Tag Archives: Social Media

The Industry Speaks- Sanjay Mehta

16 Apr

Name – Sanjay Mehta
Designation- Jt. CEO
Organization- Social Wavelength
How important do you think Social Media platforms are? Or do you think this is just a passing fad?
They are big. They are here to stay. Not a passing fad by any chance. Social Media enables people to do, what they naturally like to do, e.g. staying in touch, making new friends, belonging to groups, getting validation, etc. When something helps you do, what you anyway want to do, its here to stay!
Do you see an ROI from the medium? How would you define it?
ROI for sure, if we are talking of “Risk of Inaction”! Then again, what is the ROI of the telephone? Of the accountant? Social media is part of the business ecosystem, and it recovers money at end of the day, via various contributions or alternately cost savings, that it enables. In some cases, it can drive transactions as well, and those are the cases, where ROI is faster.
What challenges do you think people/brands/organizations will face in accepting this medium?
The biggest challenge is one that is faced by all new breakthroughs in technology related space. Waiting for others to do it first. Waiting for case studies to happen. Waiting for later. Waiting for references. In short.. waiting!
Then, when it gets to the point where competition or a senior in the company drives one to the space, then there are mistakes made. Because decisions are made hurriedly. This will then see, knee-jerks that don’t work.
Obsession with the way things used to happen, is another challenge. Benchmarking with different types of traditional media is a challenge, when these are not comparable.

Name – Sanjay Mehta

Sanjay Mehta

Designation- Jt. CEO

Organization- Social Wavelength

How important do you think Social Media platforms are? Or do you think this is just a passing fad?

They are big. They are here to stay. Not a passing fad by any chance. Social Media enables people to do, what they naturally like to do, e.g. staying in touch, making new friends, belonging to groups, getting validation, etc. When something helps you do, what you anyway want to do, its here to stay!

Do you see an ROI from the medium? How would you define it?

ROI for sure, if we are talking of “Risk of Inaction”! Then again, what is the ROI of the telephone? Of the accountant? Social media is part of the business ecosystem, and it recovers money at end of the day, via various contributions or alternately cost savings, that it enables. In some cases, it can drive transactions as well, and those are the cases, where ROI is faster.

What challenges do you think people/brands/organizations will face in accepting this medium?

The biggest challenge is one that is faced by all new breakthroughs in technology related space. Waiting for others to do it first. Waiting for case studies to happen. Waiting for later. Waiting for references. In short.. waiting!

Then, when it gets to the point where competition or a senior in the company drives one to the space, then there are mistakes made. Because decisions are made hurriedly. This will then see, knee-jerks that don’t work.

Obsession with the way things used to happen, is another challenge. Benchmarking with different types of traditional media is a challenge, when these are not comparable.

by

Ankita Gaba

The Industry Speaks-Gaurav Sharma

27 Mar

Name – Gaurav Sharma
Designation- Business Head, C2W Digital
Organization – C2W Digital, the digital arm of contests2win
How important do you think Social Media platforms are? Or do you think this is just a passing fad?
Social Media is just as important as any other medium, if not more and in fact deserves much more detailing and thinking for a branded campaign. I have always likened social media marketing on the part of a brand as entering the ‘home’ of a user and talking to him / her unlike any other medium. This is why it is so important how a brand says, “Hello, may I come in?” to the user. It is definitely not a fad like a few brand owners would like to believe.
Do you see an ROI from the medium? How would you define it?
Yes, of course there is visible ROI in the medium but it takes time to happen. One cannot view the medium as a lead generation catchment area or just the ‘number of conversations’ generated around the brand. It is much more than that. It is about organic spread amongst the community. Let me illustrate this with an example – we had released the ‘Happy Diwali’ app on FB for Cadbury last year in which users could gift virtual chocolates to their friends. More than 215000 chocolates have been gifted since the app was launched and all this without the brand having to spend any money to advertise and ‘push’ the app.
What challenges do you think people/brands/organizations will face in accepting this medium?
Knowing what the medium can and cannot do is the biggest challenge according to me. Most brand owners feel that if they do a month long campaign on SM, they should see some visible results, whereas for a social movement  to happen, it takes more time than that. The point I am trying to make is that you need to sustain your act on SM and can’t do it to just to show it in the annual review presentation to highlight you did something on SM.

Gaurav sharmaName – Gaurav Sharma

Designation- Business Head, C2W Digital

Organization – C2W Digital, the digital arm of contests2win

How important do you think Social Media platforms are? Or do you think this is just a passing fad?

Social Media is just as important as any other medium, if not more and in fact deserves much more detailing and thinking for a branded campaign. I have always likened social media marketing on the part of a brand as entering the ‘home’ of a user and talking to him / her unlike any other medium. This is why it is so important how a brand says, “Hello, may I come in?” to the user. It is definitely not a fad like a few brand owners would like to believe.

Do you see an ROI from the medium? How would you define it?

Yes, of course there is visible ROI in the medium but it takes time to happen. One cannot view the medium as a lead generation catchment area or just the ‘number of conversations’ generated around the brand. It is much more than that. It is about organic spread amongst the community. Let me illustrate this with an example – we had released the ‘Happy Diwali’ app on FB for Cadbury last year in which users could gift virtual chocolates to their friends. More than 215000 chocolates have been gifted since the app was launched and all this without the brand having to spend any money to advertise and ‘push’ the app.

What challenges do you think people/brands/organizations will face in accepting this medium?

Knowing what the medium can and cannot do is the biggest challenge according to me. Most brand owners feel that if they do a month long campaign on SM, they should see some visible results, whereas for a social movement  to happen, it takes more time than that. The point I am trying to make is that you need to sustain your act on SM and can’t do it to just to show it in the annual review presentation to highlight you did something on SM.