In a recession economy, marketing is more important than ever. To many business owners cutting marketing when sales are declining seems logical, but if you look at history companies that increased marketing dollars reap greater long term results than companies that scaled back. A recession forces management to make tough choices, not simple cuts. While I do recommend eliminating the fat from your budget, here are a few items to consider before you start any serious pruning...

Social Media is everywhere.

Blogs. Facebook. LinkedIn. Twitter. YouTube. Flickr. The list of social media applications continue to become entrenched with modern life and its user base keeps multiplying daily.

So what does this mean to you? If you plan events, we hope this post will help you in considering how to integrate social media into your agenda. Social media sessions at conferences – whether breakouts or keynotes – are some of the most-attended and highest-rated. Here are some quick ideas to get you started.

As the economy has taken its toll on businesses, we have all been pushed into the position of doing more with fewer staff. On top of that, the web and social media technology have rapidly evolved and create a whole new paradigm for marketing and customer engagement.

It’s time to take a fresh look at your organization and either create new positions or additional job roles to meet the challenges ahead. Feel free to modify, merge, or create teams to manage these new tasks.