The United States economy shows signs every month of a possible upswing, but not all companies are ready to jump back into the market with reckless abandonment. Many businesses are cautious until they see customers knocking down their door or visiting their website in droves. Hopefully, we will see this stampede of customers starting in 2010, but until then, what are some things that your business an do. How about advertise? Yep, I said traditional marketing, Internet marketing, social media marketing, traditional advertising.

While, I know traditionally marketing and advertising are some of the first things to go when a company is trying to trim it’s budget, but it maybe shouldn’t be that way. Marketing and advertising are often intangible pieces of the business which are psychologically easier to get rid of than the tangible things like employees, equipment, and products. But an article that I read the other day suggests that getting rid of your marketing and advertising budget, might not be the smartest thing that you can do during a recession, it could actually be the dumbest thing that you can do.

The article by Apryl Duncan points out that:

• A McGraw-Hill research study of U.S. recessions from 1980-85 showed that 600 businesses who continued to advertise during the 1981-1982 recession hit a 256-percent growth by 1985 over companies who decreased spending during that same period.
• An American Business Press study during the 1974-1975 recession showed that among 143 companies who advertised during that recession, the businesses saw their highest growth in sales and net income during the recession and two years that followed.

In the article, Duncan also goes on to point out that some of the reasons that marketing and advertising during a recession works is because:

• Your competition will probably stop advertising
• You waste no time in building your brand and standing out
• You can establish a more personal contact with the advertising channels because you have more exclusive access/less competition
• Your business gets a better deal on advertising because of the down economy
• Great discounts can lure bargain-ready new customers into your door or to your website

The great news is now your business has even more advertising options than businesses did in the 1970′s and 1980′s. From search engine optimization (SEO), to Google Adwords, to Facebook, to other forms of Internet Marketing….there is an array of ways to keep your advertising going no matter what the state of the economy.

There are people with varying levels of SEO, social media, and Internet knowledge out in the world today. For some of the younger crowd, Facebook and all-things-Internet are old hat. For some of us that are a little older, all-things-Internet can be kind of….err…new hat. Here is some actual information about how different age groups use social media. As you can see:

• 12-25 year-olds tend to use more mobile devices
• 25-45 year-olds tend to prefer E-mail and Facebook
• 46-55 year-olds tend to blog more but not use Twitter
• 56-65 year-olds do use social media but tend to stick with Facebook because they most often want to keep up with family

Because of the above statistics, we realize that not everyone knows as much about Internet Marketing as JenRus Freelance does, so we thought that it might be helpful to business owners and the general public to give you some ideas of what some of the main social media tools currently are and how they can be used in marketing:

1. Google – You probably know this one, but Google is a search engine (basically like the phone book of “old days”) that people use to find different websites and topics around desired keywords. This category also includes Yahoo! and Bing search engines. For search engines like Google, businesses want to rank high in organic keyword searches (non-paid, not Google paid advertising, more on that in a minute) because 79% of searchers click on one of the top three search engine results. This is why search engine optimization (SEO) is so important, to get you to rank in these top results. Google also offers Google Adwords, in which you can buy advertising on Google. Google Adwords is good for businesses who want to drive sales.

2. Facebook – There are now over 350 million people using Facebook. These people include people of all ages and a larger percentage of women than men. Users can post pictures, add friends and family to their profile (so they can see their posted updates), and follow their favorite things. Because of the shear number of people using Facebook, it is definitely the place to be for personal use and for business use. Businesses can set up a Facebook Page or if you are an organization, a Facebook Group page might be a better fit. Social Networking sites are better for building relationships with followers/clients. Google and search engines are better for direct selling. However, Facebook does offer advertising opportunities that can be very affective because they are extremely targeted to what Facebook users specify that they like.

3. Twitter – Twitter is all about saying things in 140 characters of less. The every day people that I have talked to about Twitter, usually don’t get why you would use the service. I don’t find as much meaning in Twitter for personal use, I guess that I am just not that interesting. What I am going to tell people? “I am sitting in the chair.” An hour later, “I am still sitting in the chair.” You see what I mean. But, I do find Twitter very useful in business. I like to use Twitter as my news stream (think your national newspaper or specialty newspaper of the “old days”). Instead of going to say CNN, my regional newspaper, and all of my favorite websites, I just follow all of those organizations on Twitter so that I only have to go to one place to stay informed. Alternatively, Twitter can also be used by a business or organization to aggregate news to people who are interested. Even people that don’t follow you might find your content by a search and start following you, thus getting your more people who might be interested in what you do.

4. Blogs – Blogs are basically on-line journals. Studies have shown that often, high school age kids don’t blog, mostly because they often don’t have the life experiences to talk about. A blog can be a great way to keep your website current and to keep your customers informed about happenings around your business or organizations. Paired with a Twitter account and a Facebook presence, this can be a winning combination in building the community around your brand.

There are many other social media tools out there, but the above are a few of the main ones. We hope that we have taken some of the mystery out of what all of these tools are and what they can do for you.

When I look through the people whom I follow on my JenRus Freelance Twitter account, I see a large array of people who are in the social media business in some way. It is extremely interesting to me that so many different professionals can leverage social media to better themselves and their business. For instance, just by taking a short glance at the those that I follow, I see public relations professionals, marketers, camp ground owners, a Chamber of Commerce, college students, programmers, video specialists, newspapers, and more. So, what are some of the differences in how all of these contrasting people use social media? Here is some insight:
1. Those in Marketing – Marketers use social media to make their clients business and products show up on the Internet. The goal is to make customers aware of products and make it easier for them to buy the product or service. Social media can also be an excellent tool to receive and respond to customer feedback. This can be done through strategic posts and promotions on a large number of sites including Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Forums, and more. The social media team at RVingPlanet (@Rvingplanet) uses social media to keep RV owners and related businesses informed of interesting RV stories and new developments in RV sales on the RVingPlanet family of sites.

2. Those in Public Relations – How does a PR Professional’s approach differ from a marketer’s approach to social media? Well, these lines are starting to blur a little bit according to WebPro News. The goal for Public Relations is to make it easier for journalists to find information about companies, products, and other story ideas. PR Professionals like Rachel Esterline (@rachelesterline) do a good job of using social media. Among other things, Rachel uses social media to drive people to her blog and tell her followers about writing projects she is working on.

3. Those who are Business Owners- Social Media can be a very time consuming medium if you want to do it right, so there are maybe fewer small business owners who are really currently active in social media because most small business owners take care of their customers first and their business second (that’s why there has been such a delay in updating this blog or course). However, those that are, like Mary Arlington from High Plains Camping (@highplainscamp) in Oakley Kansas uses her blog, Twitter account, and Facebook status to entertain, inform, and encourage people to visit her RV campground.

There are is an abundant amount of ways to use social media, an abundant amount of different people who use social media, and an abundant amount of websites that cater to social media. And it seems to be changing every day!

How do you use social media? How would you like to use social media? We want to hear from you. Leave a comment below.