing is a rise in search engine rankings.
• More than half of marketers found the social media generated qualified leads.
• 72% of marketers who have been using social media for more than three years said it helped them close business.
• Nearly all marketers report it generates increased exposure for their business.
• B2C marketers focus on Facebook.
• B2B marketers focus on LinkedIn and video.

Social Media Examiner's survey had 3,342 participants.