Daily Debate

09 Mar 2009

Can twitter help us combat the recession?

If we are to believe in this post by Jeff Jarvis we’re not experiencing a recession but rather a compression or complete restructuring of the economy.

Can twitter help us stop this, so we can go on living like we’re used to?

Be sure to check out the reactions on twitter and use the hashtag #fadebate1 to participate.

Viewing 6 Comments

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    I totally agree with you Linda. Confidence building plays a vital role to get the consumption going againg.

    To reset the trust and confidence in the market all Companies have to uderstand and get to know their consumers better, to create a better brand experience, ROI and to make a better marketing process in future. Because In an uncertain economy, you can’t afford to lose customers, because they cost considerably more to replace than to retain. It is not until you know a person that you can build confidence and gain trust.

    According to Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. American consumer confidence is now at a fourteen-year low. Whether it is the housing crisis, the decline of savings and investments, the rise in oil prices, the slide of the US dollar, or the high unemployment rate, consumers are feeling the pinch.

    Many consumers (69 percent) say that a negative customer experience is the number one factor that destroys trust. Consider that more than 9 out of 10 consumers (94 percent) state that they spend less with a company that compromised their trust, and 8 in 10 will never go back to a company after a bad experience.

    customer relationships is the ability to collect valuble information about the customers over time, to be tranformed and delivered into a better creative work for a more precise customer experiences

    And yes, Transparency is very important in todays economy and politics to restore the confidence and trust in the market, but have also become a very good excuse for those companies who have not created the possibility to understand their consumers yet.
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    The depression/recession/compression is somehow influencing us all, but in different ways (and country of course). Being out of work, really depressing I must say, spare time can be nice for a while, but still you need the money and a social life.

    The situation is illustrated in many angles and many different explanations. The recession, why, how, the psychological factors behind and the human behaviour and tackle those time. Take out all your money from the bank (if your are lucky), the humourse perspective, put your head in a bucket or find alternative solutions.

    One interesting part is how confidence play a role. I read an article how "...confidence is an example of an "animal spirit" a term referring to the psychological factors that move the market". "One of the reasons this recession was not foreseen was that people didn't perceive the role of animal spirit in how the economy works," said George Akerlof, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics and co-author of the new book "Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism."

    He talks about how stories, that pass from person to person and are propagated through the media, influence people's confidence in the market and this is affecting the market itself.

    In good times when people have high hopes, trust and invest money (like the dotcom bubble) a person like Bernard Madoff can get away with his"business" for a long time. But, when the world face a financial crise like this, this ain't working no more.

    So the subject, if Twitter will help us combat this, well, I think twitter is gathering us around a subjcect. To see "reality" other peoples take on things, in bad times you want to be updated. This works as networking. Networking create confidence and trust and sometimes, just laugh about things even through sorrows. People come together and do good things like http://tinyurl.com/b7w7oy.
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    Not very likely is it? But on the other hand I strongly beliefe that networks in it's right element and used for a specific purpose can.

    To get the consumption growing strong again we have to help each and other. This paradigm shift have to be used to create better interactions between Companies, Suppliers, manufactories and consumers.

    In B2B Sustainability and Chain supply management is going to be one of the most important matters for all the major industries and Companies during the next few years.

    Being a supplier during the recession is not going to be an easy thing with excessive and unrealistic price pressure, excessive and late change orders, wildly demand forecasts, poor communication from overseas and more.

    As all the goverments around the world seems to rely on their own domestic capabillities and industries. Witch I understand, When it is storming around you look after your self first or (Se efter ditt eget hus) in Swedish.

    Even if the Obama administration and the Chinese goverment is throwing huge investments in to the Bank system, creates Marked-to-Market strategies, launches new better health care systems and venture capital for new domestic companies. It is all on a domestic level so far.

    But, to avoid to much of an nationalistic economy both Companies its suppliers, manufactories and goverments have to help each other to get the export and import to grow again.

    And that is also why Collaboration and networking overseas is going to be so damn important for every industry in todays tough economy.

    And this is also why we have to create better B2B-C2B networking platforms, that can be used to attract and improve the whole Chain from Companies who Collaborate and communicate with suppliers and manufactories. And create new Brand innovations together with its consumers.

    I think that Twitter and microblogging can be used to Educating people more. And that is not bad at all.
    "Education is a growth opportunity but not in its current institutions. As industries are killed and turned upside-down, present and former employees will need to be retrained in technology, in the skills of starting and running a business, in entirely new skills."

    The competition is no longer between companies, but between supply chains.
    The bottom line is the shift from an institutional economy to a network economy.

    So my answear is yes networking is one of the great tools to use in the recession, and will be so in the future.

    Could we live in a more interresting time?
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    We have been given the gift of time! If you loose your job you have even more time to invest in yourself. And the best thing is that it's free, since you don't have anything else to do. And since you can get a masters degree in just about anything just by clicking a bit with your mouse on the internet (which also is free! almost) I say go for it! Reinvent yourself and explode when the time is right!
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    There is not much that can soften the economic situation we are going through right now. It's like an evil virus that has to take its time to beat up your body before you can reset. But it takes time. And this time it might even take longer than earlier recessions. However, what is going to make the economy to rise after that, is people with the same will, courage and great ideas like Richard Branson, Ingvar Kamprad and Niklas Zennström, just to give some examples. Doers with an ability to see things in different ways and whom can create solutions for peoples needs. I doubt that Twitter or such is of much help here. I'm sorry but that's what I think.
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    Do we want to stop this? I think the reboot is good on a macro level. For single individuals it can be tough, but when did we start to care about that? (We haven't cared much about Africa and the individuals there for the last century).

    I like reordering, break up and find new ways to do things and question everything. I'm sure this isn't funny if you lost your job and worked your entire life at the factory, but I think it should be a lesson to not rely on one set of skills. In this world you need to be able to adjust, after all we evolved to what we are today by the laws of survival of the fittest. Survival of the most adaptable shouldn't be new to most of us.

    And please don't get me wrong... this situation makes me appreciate being from Scandinavia even more than I did before. Being able to help each other through welfare is a good thing... Life sucks if you don't have a job, but the vast majority still get food to eat and a place to stay.

    Whether Twitter can help... well, the link to the Jarvis post didn't work, so I will get back to that.
 

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