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.Â
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)
Mike – The way I see it, there is evidence in the speech from the Throne, follow the link to see the exact statements I believe can be used.
http://www.cpsrenewal.ca/2008/11/daily-round-up-november-26.html
I would agree that social media will be big, but I wouldn’t slash marketing too much. Part of attracting an audience online is having a strong PR agency that can create content that interests and impacts rather than targets your niche audience.
Agreed Linda, however don’t forget that the “content” element can’t be spun by PR agencies anymore (not for long anyway). If your organization’s product or service is crap, the social media world will let you know no matter how brilliant your PR is. That being said, I have seen some excellent social media press releases coming out from some PR agencies that are adapting to the new environment. Interesting times ahead…
Great post and you are absolutely correct that there is a wealth of valuable and free information out there. The question for me is how to make sense and draw actionable conclusions from it with tight budgets and possibly reduced manpower. Although there may be some low hanging fruit in this, many of these tools require time, commitment and willingness to engage. Although the tools are free, time is not and the real value that comes from using many of these technologies can be pretty resource intensive.
You make a great point Andrew. This is why I spend a great deal of time teaching clients how to use these tools internally first to save time in their existing day-2-day activities. People are often amazed at just how much time they can save by reducing 50% of their meetings and doing collaborative work on wikis instead. Once these internal operational efficiencies are put in place, the extra time can be used to perform social media monitoring and engagement activities.
Mike, I agree. The best spot to start for organizations that haven’t fully embraced new tools is often internal. Look forward to reading more…
[…] social media will be ‘hot during the recession’ Social media will be hot during the recession. Why? Because it’s all free, argues Canadian public sector social media evangelist Mike Kujawski in this post. […]
[…] his blog Public Sector Marketing 2.0, Mike Kujawski writes on why social media will be hot during the recession. He suggests a list of free social media available for marketers to use during these tough economic […]
tramadol tramadol for humans – tramadol drug class
hn2dwgjacphq2y, [url=http://buypheromones.webs.com/]pheromones list[/url] pheromones yeast [url=http://usepheromones.webs.com/]pheromones perfume for men[/url] u9gqam9xglp4qzdq, 5469 pheromones for men review [url=http://pheromone101.webs.com/]animal alpha pheromones zip[/url]