Bagels, recessions and social networking

Just as Lord Voldemort is euphemistically referred to as “He Who Must Not Be Named”, so the same treatment is applied to the word “recession.” The “R” word is, quite frankly, a dirty word. It strikes such fear into the heart of business, that companies would much rather use another word in its stead. Here are a few:

Downturn.

Slump.

Bottom out.

Realignment.

Bagel.

(Bagel is my personal favourite, it’s what Josh Lyman from the US show The West Wing insists on describing it.)

Of course it doesn’t matter what you call it. You can call a spade a “digging facilitation device”, but everyone knows it’s a spade so why pretend otherwise? Instead of wasting time thinking of names to call a recession, time should be spent on the most important question; how do you get out of one?

In my days working at an advertising agency, the answer of course lay in spending money on advertising. But convincing clients to part their money in hard times was another matter. It all came down to this key question. Should companies spend more or less on advertising in a recession?

For years companies who advertise have debated the same point. And, as you’d expect from a long-running debate, there is actually no right answer. Some will point out that in a recession it’s actually more important than ever that you advertise; that advertising will provide the sales the company needs to stay afloat. Others believe it’s better to batten down the hatches and save all the money you can, that advertising is not a crucial operating cost, just something you do when you can afford to. The question polarizes; there just doesn’t seem to be a definitive, argument-killing answer.

And so, for the first time, the same questions are being asked of the closed business social network. How could a company spend money on technology when they’re struggling to break even, to keep staff in work, survive even? That’s a very good question and fortunately, there does seem to be evidence of a definitive answer emerging.

First there was the survey by Gartner which said that firms were missing out on the huge benefits that social networks could create. Researcher Jeffrey Mann said that, "businesses which harness how employees use these sites stand to increase savings, productivity and profits.” And he gives real examples of savings too. Simply by encouraging staff to use social networking sites as recruitment tools, PR company Edelman cut their costs by 1% (which doesn’t sound huge but put in the context of a global company with costs in the high telephone numbers, this is not to be sniffed at).

More recently Peter Bradwell, a researcher at Demos has said that using social networking sites in the workplace could help businesses get through the financial crisis and that instead of being an “add-on” social networking was actually really important in several ways, not least through improving the relationship between employees and the organization.

So there you have it. A definitive answer is emerging. But with every insightful answer, it brings us on to another question.

Could social networking be the death of the bagel?


See more here:
http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conWebDoc.22949
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7501073.stm