Social Media And The Recession

What can be expected of the future of social media during a fiscally tight time like now? I have my own suspicions on the matter (which I'll get to shortly), but I wanted to know what those with more industry experience were thinking.

The best article I found was Social media will transcend the negative aspects of the recession written by author jptrenn on the Digital Street Journal.

Basically, the author addresses the notion that traditionally, marketing and public relations are the first "expenses" to be dealt away with during a recession. However, traditions can and do change.

The most relevant point Trenn makes in the article is that, "Social media is a whole new ballgame because it covers so much - marketing, customer relations, media relations, public relations, and a whole lot more."

Because social media can be used to address so many fundamental business transactions (for such a modest investment), it can no longer be seen as a dispensable resource.

These two graphics illustrate my point. With 75% of U.S. adults using social technologies, organizations can actually use social media to cut the costs of both marketing a public relations efforts.

Even better, as the costs of social media productions like pod and vodcasts continue to drop, social media becomes a more cost effective strategy for an organization of any size.

Sooooo, my prediction is that savy PR and marketing managers will begin to make greater use of social media in order to cut production costs and to reach more highly targeted consumer markets.