It’s no secret that every brand wants to be heard, especially in the online space. But today’s cluttered channels often present many difficulties for marketers trying to capture consumers’ attention. To some, the answer lies in the dynamics of real-time marketing across social channels. Whereas social media marketing gives brands unprecedented ability to form genuine relationships with their targets, real-time social marketing takes that idea a step further by aiming to proactively and reactively engage users who are discussing trending topics. This real-time engagement attempts to create viral content from these interactions, while simultaneously showing that the brand is an active member of their audience’s social community. According to Tech Shout, mobile phones have become so important to people’s everyday lives that there are about 1.7 billion people with active mobile social media accounts. With numbers like that, it’s easy to see why marketers are pushing for increasingly creative ways to capture consumer attention at all times through social media.
For many companies, Twitter has become the medium for delivering quality content to the public. In one tweet, a company has the opportunity to define themselves and their opinions as a brand while also delivering engaging content.
Read MoreIt’s no secret that every brand wants to be heard, especially in the online space. But today’s cluttered channels often present many difficulties for marketers trying to capture consumers’ attention. To some, the answer lies in the dynamics of real-time marketing across social channels. Whereas social media marketing gives brands unprecedented ability to form genuine relationships with their targets, real-time social marketing takes that idea a step further by aiming to proactively and reactively engage users who are discussing trending topics. This real-time engagement attempts to create viral content from these interactions, while simultaneously showing that the brand is an active member of their audience’s social community. According to Tech Shout, mobile phones have become so important to people’s everyday lives that there are about 1.7 billion people with active mobile social media accounts. With numbers like that, it’s easy to see why marketers are pushing for increasingly creative ways to capture consumer attention at all times through social media.
For many companies, Twitter has become the medium for delivering quality content to the public. In one tweet, a company has the opportunity to define themselves and their opinions as a brand while also delivering engaging content. Socialnomics estimates that Twitter’s monthly active user count is around 325 million, with most of them being millennials between the ages of 18 to 29. Marketers understand that considering this age group’s media and technology habits, communicating ideas in real time is huge. For this reason, many brands aim to contribute content by live-tweeting during highly publicized live events with the aid of hashtags. Hashtags have provided organization on social media platforms, which has helped immensely with real-time social media marketing. By creating content that is tagged with an event’s official hashtag, brands have the opportunity to jump in and be a part of a trackable conversation. A brand engaging in the same content as everyone else often becomes more appealing than one that chooses to remain less fluid in its social approach. By staying up-to-date with current events and pop culture, the brand’s voice can become humanized and relatable.
A prime example of real-time marketing comes from a tweet sent out by Oreo during the 2013 Super Bowl. When the game lost power for 34 minutes during the third quarter, Oreo was quick to seize the opportunity by tweeting, “You can still dunk in the dark,” marrying one of their iconic ads with a clever reference to the blackout. The tweet became a huge success and was retweeted more than 15,000 times. That week, Oreo also received more than 8,000 new followers on Twitter, 20,000 likes on Facebook and went from 2,000 to 36,000 followers on Instagram, all in a time when some of these social media platforms were still underutilized by brands.
Taking a cue from the Oreo success, Esurance recently pulled its own real-time marketing campaign during the last Super Bowl. The company offered a unique sweepstakes on Twitter for anyone who tweeted #EsuranceSweepstakes to Esurance’s official Twitter handle throughout the game. By tweeting, fans were entered into a drawing for $1 million. While this campaign was neither spontaneous nor particularly creative, it garnered word of mouth interest and ensured maximum exposure during the game. The opportunity to become a millionaire just by contributing a single tweet was too hard to ignore. According to Amobee, the Esurance hashtag received more than 835,000 tweets, which was the most of any brand that night.
However, these executions aren’t perfect for every brand. Companies wanting to achieve an engaging and truly spontaneous experience need to consider everything from their audience’s typical media habits, to the logistics of executing such an effort. Oreo had a team of 15 social media and creative specialists on hand throughout the entire afternoon and evening of the Super Bowl. This group worked quickly and somewhat autonomously to come up with witty and brand-appropriate posts throughout the game. Eventually they struck gold with the blackout situation, but the Oreo team’s overall impact likely wouldn’t have been as impressive had that scenario not presented itself. This is of course the gamble brands take with social, especially real-time reactions: not every experience will pay big dividends, and there is always a chance something will go horribly wrong. Though for the companies whose leadership trusts its social team and brand directors, the experience can often pay off.
Truly understanding a brand’s social audience is a huge part of creating real-time posts that are executed smoothly, creatively and ultimately ensure a lot of digital exposure. Take for example fast-food chain Whataburger. When visiting any of its social media channels, followers will see updated posts that relate to major events happening in pop culture. Whether there is a major sporting event, award show or highly-publicized event happening, Whataburger makes an effort to connect its product with consumers in real time. When hip-hop artists Drake and Meek Mill were in a viral feud last year, Whataburger tweeted, “Meek Mill take it from us- if you gonna serve beef serve it high quality.” This one tweet acquired more than 104,000 retweets and 78,000 favorites. By Whataburger contributing to the conversation and siding with longtime fan Drake, many consumers could relate, forming a more personal connection with the brand and product. Drake even performed in front of thousands of people with Whataburger’s tweet showcased behind him during OVO Fest, a music festival. The amount of free branding exposure that Whataburger received from crafty real-time social media marketing was tremendous.
