Its been a few months now since we’ve heard news that the economy is on the decline. In Singapore, we’ve heard about all the paycuts, the mandatory leave, and other cost cutting measures that companies are putting in place so that they can weather the upcoming economic thunderstorm without retrenching staff.

In fact, just today on the Singapore Straits Times website, PM Lee told us to “Brace for worse times”

According to PM Lee, on the article:

In a year like this, the only way not to lose money is to take it all out and then lock it up in a safe deposit in the bank….

So there is no doubt about it. This thunderstorm is going to be loooong and hard one, especially for the big companies. Prices have already fallen, business volume is already on the decline.

The question is: What can you do about it? What should you do now?

All you CEOs (and all you other corporate executive honchos too), take this time to go back to study! … For goodness sake, take this time to go get yourself updated with what’s in web marketing today! Ever since the recovery from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, you’ve been having a good life staying in that 4 walls and enjoying the boom eh?!

Did you know the web has changed like 4752992.15% since 1997? :mrgreen:

I remember that when I first took that step to leave school and handed in my matriculation card to my university administration 3 years ago, I had the opportunity to speak to the IT directors of a local bank. Back then, I was proposing a corporate blogging strategy as part of their communications platform.

Guess what he said?

He said: “Blogs are a nuisance”

Yeah? Blogs are a nuisance? What do you think of it now?

If you have started your corporate blog and web marketing and communications strategy 3 years ago, today you might have with you an unbelievable “pull marketing” platform for you to instill more confidence to your stakeholders.

Your confidence might not be battered like this because you know you own your own channel to communicate with your customers, shareholders and partners.

You can ask for suggestions from your blog to get INSTANT feedback. Amid all the cost cutting measures, you will know what is important to your customers so you don’t cut on the wrong item, losing customers permanently.

… but then, you chose to see blogs as random rants and useless information 3 years ago.

Small decision then, big difference today.

So this crisis might have been a good thing.

It serves as a reminder to all that staying aloof is costly… but it also gives you a break, for you to re-learn and re-strategize.

Here are 4 things you might wanna do in this economy.

Open up (your mind!)

It’s time for you to embrace marketing in today’s technology. YouTube is the world’s third most popular site… and you are still thinking about animated GIF banner ads? Time to open up!

Go find your potential customers and superpoke them if you need to. Surprise them, let them know you are a human, and not a robot executing lines and lines of standard operating procedures!

Start blogging today!

Its never too late to start. We all don’t know how the gloom is going to last. But starting and maintaining a blog over time will gain you that edge over your competitors in times of need.

Its like buying an insurance policy, except this one can not only save you your customers, but play an essential role for online reputation management too.

Find out what is boiling with youth entrepreneurs from schools!

Very often academic programs are quite theoretical (that’s what I felt when I left college), but amid the mugging students, a small group will stand out and say “I’m going to work this theory out and build a business around it”.

If there is a place to find out what is coming next, these guys are the ones who know best! You will be surprised to find how many of them have a social media marketing strategy!

… and while you are at it …

Go attend an executive program where CEOs congregate… and go there to network and lead.

Major business schools are tapping on the trend and revamping their offerings to focus their executive programs for CEOs to teach them how to weather a downturn, so the courses will fit your intentions directly.

But focus on using your new found knowledge about web marketing to lead that baffled herd of sheeps out into the light. Build trust, build relationships, and hold on tight to each other so you don’t get swept away by the gloomy current, and so your next upturn will be 100 times bigger than this downturn!