Responsive Marketing in a Real Time World

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We needn’t look much further than our everyday lives to realize that the way we consume, share and produce our own media has changed drastically. The major forces in this evolution are largely a combination of hardware and software (mobile) combined with connectivity (social) all accelerated in the context of time which gives the impression of immediacy (real-time).

When it comes to marketing and communications in this real time business environment it is forcing us to re-think the notion of both content and distribution.

It was these thoughts that have been driving much of my own thinking (and doing) in the space and recently I gave a talk in Montenegro to attempt to string much of this together in a presentation. Yes, we’re steadily transitioning from an era where messages would be the primary focus of the marketing world—to a future where storytelling (custom tailored for the media it is delivered in) pulls people into the narrative. We’ve gone from push to pull to pull and distribute where “news feeds” of all shapes and sizes become a primary way we inform ourselves. Below is an expanded version of the presentation I gave at Spark.me along with a few specific points I called out:

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Real-time Marketing Is A Tactic, Not a Strategy
As I’ve stated before, it’s time to re-think real-time especially in the context of marketing. We’ve reduce it to a set of tactics but in reality the notion of being more agile in a fast moving environment means that all operations within marketing (and beyond) will eventually have to evolve to something that can be more adaptive to changes as they happen. So if real-time marketing is the thing that introduces change into our organizations—so be it. But it cannot be the strategy that drives that change. 

Content Marketing—Beyond Social (The Five Content Archetypes)
We’re at a pivotal shift in our business where much of the momentum we benefitted from in social is now shifting and expanding around “content”. Which means we need a more holistic way think about content as it pertains to our strategies and tactics. I’ve introduced the “The Five Content Archetypes” as a straight forward way to categorize content in areas which included owned properties such as Websites and apps. This can also be a tool for us as clients come to us with content problems/opportunities which need solutions.  

Content As Currency
This is a way to think/speak about content which takes social behavior into account. Many marketers want to view content as “king” or “queen” which is looking at it from our business perch. If we look at it from the “content consumer” point of view we lead with the insight that people today treat content as a form of currency which helps them build reputations etc. This translates to brand reputation as well which is increasingly becoming a blurred line which the consumer does not distinguish. 

Social + Search + Content = Visibility and Viability 
A simple formula to think about how search, social, and content are all playing complimentary roles to what we see and share with others. Visibility equates to the most relevant content bubbling up to the top when we search for it and viability pertains to the disposition content has to be shared. 

All thoughts I’ve started some time ago and are constantly evolving as I collect my own data points both from an industry perspective and personal experience.

Image via flickr

Original Post: http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2014/07/responsive-realtime.html