Yes, it is official now, we are in an economic crisis. I don’t know about you, but so far almost all of my business contacts I have talked to look almost happy. I mean, there isn’t a real atmosphere of desparation. On the contrary, most people I have talked to admit that we are seeing challenging times ahead, but are convinced they will survive and will outperform their competition. Obviously if the economy as a whole is going down, there cannot be only winners. But still, it’s a whole different ball game than with the previous economic crisis.

What I find really interesting to see is how companies are playing into the recession, with new products or new ways to package existing products and services. Everyone seems to be trying to find a niche that plays into the economy. In other words: trying to use the negative impact of the economy into an opportunity for themselves.

How come this isn’t the case with social media? Yes, there are some good examples. but most companies are still unaware or just don’t know how to use social media such as blogs and Twitter to their own advantage. And some have fell a victim to it. It is really interesting to see how quickly a crisis can spread through social media, making it totally uncontrollable in just a few hours. And that’s probably what makes a lot of companies afraid. It’s the fear of doing something wrong and seeing the consequences of it throughout the total blogosphere before they even realise they made a mistake.

On the other hand social media offer so many possibilities. Yes, bad news can spread very quickly but on the other hand social media offer a great way for a company to communicate with their audiences through blogging platforms in almost real-time.

I was pleasantly surprised by this post of Reuters editor David Schlesinger. While there is a lot of debate, also in Belgium and Netherlands, how difficult the situation is for traditional media, with the economic crisis, slow down in the advertising market, and struggling with their online strategy, this is a typical example of someone who sees the opportunities as opposed to the threats of social media.

Or to put it in his own words:

If I don’t beat the Reuters wire with a live tweet because I deliberately hold back, someone else will.

Enjoy the weekend!