Since joining Twitter in October 2008, I’ve had the chance to “meet” lots of really cool women. Many of them are in marketing, some are not, but they all have one trait in common: they are very, very smart.

Herewith, my list of women you should be following on Twitter (in no particular order):

1. Anne Holland (@AnneHolland55) — After selling MarketingSherpa, Anne took a hiatus and spent three months sleeping. She’s now back in the entrepreneurship saddle with WhichTestWon.com and her blog, Anne Holland’s Ventures. Welcome back, Anne!

2. Sandy Carter (@sandy_carter) — Author of The New Language of Marketing 2.0, Sandy is a VP at IBM who writes about social media for technology companies.

3. Stephanie Tilton (@StephanieTilton) — Stephanie is an expert freelance white paper copywriter and one of the founding members of the way cool, totally hip Savvy B2B Marketing blog.

4. Jamie Wallace (@suddenlyjamie) — Like Stephanie, Jamie is a founding member of the Savvy B2B Marketing blog. She’s also got her finger on the B2B social media pulse and “gets it” like it’s no one’s business.

5. Lois Geller (@loisgeller) — Lois moved her highly successful direct mail agency from NY to Florida and never looked back. President of the Lois Geller Marketing Group, she’s also the author of SOLD! Direct Marketing for the Real Estate Pro. Be sure to check out her Joy of Direct Marketing blog.

6. Rachel Levy (@bostonmarketer) — Rachel just recently accepted a job as Director of Marketing and Social Media at Second Time Around. Hopefully she’ll keep up her blog. Congratulations, Rachel!

7. Ardath Albee (@ardath421) — Ardath writes about B2B marketing and sales. Read her fabulous insights at her Marketing Interactions blog.

8. Kellye Crane (@KellyeCrane) — Kellye, a PR consultant, is one person whose tweets I enjoy reading. She also writes the Solo PR Pro blog.

9. Beth Harte (@BethHarte) — Beth is the MarketingProfs Community Manager and publishes the Harte of Marketing blog.

10. Ann Handley (@MarketingProfs) — In addition to being being a terrific writer (she can write circles around me), Ann is the Chief Content Officer for the very popular MarketingProfs publication. Be sure to catch her on her Annarchy blog.

11. Allen Mireles (@allenmireles) — Allen, a social media consultant, is the Principal of Allen Mireles Marketing PR. She writes frequently about social media and PR on her blog and is frequently retweeted.

12. Jill Konrath (@jillkonrath) — Jill is the best selling author of Selling to Big Companies (a must read for anyone who wants to work with the GEs and HPs of the world). She’s also the SHeEO of Sales shebang, *the* Web resource for women in sales and provides training as well as an annual conference.

13. Laura Ramos (@lauraramos) — A VP and analyst for Forrester Research, Laura writes about issues pertaining to B2B marketing — including social media. Be sure to catch her insights at her B2B Marketing POSTs blog.

14. Helaine Smith, DMD (@helainesmithdmd) — Full disclosure, Dr. Smith is my client, but the longer I work with her, the more I learn — about business, working with people, and setting and achieving goals. She also has an “outsider’s” perspective on social media that is often refreshing. Learn more about dentistry and how it affects your health at her Successsful Smiles blog.

15. Kel Kelly (@kelkelly) — I met Kel at a Publicity Club of New England meeting and have been her fan girl ever since. She possesses two things I would kill for: daring and deadly wit. The founder of the “un-agency” Kel & Partners, Kel writes a blog that will leave you in stitches.

16. Leslie Poston (@geechee_girl) — A “social media enabler” Leslie helps social and entertainment businesses (think restaurants and artists) market themselves. I met her face-to-face at the last New Hampshire TweetUp — very exciting! She also publishes the UpTown Uncorked blog.

17. Kelly Parkinson (@copylicious) — Kelly is one of those copywriters who combines real creativity with business acumen to deliver copy that’s different, engaging — and that gets results. (Her Twitter profile reads, “I help companies fight robot invasions” — ha!) Be sure to read her fun and witty blog.

18. Jill Whalen (@jillwhalen) — *The* SEO goddess, Jill is a frequent speaker at SEO conferences around the world as well as the President of the SEO firm High Rankings. I met Jill for the first time this year — she’s smart, funny, and lives, eats, breathes SEO. Sign up for her popular High Rankings Advisor newsletter.

19. Sima Dahl (@simasays) — Principal of Parlay Communications in Chicago and founder of MarketingJobWire.com, Sima provides marketing that supports sales.

20. Ginger Burr (@GingerBurr) — Ginger is the person who helps me and lots of other women look good every day — she’s a wardrobe consultant, and a damned good one. Learn more about clothing, colors, and how to dress for the life you live at her website Total Image Consultants. She also has a new home study course — “Who Taught You How to Dress?”

