How to get better at lead gen

Hi everybody,

New to this forum, but love all the knowledge exchange. I've been doing lead gen stuff for a few months now, but I feel like I am doing it the hard way.

Currently, I hire contractors through Odesk, write up a project description, provide a sample spreadsheet with at least 1-2 lines of lead info filled in, and provide the source for additional leads. The contractors then crunch through the data until the project is complete.

I do this over and over and found some reliable contractors that I can go back routinely.

My request for leads vary widely so the challenge is always to find the right sources to pull enough leads from.

HOWEVER, I wonder if there is an easier way to do this.

For example, I need to pull a list of the 1,000 most followed US nonprofits on Twitter.

Now I can follow my existing process, but I just can't believe that I am the first person to do this. Are there places were I can find lists like these?

Services that offer this info?

I've tried ManagerFlitter and TwitterWonk, but neither allows me to find non-profits easily. I also use import.io and kimono for certain webprojects. Often I scrape sitemaps if they are available.

Finally, I can find contact info in ZoomInfo but unfortunately I am missing the social data there.

Any ideas on how to do this in a more clever way? Thanks for any help upfront!!!


Also, What are the best forums or groups to join on WF for discussions around these things?