So what did happen, you ask?  Surprisingly little.

I fanned over 30 brands and I did hear from most of them, so I guess they can check that box.  Mostly though, I was pretty underwhelmed.

The bright spots were some of the smallest brands.  My favorite childhood ice cream stand, Dairy Joy in Weston, MA had surprisingly robust Facebook posts – including one on an unseasonably warm day a few weeks ago – “Take advantage of the gorgeous weather and grab a cone of your favorite flavor from Dairy Joy!”.  If only I’d been back in my hometown – I definitely would have stopped by.

Another of my small favorites is Organic Valley, the organic farming co-op.  Their posts were much more like the random thoughts of my friends than marketing messages–links to interesting articles on organic food, pictures of their cafeteria menu items and unique seasonal recipes.

Some brands perplexed me.  A weekly magazine that I subscribe to posted links to interesting articles in their latest issue.  It sort of made me wonder why I was paying for the subscription, when they were going through the magazine, pointing out the best articles and allowing me to read them online for free.

The sheer tenacity of Best Buy in the face of overwhelming customer criticism has actually given me a whole new respect for the brand.  Dozens and dozens of angry posts to their wall each answered in a calm, helpful manner.  I suppose it isn’t an ideal situation, but I do applaud them for acknowledging what is going on and responding to it.

Most brands just annoyed me posting little more than the equivalent of an email subject in their status.  No sooner had I fanned a site than my live feed was bombarded with the equivalent of email spam – “Exclusive today, enjoy 20% off + free shipping on any purchase”, blah, blah, blah.

The Big Money’s recent Facebook 50 annual ranking of companies making social media work points out that Facebook has become a very handy way to coordinate free promotions on a nationwide, even global level.

Quite frankly, if this is all that brands are going to use Facebook for, then I say count me out.

While the debate will rage on as to whether the program helped the economy, from a marketing perspective the program has had some interesting results.  According to a study done by Kelly Blue Book  www.kbb.com, the program drove demand (shoppers considering buying a new car rose from 12% in July to 20% in August) and drove brand consideration (manufacturers offering Cash for Clunkers specific incentives saw 40%-50% increases in brand consideration.)

Could it be that marketers could learn a thing or two from the Federal Government?

Lesson #1 – Consumer may be looking to spend again

The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that the personal savings rate, having peaked in May at 6.2% declined in June down to 4.6%.  Perhaps Americans, tired of scrimping and saving are opening up their pocketbooks again?  Recent data from UM’s Econocurious Survey gives further indication that American belt tightening is actually loosening up.  While frugality and savings are still important, Americans seem to be slightly less focused on it, with all major savings strategies studied down on average about 5%.  For the brave among us, this may be the right time to get ahead of competitors and position ourselves to take a larger chunk of the spending rebound.

Lesson #2 – Everyone will feel the recovery – just not in the same way.

Our Econocurious research has consistently shown that younger people have felt the impact of the recession much less than older people.  This isn’t surprising, given that older consumers tend to have more invested and more to lose in the primary areas affected by the economy – the stock market and housing market.  The same will likely be true of the recovery – some segments of the population will feel it sooner than others.  These are the times when staying close to your consumer is critical.

Lesson #3 – Consumers are looking for an excuse

While consumers may be looking to spend again, they will need a push to get them over the hump.  Cash for Clunkers was the perfect combination of financial incentive ($4,500), emotional incentive (helping the environment) and urgency (the money running out, being replenished and running out again) all of which gave consumers a really good reason to act now (a lesson direct marketers have known for years, by the way).  As marketers, we’ll need to employ similar incentives to push people into pulling their wallets out.  But the good news is that if done right, there is evidence that consumers will bite.

So maybe it’s time for marketers to stop being so pessimistic and start working hard for the consumer’s dollar.  If the feds can do it, why can’t we?