Natasha D'Souza - Founder of Virtual EyeSee

A few months ago, we found time to do a broad ranging interview on all things social media. The results of which will be split over 3 posts this week. What is social media and how will the economic slump affect it?

Jamie:
The term social media has seemingly become all-encompassing for anything and everything to do with “web 2.0″ which itself is an enigmatic title. What is social media and why should organizations of all sizes be interested in it?

Natasha:
Social media refers to sites on the internet or mobile devices that let people connect and share text, photos and videos. Other terms that are used that mean the same are social networks, web 2.0, social web and much more. The evolution of the internet into a more social form of interaction has lead to terms line on line identities, going viral, social bookmarks, tagging etc.

All this to say that it’s now easier than before to connect online with people globally based on childhood friends, family, colleagues, hobbies etc..In the past we had to rely on traditional media from TV, radio to print to disseminate this information. There was a significant delay from when an event occurred to when it was shared through these mediums. Web 2.0 has made it possible to communicate instantly with an audience and share your thoughts and emotions.

Given that there are millions of people on line it makes sense for companies to capitalize on this audience and start a dialogue with them. The challenge is to do it in a way that does not come across as spam. Virtual EyeSee helps it’s clients by working with them to align their corporate goals to a social media strategy and implement these solutions. We also provide services that help with maintaining the companies visual brand in this online space. We finally provide the necessary training needed in order to maintain these social media strategies.

Jamie:
With the declining economy, companies are going to be even more cost conscious about getting value for their dollar on advertising / marketing activities. How can you accurately measure the return on investment with social media?

Natasha:
Firstly people need to understand that it’s very hard to measure social media in the traditional sense. The use of social media is based on the goals of the organization and the social media tools that they use to accomplish these goals. For example If an organization uses social media to build a community one aspect that can be measured is the click through community directly to ecommerce. This is measurable. Most organizations don’t understand these forms of measurement therefore don’t add this to their process they are too busy as it is.