Virtual Media Partner is a new social media consulting business founded by Josh Bereano and Matthew Kyska. Since I am always looking for news for my Conversational Currency Blog, I caught up Josh find out what Virtual Media Partner was all about. As the CEO, Josh was well prepared for my questions so I put together this interview.

CC: Josh, What is the need that Virtual Media Partner is solving?

JB: Social Media, often called “New Media “, is an exciting phenomenon that can bring tremendous value to a company - but the learning curve is lengthy and steep. If done correctly, social media rewards the best companies for doing great work. If done incorrectly, Social media can be a time consuming drain on resources – even a liability. Virtual Media Partner closes the gap with several highly focused and customized consulting products.

CC: How does Virtual Media Partner manage this ‘uncontrollable’ landscape of Social Media?

JB: First and foremost we listen to our customer’s goal in order to understand where they are and where they want to go in the process. Meanwhile, we listen to the social media community to constantly build strategic relationships so that we always know who knows what. Then we bring together the right talent from the community to best match our client’s existing talent and objectives.

CC: How does this differ from a Broker?

JB: First of all a Broker will often try to withhold information from both the buyer and seller in order to close a deal – the less everyone knows, the better, Virtual Media Partner is exactly the opposite – the more information and knowledge we share, the better. That’s the nature of social media itself! Our job is to empower the company to beat the learning curve. Our job is to empower our strategic partners to succeed in what they do best.

CC: So collaboration is the name of the game. How does your background prepare you for to execute this vision?

JB: I am a serial entrepreneur and have learned so many important lessons. I have founded several successful companies that are still running or that I sold off. I can say without a doubt that magic happens with mastery of the process of collaboration. That’s what I do. Give people an opportunity to do what they are passionate about and they will accomplish astonishing things. Social Media is the perfect business technology for passionate and empowered people. Recognition of this simple fact is why our clients will be successful, why our strategic partners will be successful, and why we will be successful – after all, that is why social media is so powerful.

CC: What specific consulting products do you offer?

Basically, we have three levels of engagement for our clients depending on their current needs and in-house abilities. Companies must focus on their core product so we understand their need to have flexibility over their social media effort. Each of these three consulting products is interactive and designed to teach and enable our client to implement social media better and faster. We’ll help build out their social media profiles and show them what distribution tools are right for their brand message.

CC: What results can your client expect and how soon?

JB: Social media is like a friendship with a cloud. It cannot be contained, but if you engage it correctly, you’ll get rain. This does not happen instantaneously, in fact, it can take a long time. Authenticity and humility is the key. If you tell the truth about who you are and what you represent, then your message will travel farthest and fastest.

On the other hand, not doing anything can be expensive too. Your customers expect to find and to be impressed by your Facebook page. They want to connect with your people on Linkedin. They want to hear about your ideas on Twitter. They want to see your product perform on YouTube. They want to type your name into Google and see it all. Likewise, you want to maintain contacts for sales, employees, and new business collaboration yourself. It’s a two-way street, it’s a conversation. Our job is to get you there as fast as you can!,

From my experience, social media can be a very intimidating place for companies