Why social media will be hot during the recession
Some time over the course of the last few weeks, the downfall of the economic situation here in Canada has accelerated significantly. Every morning I wake up to the voice of Kathleen Petty on CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning Show, interviewing yet another financial or economic expert throwing in their pessimistic two cents. Jobs are being cut left and right, government is talking about a hiring freeze, now even Prime Minister Harper is using the words “recession” and “crisis” on a regular basis as opposed to sugar coating the issue. Sometimes I wonder how bad the situation would be if people were not exposed to mainstream media. Would spending habits change if an experiment were to be run whereby a control group was exposed to regular media and a test group was isolated in a remote cabin for a month? Regardless, one thing we know for sure is that the situation is not good and the outlook is even worse. So where does marketing fit in? Better yet, social media?
It is a well known fact, especially in the private sector, that marketing budgets are usually the first to get slashed during a recession. In theory this makes sense, since most marketing initiatives usually have “growth” as a primary overall objective. However, a recession calls for “survival & maintenance” mode, a good time to optimize and streamline existing operations. That being said, every organization must keep on running to survive. A proper marketing plan is absolutely essential during a recession to ensure that resources are not being wasted on ineffective promotion, poor choice of location, improper price points, or a faulty product/service…yes, the infamous 4 P’s. Nonetheless, cutbacks will occur.
Enter social media. All too often used as a buzz phrase alongside web 2.0, social media at it’s core is simply real people talking, sharing and collaborating using various online channels and applications. Not just anybody, but a significant critical mass of people.
So who cares right? How can social media possibly be on any organization’s mind when it is faced with tough layoff decisions? I’ll give you a few random reasons off the top of my head along with accompanying examples:
- Free research (e.g. Asking a question on LinkedIn or using Ask500people)
- Free advertising (e.g. Leaving a value-adding comment on a podcast or blog, uploading a video to YouTube)
- Free applications for internal collaboration (e.g. Creating a wiki on PBwiki instead of holding a meeting or facilitated workshop)
- Free access to every contact you will ever need (e.g. Using the “get introduced” feature on LinkedIn)
- Free presentation ideas to save you time (e.g. Slideshare)
- Free consultant reports (e.g. Scribd)
- Free long distance phone (e.g. Skype)
- Free access to powerful traditional media influencers (e.g. Mommy Bloggers)
- Free search engine visibility (e.g. Starting a blog or filling out social networking application profiles can significantly enhance your web presence)
- Free real-time conversation tracking (e.g Twitter Search)
- Free real-time social media monitoring tools customized to your needs (e.g. iGoogle)
- Free access to aggregation tools that let you bring content from your favourite websites and blogs to a single location (e.g. Google Reader)
