When macro picture changes ( we are in recession, apparently!) we tend to zoom-in and re-evaluate our market. Lately R-word is coming up a lot. Marc Andreeson silenced lot of naysayers with a very positive  post on recent events.
Today Josh Bernoff, social computing analyst at Forrester, has made a convincing case on why social  apps will survive recession. You should read the complete post here. His main points are -

• It’s not a tech bubble
• Awareness ads will lose effective
• But social applications are about consideration, not awareness.
• It’s cheap
• It’s measurable

Last two points are key to this discussion. Investing in social apps is not expensive. It requires different kind of hard work, which is investing your time and effort in understanding dominant tools and engagement design used by different communities (eg - 140 characters in Twitter, Poke in Facebook and  multiple network message blast in MessageDance!).

Last point is an eye-opener for mainstream marketers. Folks, who cut their marketing teeth buying bulk impressions,  to know engagement metrics for exactly 1745 users on Facebook is a different concept all together.

Recession or no recession, companies will still be needing tools to reach out and connect with their customers. Need to be more capital efficient will become a rallying point and that’s where social apps will help.