If you're a provider of SaaS solutions, online advertising is a must.  Customers go through a process of search, find, try and buy in making SaaS purchasing decisions.  If they want an online solution, it makes sense that they are searching it out online (though there is some argument that the mass market of SMBs is just coming into this purchasing profile).  So if online marketing is critical to SaaS success, it makes sense that the biggest growth area of online sites (social networking / social media) requires critical thought.  Should SaaS marketers use social media sites as a marketing tool?

Here is an article on just that topic titled:  Social Media: A Business Marketer's Guide

by Dan Morrison, CEO and co-founder of ITtoolbox, a professional (social) networking site for the IT community.

Here is an interesting quote:  "According to a recent report by market research firm Compete, Inc., more than 71 percent of consumers who use social media are more influenced by user-generated content when making purchasing decisions than by information from brand advertisers and marketers."

This obviously raises the question of how a SaaS provider can use social media as a marketing tool if consumers are only looking at user-generated content in making their decisions.  A couple of ideas:

1.  A community with an active user base will respond to requests for feedback.  For instance, if you are considering integrating a third party service (and have a few options) into your SaaS offering, look for user feedback on their experience with service A vs. service B.  Ask for candid feedback on the pros and cons on each.  You will achieve your goal of making your SaaS offering known and demonstrate a willingness to listen to the market in your product roadmap decisions.

2.  Go for passion - Every industry has topics that are contentious.  Give people a discussion topics that inspires a passionate response to keep your post on the top of the 'most recent' and 'most viewed' lists.  For example, if you provide a SaaS offering for sales automation, make a statement that a certain selling strategy fundamentally doesn't work and explain why.  Obviously you can't alienate your purchasing audience, but you might need to break some eggs.

3.  Bullet Lists - Irony acknowledged, but users are typically looking for the 'meat' of an article or post very quickly.  Go for bulleted lists on tips and best practices on a topic with which you're familiar (for instance, best practices on online credit card billing) and end the article with a request for ideas from users.  Invite the dialogue on the back of a quick post of 1 sentence ideas.