Thanks for the comment! I couldn’t agree more. I think transparency is important in good times and bad, and stakeholders especially expect it if the organization isn’t doing well. Shareholders naturally have a vested interest in the company’s operations and plans as well.

I’m glad you like the design! Thank Ed Merritt, I just use the theme and plug in the widgets. The new domain allows java and flash though, so it’s a nice improvement over the old site.

Thanks again!

I’ve written about this very subject at my blog a few weeks ago.

In the Financial and Corproate PR world, crisis communications becomes a big part of any comany’s PR activity as they try to explain to the business comunity for their poor financial results and, perhaps more importantly, what they are going to do about it. This keeps corporate PRs very busy.

Also, when this talk of a recession came about here in the UK, Lord Chadlington wrote to the Ft the following:

“When the economy slides, transparency is increasingly demanded, making PR even more important than it is in good times. Consumer PR expenditure is underpinned as clients use it to compensate for reduced advertising spend; in financial PR, clients demand help to explain to shareholders weaker financial performance or staff cutbacks; and corporate PR tends to be used to boost the corporate brand to prevent bad news seeping into consumer behaviour.

While clients will always want to be sure that they really get value for their PR budget, based on my experience, very few would risk going into a downturn without the certain knowledge that they had tried and tested PR counsel at their elbow.”

What is perhaps most interesting about Lord Chadlington’s letter is his reference to the digital aspect of Financial PR, that “Monitoring blogs, building social networks and launching products on the internet are all the stuff of everyday life for today’s PR practitioner and further boost income.”

Online communications will be a powerful tool over the coming year for companies wanting to explain weaker financial performances, both due to its low cost and ability to reach wide audiences.

I’m not sure about the other sectors of PR, but the financial and corporate PR sector should be ok for a while at least.

Thanks,

Ben

p.s. love the new blog design! I’ve also added you to my blogroll.

You’re welcome for the link. And I was delighted to see you registered for our (free) February 21st webcast. Cheers, Judy

I hadn’t read Josh Bernoff’s post, but I checked it out on your recommendation. It’s a good read, a more thorough analysis of the situation.

I especially aprpeciated his points about measurement. In a recession, programs that can’t demonstrate a solid ROI may be the first things cut by upper management. If a social media plan is concretely demonstrating value there’s no reason it shouldn’t continue.

You’re right about staff time as well. Social media plans don’t necessarily need substantial budgets, just people dedicated to working with it.

Adversity should be a breeding ground for innovation, not convention. Thanks again Judy.

Why Social Applications Will Thrive In A Recession
by Josh Bernoff

Interesting concept that I’ve been talking about to a few people (including staff from the Canadian Public Relations Society and the Canadian Marketing Association), i.e., the idea that a recession might be a great time to “sell” the idea of more investment of resources (staff time, if not money) into social media.

The reason we were having the discussion is because I’m doing a webcast of a (work-related) conference keynote, Economic Update 2008 (with an economist from RBC) later this month. Derek Holt and I were discussing whether or not the US (and, specifically, Canada) is likely to go into a recession (Derek termed it “entertaining the ‘R’ word,” which was used in the public webcast announcement), and if either country did, what impact it might have on PR/marcomm agencies and their clients (particularly if the clients are multinationals or US-based). Or in-house PR folks, too, when much of the company’s products or services are sold to American customers.

As you said, recessions can mean opportunities, in addition to challenges.

Ter