Interacting…Even During the Recession
It is understandable that during this time of recession not many companies are willing to shell out money for new projects. However, social sites (such as Twitter, Facebook, etc.) might be the perfect thing to invest in during this tough economical climate.
Social media sites are significantly less expensive than advertisements but still offer companies the opportunity to interact with its publics. People visit Facebook daily…why not reach your demographic at a site where they visit anyway? Dirk Singer of Cow PR explained why it is still valuable to invest in social media. His powerpoint presentation shows the highlights.
Analyst Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research also predicts that many more people will take marketing online during this recession. Bernoff notes social sites to be the most valuable, as they are very cost effective, and measurable. Bernoff stressed how important it was to invest in media that can provide metrics.
This can be tied into my previous post, which suggests that companies should write out goals for social media before they start. If you do not invest in sites that have some sort of measurable metrics, than it will be difficult to gauge the progress of goals.
“Effective Online Marketing in a Recession”by Adam Boyden from MarketingProfs.com gives similar suggestions to companies cutting back on their budget. Boyden stresses making RSS available so that readers can easily access news updates or blog posts. He also says to continually evaluate the success of the effort and look for ways to tweak your pages.
Just because finances might be tight, it doesn’t mean you need to cut out conversation!
~ by Annie Blewett on April 2, 2009.
Posted in Social Media in Public Relations
Tags: Facebook, Recession, Social Media, Twitter
Great post, Annie. I’m learning to believe more and more that investing in social media will be valuable for a very long time. This is a worthwhile topic to blog about because so many companies are letting go of advertising/consulting people and reallocating their advertising dollars. As we know, the customer has changed and they’re not reacting to traditional advertising. I agree that it’s important to stay in the conversation and that there are was to do so even in this economy.
With the recession we are in companies need to find new more innovative ways to be spending their money. Doing so through social networking sites and RSS feeds is a great way to do so, but it must not stop there. Businesses need to be as dynamic as the medium their using, which means being flexible and on top of future trends. There’s no telling when the next Facebook or Twitter craze will arrive so it’s important to always be on the ball that way you’re ready for the unexpected