21. Michelle Golden (@michellegolden) — I “met” Michelle online a year or so ago and am continually impressed with her insights and business acumen. President of Golden Marketing, Michelle helps lawyers and accountants grow their businesses. She also writes the terrific Golden Practices blog.

22. Debra Helwig (@dhelwig) — Debra is another person I’ve recently met and have come to know through Twitter and now phone calls. Smart and funny, Deb is the Marketing Communications Manager for IGAF Worldwide, an international trade association for accountants. She writes the pithy Service Minded blog.

23. Casey Hibbard (@casey_hibbard) — Author of the book Stories that Sell, Casey is the expert on writing case studies. She writes a blog by the same name.

24. Sandra Fathi (@sandrafathi) — Sandra is the president of Affect Strategies, a strategic marketing, communications and PR firm in New City. She and her team write the Tech Affect blog.

25. Michele Linn (@michelelinn) — Another Savvy B2B Marketing Blog founding sister, Michele is a freelance B2B marketing writer, blogger, and work at home mom. You can find her at the B2B Savvy blog (see link above) or her business site.

26. Margie Dana (@margiedana) — I groan when I see Oscar winners pull out a slip of paper to thank wonderful people in their lives. I needed a slip of paper when I made this list because I left off one the most fabulous women — Margie Dana, President of Boston Print Buyers. I’ve been a fan of Margie since before social media even existed. She is *the* goddess of all things relating to buying print (as in, you need that piece printed and whom should you hire?). She hosts monthly meetings, holds an annual conference and puts out a weekly newsletter. In short, she is a *must follow.*

I know I left out tons of other smart and successful business women. If you know of one who needs to be included on this list, please leave her name in the comments section (or DM me on Twitter @diannahuff) and I’ll start another list.

Additional Smart Women to Follow

27. Lilia Shirman (@B2BGuru) — Lilia is Founder and Managing Director of the California-based Sherman Group, a marketing firm that helps companies address complex challenges in growth and profitability.

28. Carla Clayton (@blondeaffiliate) — Carla helps Web newbies market their businesses via blogs, social media, websites, etc. Be sure to read her clever blog, Internet Marketing for Blondes.

29. Lisa Duhamel (@VirtuallyReady) — Ooooh! Lisa, President of Virtually Ready, does custom clickable Twitter backgrounds plus lots of other things to extend your reach online. Good to know!

30. Diane Hessan (@CommunispaceCEO) — Another very smart woman I follow but forgot to mention on the original 25 is Diane Hessan. Diane and her team help clients manage online communities. Be sure to subscribe to her Verbatim blog.

31. Kami Huyse (@kamichat) — According to Kellye Crane, Kami is a true pioneer in the social media / PR space. In addition to being the Principal of My PR Pro, she writes the Communication Overtones blog.

32. Rachel Kay (@rachelakay) — Another PR pro, Rachel’s firm, Rachel Kay Public Relations, is based in San Diego, California. Rachel writes the CommuniKaytrix blog.

33. Rebekah E Donaldson (@b2bcommunicate) — I met Rebekah about a year ago when she asked me to review her e-book about hiring a B2B marketing consultant. You can follow Rebekah via her blog, the red on marketing blog — great stuff.

34. Debbie Weil (@debbieweil) — Debbie is another smart woman I inadvertently left off my list — and one I’ve been a fan of before blogs and social media. (I subscribed to her newsletter way back when.) Debbie is the author of the Corporate Blogging Book and an all around smart woman. Be sure to check out her blog, BlogWrite for CEOs.

35. Penny Power (@pennypower) — Penny is the found of Ecademy, the online social networking site that is very popular in Europe. She coined the term, “Independent Capitalist,” which you can read more about in this February 2009 interview I did of her. She recently published a book about social media: Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me. A very smart woman, indeed!

Ambassador of Buzz for Grasshopper, Jonathan Kay, emailed me yesterday (July 27) to update me about the chocolate grasshopper campaign the company conducted in May 2009.

I’m really glad he did this because this campaign was a topic of discussion at our dinner table. My husband is in marketing/sales, too, and we spent a good half hour talking about how much each piece cost, including shipping by FedEx.

According to Jonathan, the campaign’s objective was simply to generate buzz and “spark a grassroots movement among the entrepreneurial community that would raise awareness of the brand, and get people interested in entrepreneurship” — not to get people to sign up for the company’s  Advanced Number service, which is something I originally posted about when I received my packet of grasshoppers.

Hence, the  campaign consisted of mailing out the chocolate grasshoppers and creating a video about “the power of entrepreneurship.”

