Ajax Girl

This guest post about the widget economy was written by Michael Jones, an angel investor, the CEO of Userplane and a Senior Vice President of AOL.

Mike Jones’ personal blog is here.

Companies facing a slowing economy are looking for more cost-effective ways to reach customers. Forrester’s recent post on the role of social media during economic recessions supports the idea that social media can help companies survive and thrive in tough economic times. And Josh Bernoff’s full report on the subject calls for an end to “toe-dipping” by interactive marketers and advises a more serious look at cost-effective and measurable social marketing programs. A key take away:

…since interactive marketing programs are now fueled by measurable results, not dot-com madness, we believe that they can thrive in a recession. Social applications in particular, such as communities and social networking sites, are cost-effective and have a measurable impact on prospects’ decisions in the consideration stage, which will be important to companies under recessionary pressures. Interactive marketers should stop toe-dipping and invest only in programs that can deliver on measurable metrics.

Additionally, Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang points out that social marketing costs far less than traditional marketing. So when purse strings are tightened, marketing execs will become more excited about social media’s potential of reaching exponentially more people with fewer dollars.

While the recession-proofness of social media is a case study in the making, the idea that social applications can thrive in tight economic times because they are a cost-effective, precise way for companies to interact with customers and prospective customers, is right on the money – quite literally.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/278162935/