WILL THE RECESSION ELEVATE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN 2010?

“The Great Recession” has brought hard times to businesses in just about every sector, and has everyone re-thinking and re-prioritizing business expenses and operating strategies like never before. During economic “high times”, waste abounds. But during tough times, deep thought is put into every aspect of business. Couple this with the fact that we are seeing a trend where more and more people are moving away from television and traditional media, and we have a problem worth paying attention to. As a result, companies think twice before dumping the usual amount of cash into traditional media marketing and advertising.

Unless a certain traditional advertising method is tried and tested and producing positive results, it’s risky business to throw large amounts of cash at new untested marketing ideas. However, testing new concepts and ideas can now be done relatively free of cost through social media communities. And the good news? There’s a huge audience waiting on sites like Twitter and Facebook to participate in your marketing and advertising ideas.

High levels of participation can normally be achieved, and the success of testing the market in this manner is due to the insanely large percentage of people participating in social media communities. Just today, it has been reported that Facebook alone has registered 400 million users worldwide. This figure is up 50 million from the last estimate I read just one month ago. Another staggering statistic is the fact that 50% of the registered users check in on a daily basis. This creates an enormous opportunity for businesses.

The goal in advertising and marketing is to get your message and/or brand in front of as many people that you can, and to engage your audience accordingly. Common sense would tell you to take your message where the majority of the people are gathering and paying attention, which just happens to be Facebook and Twitter. Does it make sense to spend advertising dollars in a declining media market? Of course not. That’s why social media marketing is making more sense by the day.

That gets me to my main point. I see social media marketing becoming a cost control measure in the coming year as companies and agencies slash budgets vehemently to survive. Pulling money out of the declining traditional media outlets and doubling down on social media marketing is a complete common sense cost cutting strategy that we are already seeing, but you can bet your bottom dollar that it will become a strong trend in 2010.

Have you observed an increase in the use of social media for marketing purposes among small businesses, corporations and government agencies in your area? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

Carlton Flowers
Marketing Strategist

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