Mr. Sanjay Sahay: Head (Online Marketing) - Infosys Technologies

An Infosys veteran for the past 7 years, Sanjay has an expertise in building, executing and quantifying internet marketing programs, community building, social media marketing and eCRM initiatives. He spoke on the Return of Investment through Social Media throwing light on the expenses incurred on various social media tools which range from free to quite costly ones. There is a high people cost in terms of technology, time, money and human resource invested.

Sanjay threw up various interesting facts about the current status of social media. It is startling that 43% CMOs don’t even measure the impact of social media. Many organizations spend just about 2% of the marketing expenditure on viral marketing. It is important to understand social media to define the ROI generated. Social media is not just marketing. It touches each and every aspect of the organization. Research on how professionals use social media reveals that 57% use it for marketing. It is also used for internal collaboration and learning, recruitment etc.

The most common goals while utilising social media are increasing revenue, improving operations, building loyalty and engagement and increasing brand visibility. The ROI through social media can be measured in terms of short or long term and directly or indirectly achieved financial gains. He explained how Infosys utilises the method via Sales Leads at blogs, twitter and LinkedIn to reduce the cost of outreach. From a brand perspective, blogs enable thought leadership and foster customer loyalty. At Infosys, the sales due to blogs have been over $15 Million.

Sanjay explained how Intel saves about $500,000 per event by utilising customer communities to disseminate information. He also touched upon Levis’ Integrated Marketing Campaign. Companies which use social media effectively are able to engage with customers and redress their grievances in real time.

He predicted that emerging economies would lead the future with a lot of exciting developments in social media such as Mobile Social Network Users, Social Gaming and Virtual Goods, local advertisements and limited time discounts on mobile phones. Social Profile Portability would influence the economy. Governance and Privacy is another area in the midst of a whirlwind of change.