The Grasshopper team spent months scouring the Internet looking for 5,000 of the most influential people with “buzz” around them — emphasis on “influential,” not entrepreneurs who might need the Advanced Number service.

Based on this simple objective, the campaign was a real success. You can read the full Chocolate Grasshopper case study for all of the numbers, but suffice to say, the campaign is a great example of how social media can drive awareness — and cost much, much less than one 30-second TV commercial:

Total campaign cost: $68,103

183,000+ page views for the Entrepreneurs Can Change the World video

51,700+ page views of Grasshoppers.com/idea

2,959 referrals from Twitter

1,664 referrals from Facebook

170 blog posts (according to Jonathan, I was one of the first people to post about the campaign)

Do note that the referrals from Twitter are higher than those from Facebook — Facebook may have more members, but Twitter, it appears, has greater reach.

One other thing to note — which the case study doesn’t cover: This is the second time (for me) that a company has followed up with me after I’ve written about them on this blog. (The first instance was when Brian Ellefritz, Cisco’s Director of Social Media Marketing, contacted me after I featured one of the company’s campaign videos.)

Follow-up with influential bloggers should be, if isn’t already, a social media best practice because you create good will, develop relationships, and increase the possibility for follow-up blog mentions.

Not only did I write an additional blog post about Cisco after talking one-on-one with Brian, but I’ve also have continued to use Cisco as a “what to do right” case study in presentations.

The same will now hold true for Grasshopper. You simply cannot buy that type of brand awareness — and it’s why social media is so effective. (And it’s also why companies must, must, must monitor what’s being said about them online because social media also drives negative awareness in the same huge way.)

One final note: because I was targeted as an “influential” (I’m truly honored!) and because I do consider myself an entrepreneur with vision, let me share my vision with you. It’s what drives me to get out of bed every morning:

I want to be a hands-on mom and give my son a great childhood while also helping my clients achieve their business objectives with results-oriented marketing communications consulting and copywriting.

What’s your vision?

According to the new 2009 Lead Generation Benchmark by ExperiGenExperts and Mac McIntosh, Inc., the vast majority of B2B lead generation professionals use multiple methods to reach key groups of prospective customers.

“Leads from Website” topped the list of most productive lead generation tactics at 59.4%, with Inside Sales/Telemarketing (51.7%), Outside Sales/Account Executive (47.2%), and Email (39.4%) rounding out the top four lead generation methods.

B2B companies continue to use tradeshows (27.2%), direct mail (20.6%), and social networking (14.4%), but these sources don’t yield high conversion rates.

That companies see high conversion rates from Website leads isn’t surprising. According to a June 20, 2009 B2B Magazine article, “Natural Search Adherents Learn the Value of Tweets and Tweaks,” B2B marketers have realized in the last six months that search engine optimization (SEO) is the “most effective way to get traffic, leads, and sales.”

According to the article, SEO is on the rise due to the drop in PPC ad spend.

Both the survey and the article struck me as a bit funny. I feel like I’ve been preaching the benefits for SEO for years and only now companies are “getting” it.

These days, not having an optimized site is just plain stupid and short-sighted given the fact that we’re now a linked economy — and that SEO and search is dramatically changing.

Due to these changes, simply having a Website won’t suffice if a company wants to remain in business.

Interestingly, about one third of benchmark participants believe that some lead generation activities generate responses that should go directly to sales for follow-up, including leads from tradeshows, Web inquiries, leads from channel partners and responses from email campaigns.

I found this interesting because the benchmark survey didn’t define the type of lead coming from the Web — someone who downloaded a white paper? Attended a Webinar? Signed up for a free trial or a demo?

A person who downloads a white paper for example, is not as qualified as someone who signs up for a free 30-day trial.

However, according to the benchmark survey, the majority of respondents “believe that most responses from lead generation activities need to be further qualified before being passed on to sales as leads.”

The benchmark survey also asked respondents who should provide the list or database for lead generation. Two-thirds (66.7%) stated that marketing was responsible for providing prospecting lists for lead generation.

As the benchmark survey points out, while two-thirds of respondents believe that marketing is responsible for lead generation, a little more than half said they tie marketing strategies to sales goals — with nearly one in five indicating they seldom or never tie their marketing strategies to sales goals.

This piece of data lead me to ask, “How does marketing get in tune with sales?” I often hear anecdotal evidence that marketing will develop great campaigns that sales does not bother to take advantage of.

Clearly, it behooves marketers to work with sales to learn what they need as well as learn how to determine campaign ROI and ensure their efforts are tied to business objectives. (Which is why I’ve stated in the past that B2B marcom professionals need more than the ability to manage multiple projects and write well.)

