David Merman Scott strongly advocates that brands take advantage of Real Time marketing in today’s consumer-driven landscape. There are plenty of cases as to why this approach, whether proactive or reactive, can help a brand avert disaster, or even launch itself into relevancy. Either way, it’s about generating attention around what’s going on this instant and doing something about it.
In fact, Scott insists that it can take one and a half minutes to come up with a real-time marketing strategy that will work, not 1 ½ months. With that simple premise as a guide, I set out to see if that could actually be the case by news-jacking a rather odd and popular news story over the last week.
- 8/31 1:00pm: @CNNbrk (CNN Breaking News) “Millions of dollars worth of maple syrup stole from warehouse.”
- 8/31 1:31pm: I have confirmed a new Twitter account, @MapleSyrupThief
Once the account was created, I searched for “Maple Syrup” and began to provide a series of witty replies to anyone of influence or connection to the story with a large number of followers. The response and reaction was awesome:
@RizzoTees, social media hawk, 55k followers:
- 8/31 3:18 pm: Hey @MapleSyrupThief I am going to be watching this accound like a HAWK, making sure you continue to develop it. I am watching.
@CNNwriters, 30k+ followers:
- 8/31 4:27 pm: Where are you @MapleSyrupThief? Police are looking for you, and we’d love an interview prior to the perp walk #giveustheexclusive
- 8:31 5:16 pm: I reply “@CNNwriters my demands must be met 1. Fush must play at my birthday party, Bryan Adams as opening act.”
- 8/31 6:14 pm: Now your’re waffling, @MapleSyrupThief. First iHOP, now ’80’s supershow? We don’t bribe sources. #nodeal 🙂
Even the Edmonton Canada Public Library, 11k+ followers, offered some bibliographic advice for @MapleSyrupThief:
- @MapleSyrupThief you might need these titles if things go well epl.bibliocommons.com/search?custom_… and these if not epl.bibliocommons.com/search?t=smart…
Knowing the topic’s popularity, and influential parties willingness to engage, imagine the possiblities of a brand tapping into this news story!
If iHop or Waffle House jumped in on the band wagon and participated in the conversation, or if they took on the personna of @MapleSyrupThief, imagine the fun, creative possibilities they could generate?
Real Time marketing takes an awareness of what’s going on, some courage, and the willingness for brands and agencies to try something different.
I work for a small architect firm that has oecfifs in the tri-state area. My Supervisor recently asked me to find new areas to promote our services given that the economy has hit our area rather hard, especially for new construction. My first thought was the social networking sites, especially Facebook, and when I told him that he was a little hesitant but told me I could look into it and let him know what I found. He was MOST concerned with getting on Google’s first search results page and that is what we are working towards especially. I was shocked there actually existed a BOOK telling us exactly how to go about it. But sure enough, Internet Marketing for Architects was superb in relating various ways we could increase our buisness, even locally, using search engines as well as the social networking sites. We have began two campaigns, both on Facebook and YouTube, and ARE seeing success already. Even though I knew that businesses were using social networks for some pomotion and even though I knew we needed to, I sure had no idea how to go about it. I am thrilled that Mr. Holliday compiled this guide. His click-by-click steps make things extremely easy. We are going to try Google Places next using his techniques although we are fairly pleased at Facebook already. Sure, social media might not ever be our primary means of promotion but we are pleased so far at its payback compared to the little time we have invested there. And as we move up on Google, we really hope to see returns.