This Is Not a Recession

Liked the attitude of this post from Tom Peters, which came about thanks to a post on ICAEW’s IT Counts. I totally agree, that’s what I’m working to myself and will try and feedback thoughts accordingly. But my main point is the person who first needs to be different is yourself, to change you own attitudes, and all else flows from this accordingly. Well, that’s my self-empowered approach! We’ll see how well it pans out over ’09.

This Is Not a Recession

Don’t think of our current economic crisis as a recession. Instead, think of it as a recalibration.

Everything is different now.

If you think of it as a recession, you may be tempted to “hunker down” and wait for the economy to cycle back.

If you think of it as a recalibration, you will be motivated to focus on what you have to do differently, since everything is different now.

The way your business generates results is different, now. Your customers think differently, now.

Your customers care about different things, now.

Your customers act differently, now.

Your customers may actually be different people, now.

Customers aren’t disposable anymore; more than ever, you have to create sustainable customer relationships.

Everything is different now.

I’m posting this on January 7, 2009. One thing I’m convinced of is that the world I am working in today is different from any world I have ever done business in. The world has been reset. We can no longer look at the “LY” column on reports to use last year as a benchmark for what will happen this year.

Customers + social networking = value/recession

During a recession social applications such as communities, social networking sites and word-of-mouth marketing will prove worthwhile because they depend not on a diminishing ad budget, but on an abundant resource: customers, so says the new Awareness report which in turn quotes Forrester Research:

“Conventional wisdom says that experimental media get cut in tough economic times. But social applications like communities, social networking sites, and word-of-mouth marketing are proving themselves, and they depend on an abundant resource — your customers — rather than a scarce one — advertising dollars. In a recession, social applications with measurable results will pay off.” (Forrester Research, Strategies for Interactive Marketing In A Recession, February 2008)

Note: it’s the measurable results that count!