Page 408 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

To help jump-start your real-time marketing efforts, take the following actions:

» Create a list of key topics.
You cannot participate in every consumer trend or pop culture moment. But
by creating a list of priority topics that are of interest to your consumers and
matter to your brand, you’ll know which trends to prioritize over others when
things start popping. For example, if you’re a shoe company, tapping into a
real-time trend around running will be far more important than one about
reality TV shows.

» Create a global calendar of major pop culture events in the year.
Having a calendar of events will help you determine which major pop culture
events are worth activating against. However, not every pop culture event in
the year has meaning for your brand. (For example, does Mother’s Day have
particular resonance for your brand? If you’re Hallmark, the answer is
obviously yes). Choose the days on which you want to activate with real-time
marketing carefully, because you’re probably like most marketers and have
limited resources.
» Put aside some media dollars for paid advertising.
Create a small bucket of advertising dollars to support your real-time market-
ing efforts around those specific topics or days in the year. Use these dollars
to amplify any real-time marketing activity against the trends and topics that
matter most to your consumers. This is important because without the paid
investments, you probably won’t reach enough consumers who matter to
your brand.
» Pay attention to trends as they’re popping.
Trends are most valuable if you can ride their growth and exposure to more
and more people. Keep an eye on trends that are just starting to pop; they
may be more valuable and cheaper to market against than a trend that has
already hit the mainstream.
» Listen to key influencers in your space.

Sometimes the best way to discover a trend that matters to your customers
and your business is by watching what key influencers in your space are
talking about. Often, they’re the ones who talk about trends first and take
them mainstream.
» Start small; test and learn.
Real-time marketing is tricky, and getting it right in ways that match the scale
and budget of your brand can be difficult. The only way to practice real-time
marketing successfully is to test different tactics, observe how they perform,
and then build to bigger and bigger programs from there.

392 PART 5 Old Marketing Is New Again with SMM