Current events embraced through hashtags present many opportunities for brands to get involved. In June of 2015, when the United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across America, it didn’t take long for brands to contribute to the #LoveWins hashtag in an attempt to show their acceptance of the court’s decision. Companies quickly attached themselves to this wave of engagement and sent out digital content that reflected their admiration for the ruling. Numerous brands either tweaked their logo with rainbow colors or posted a photo connecting the #LoveWins movement to their product or service. For instance, Uber tweeted a photo of the historic Stonewall Inn located on a GPS map with the caption reading, “Wherever you’re celebrating, #RideWithPride. #LoveWins.” Yet again, this type of strategy is only a fit for companies that are willing to take a stand on controversial political issues. Though as both Starbucks and Chick-fil-A can attest, an increasing number of consumer brands are choosing to go this route as the importance of social media continues to swell and force many hard discussions to the forefront of the public realm.
But what happens when things go wrong? Many brands were criticized for trying to have a voice at all when it came to this ruling, with some feeling that branded messages came across as pathetic attempts to exploit and capitalize on what supporters viewed as a historic victory for human rights. When fast-food Mexican restaurant Chipotle tweeted, “Homo Estas? Very well, thank you. #LoveWins,” many on social saw the use of “homo,” a slang term often used in derogatory fashion, as a direct insult to the gay community. Others saw it simply as a desperate attempt to sell burritos. Twitter user @Devonjdawson responded to the post with, “.@ChipotleTweets I’m a fan of your brand and food, but this is some serious trash. Way to exploit a great moment. You should be ashamed.” And @pwrmaster7 added, “@ChipotleTweets keep politics away from food. Don’t see the need for comments from a business.”
While companies definitely risked disconnecting with certain customers, many marketing teams ultimately decided the pros of trying to align with a national movement outweighed the cons of separating from these critics. According to Topsy, the hashtag #LoveWins garnered more than 4.5 billion impressions and was tweeted more than 2.8 million times as of this publication. The amount of shares and exposure these examples created prove that for some companies and brands, taking a political stance to increase brand visibility can result in a generally positive outcome.
Still, other brands have failed disastrously when trying to participate in current event chats on social. Beauty and fashion blog Total Beauty tweeted out a photo during this year’s Oscars with the caption, “We had no idea @Oprah was tatted, and we love it. #oscars.” It seemed like a great attempt for a brand to contribute to the conversation. The only problem? The image was not of Oprah; it was of comedian Whoopi Goldberg. With this past year’s Oscars already proving controversial and #OscarsSoWhite taking over, this brand’s mistake received a lot more attention than it otherwise might have. Many pointed out the ignorance of Total Beauty, causing a rift with the brand. For this reason, some companies choose to opt-out completely when it comes to real-time social media marketing.
Being able to converse in real-time through social media has also allowed traditional TV to boost viewership by providing topics and a medium for consumers to engage with. Many reality television shows have utilized social media in real time in order to determine the outcome of their show, revolutionizing the way we consume media. For example, when contestants are in the “bottom three” on NBC’s The Voice, the show’s audience is able to “save” their favorite contestant by engaging in social media with an official hashtag given to each singer. After a small time period, producers analyze the social data and save contestants based on which singer received the most engagement. This method has helped further humanize TV by allowing many viewers to feel part of the show. While this trick may be nothing new, considering that phone-in voting has been around on many shows for a while, social provides an even more dynamic outlet for audiences to speak their voice and be heard by others in their online community.
It is for this same reason that talk shows, news programs and political debates offer a social media portion in their programs; they want their audience to instantaneously become part of the conversation. With highly advertised live events like Grease Live, The Sound of Music Live and Tyler Perry’s “The Passion Live,” it is evident that networks have realized the powerful tie-in between real-time social engagement and live events to get people talking. Participating in these mass conversations through official hashtags and chats provides a sense of connection to the audiences TV networks crave. Yet the same warnings for brands apply to networks looking to boost viewership with this strategy. While social media provides them with a direct connection to audiences, it is also an easy platform for consumers to air their criticisms. Producers constantly have to watch not only what they say, but how they say it, in order to avoid a PR nightmare.
So what’s the ultimate lesson here for brands? Engaging with audiences during live events through social media offers the opportunity to instantly connect with key targets. Having platforms like Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram gives advertisers a multitude of ways to evolve their branding strategies. However while these channels make some connections easier, they also increase the risk for viral mistakes. Brands that plan to deploy real-time social should carefully consider the teams they have in place, their audience’s media habits and make sure that brand-conforming guidelines are spelled out explicitly before engaging, especially prior to top-rated live events. Though for some who take the risk, the reward can both define and grow consumer engagement in ways previously unachievable.