Jamie:
What are some examples where companies have used social media effectively to promote a particular product or strengthen their relationship with customers?

Natasha:
Facebook is an excellent example. They recently changed their terms of service and a lot of their customers were very upset about it. They listened and reverted to their old policy and are now taking the feedback into account.

Jamie:
One of the first ways that corporations typically get exposed to the benefits of social media is to Google or scan a Facebook profile as part of diligence of evaluating potential employees. Unfortunately, that focuses on the negative aspects of peoples’ willingness to put “everything” online. How can someone looking to get hired by certain employers use social media to position themselves ahead of the pack?

Natasha:
The employee first has to figure out their target market so to speak. Then find the appropriate social media places that these target markets participate in. For example having a presence on LinkedIn with the relevant experience highlighted on their profile. Not just the past job they had but every career experience they have had that is relevant to the job they are pursuing. Participate in the conversations happening on LinkedIn regarding their industry.

Next would be to be up to date on industry Blogs and participate in the conversations happening there. If they have extra time they could also start their own Blog to establish themselves as a thought leader in the field. On Facebook for example, join various groups both professional, hobbies, charities etc. Again participate in these discussions or initiate some. Set up a You Tube Channel and broadcast a regular program on their industry, thoughts on the trends in that space, new developments etc..

The possibilities are endless.

Jamie:
They truly are. From a design / developer stand-point there are a lot of other activities that one can do to get themselves noticed or help build their personal brand recognition:

• Contribute to an open source project – either directly to the core or with most platforms offering extensible widget, plugin or theme concepts by distributing your own item.
• Building a stand alone tool / product that fulfills an area of need for yourself. Chances are there are others who would benefit from it and it helps you keep your skills sharp if you are unemployed.
• Build Internet recently highlighted the value of practical personal projects, “represent a way to try new things, but focused on something practical…Besides job hunting, you could also turn some of these into side profits if it fits the nature of the piece.”

There will be one more post in this series on Friday which looks towards how government can / should / needs to get on the social media bandwagon.

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.