Like all entrepreneurs who forayed into a startup lately, I was beginning to get a bit nervous about the current state of world economy. First, I started going through all the economic news and data. Not being an economist (not that they have a clear picture either) I finally decided that an economic slowdown is here to stay whether we call is recession or not. After a ton of reading and some research on Forrester, I realized that not only are we safe but we have a great opportunity to leverage.
We are dependent on the world of online media and Internet advertising. One of the things worth noting is that unlike the 2001 recession, this is not a technology bubble burst. This time around technology spending does not necessarily fall in the irrational category. While awareness advertisements will lose budgets, it’s prime time for consideration marketing. You may resist advertising if your finances are tight, but if your peer or friend tells you that new product is really worth considering, that’s more persuasive than advertising. In a recession, improving consideration will be more cost-effective than blasting awareness messages at resistant consumers. Basically, in a recession, the consideration phase is more important than awareness — and that’s where social applications succeed.
Social programs leverage the voice of the customer to get messages carried further than ad impressions. If your message resonates with consumers, their word-of-mouth is a more effective medium than any of the traditional media.
Another important consideration for social applications in tough times is the cost factor. Building and using social applications on platforms is considerably cheaper than a typical ad campaign. Last but not the least is the fact that the traction that one can build leveraging social applications is measurable.
All in all, future for Social Applications is perceived to be strong. We at Sapplica believe it. Else, we wouldn’t be here. Right?
You can also check out a detailed report from forrester @ http://www.sapplica.com/docs/forrester.pdf