You can purchase the 2009 B2B Lead Generation Benchmark at introductory price of $159. The report includes all data plus detailed conclusions and recommendations by Patrika Hardnett, President and CEO of ExperiGenExperts, and Mac McIntosh, the B2B sales and marketing consultant.

This is one of the few reports to provide B2B benchmarking data — and with all the chatter about social media, inbound marketing, etc. — is a timely resource all B2B marketing and sales professionals need in order to help justify larger investments for lead generation or to justify existing budgets.

A few weeks ago I experienced a total computer melt-down: my motherboard bit the dust AND my machine was completely overrun by malware.

While my computer was in the shop, I limped along using online email (rather than my normal Outlook).

It wasn’t until I got my computer back and began uploading all of the software again (which took HOURS), that I had a real epiphany:

Why am I relying on expensive, bloated, and hard-to-use software when much of this technology now resides online as “software-as-service”?

On top of that, I realized that over the years, my work habits had changed due to technology — but these habits were very inefficient as they were based on work habits that began years ago when I relied on paper and typewriters.

More important, I realized that my contact database, which I thought was pretty clean and up-to-date, lacked lots of information about my customers and colleagues — information that resides in various places online, namely LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and Websites.

So began my migration to Gmail and the very tedious but exciting process of collecting all of this information in one place.

If you don’t use Gmail, I highly recommend it. Not because it’s incredibly easy to use (and far easier than Outlook, which continually frustrated me to no end) but because it has a contact database where you can store all kinds of information about the people in your life — both personal and professional.

Within the Gmail Contacts database you can store the following:

Name and Address
Email (work, personal and other)
Phone (work, home, mobile and other — i.e. Skype)
Address (work, home and other)
Website
Birthday
Other information relevant to you or the individual

The Website listing is the feature I like best. I can include as many Website links as I want and am now able to list links to people’s various social media profiles, blogs, and corporate and personal Websites.

It’s very easy to add new links — it literally takes all of two seconds (as opposed to ACT!, where I would have to modify the contact template).

I can already see that I’ll save a ton of time with this feature. Often times, for example, I’ll be in LinkedIn and will want to recommend someone but don’t know their LinkedIn URL.

Now I can simply click over to Gmail, look the person up and presto, can copy and paste the link directly into LinkedIn without having to click out of the screen I’m in.

Ditto for recommending colleagues on Twitter as well.

(Hopefully Google will adjust the “other” Website labels so that you can actually list links as “Twitter,” “LinkedIn,” etc.)

On top of that, Gmail automatically links to a person’s Google Profile as well.

How do you keep track of people’s social media profiles? Do you find that you’re connecting with people more through their profiles versus email? What other ways do you use Gmail to improve productivity?

The July/August 2009 issue of Fortune Small Business features Carousel Designs, a niche baby bedding manufacturer, for its Tool Kit | Makeover story.

David Nies, a marketing and branding consultant with Flexible Executives in Atlanta, praises the company’s two owners for two Website innovations (a gift registry and a tool that lets shoppers customize bedding) but rips into them for a Website video “that shows the factory where muscular workers stuff bedding into shipping boxes.” Says Nies to the two entrepreneurs:

A mom-to-be doesn’t want to see the factory floor. She wants to see your mom — now a grandma — talking about raising her kids while designing beautiful nurseries. She wants to see you, your wife and your children, discussing the importance of a safe, comfortable nursery. You have a great opportunity to become a trusted resource for expectant moms. They can’t get that at Pottery Barn Kids.

The shop floor video is now gone and has been replaced with a terrific blog — that includes video on how to order swatches for baby bedding.

Although this is a business-to-consumer marketing example, B2B can learn something, especially when it comes to replacing those photos of the exterior of a “state of the art manufacturing plant” or video showing machinery working. (Booooring.)

Using Nies’ advice, B2B companies can use video to communicate directly with customers and prospects:

• Interview people in R&D about new advances in technology and how these advances have the potential to change industries.
• Do a Q&A with your manufacturing manager who can discuss how manufacturing has changed processes to lower costs and speed up production — and have him or her walk the factory floor while talking.
• Have two or three customers explain why they do business with you . . . and how your products or services solved their business challenges.
• Have your most gregarious sales person invite people to the next tradeshow.
• Turn your datasheet PDFs into video datasheets the way Cisco did.
• Host a fun event to which you invite prospects and customers and record it. Have it professionally edited, add some funky music, and upload it to your site.
• Do a commercial that’s “different” — such as this Father Day’s video from Cisco promoting a router.

In other words, use video to show your company has some personality. After all, it’s run by people . . . and people do business with people — not buildings.

Do you have examples of B2B video that connects directly with buyers in a fresh new way? If so, please feel free to post a link in the comments.