How would you react?

As I've been talking about the ideas of Real-Time Marketing & PR, many people tell me they have difficulty identifying opportunities and threats.

Throughout the real-time online world of the web, I see the same patterns again and again as stories are driven by the Real-Time Marketing & PR Power Law.

You've got to react quickly.

News breaks in moments. Your opportunity is now. Not tomorrow. Now.

Could you recognize a snowballing situation in its early stages? Is your organization prepared to react with a real-time mindset?

How would you react if, right now . . . ?

• Your company is cited as the best place to work by your local newspaper.
• A customer raves about your customer service on an influential trade magazine web site.
• A well-known industry analyst says on his blog that your company is too difficult to do business with.
• A competitor announces they are lowering prices by 25 percent.
• Your CEO is fired.
• In forums and chat rooms, people said your product poses a health risk.
• A huge company announces its intent to acquire your competitor.

Be they opportunities or threats, you may be confronted by scenarios like these when you least expect them.

If you understand how quickly events can unfold and are ready to react, you will gain significant competitive advantage.

The key is having the right mind-set.

Comments

[Ron Ploof]

David. Last month I had the opportunity to watch a real-time communications situation play out where the company did a very good job. The San Diego Gas & Electric Company had to deal with the fact that all 1.4 million of its customers had lost power unexpectedly.

The company used Twitter very effectively. If you're interested, I sliced, diced, and analysed all of their Twitter activity during the 12 hours of the crisis.

http://ronamok.com/2011/09/12/when-the-lights-went-out/

[Chase Sherman]

Interesting examples. You definitely raise a good point in terms of response time (and ability to respond). Seems like your pointing to a deeper focus which is, "Is our company poised in its dealings with prospects, customers, government, competitors, family members, friends, etc.?"

[David Meerman Scott]

Ron - Many thanks for pointing us to your analysis. I just checked it out and recommend anyone reading this do the same.

Chase - Yes, however it is more like "Is our company poised *to act quickly* in its dealings with..."

[Manuchat]

David,
Its true. One of the main issues for companies / brands is how Social Media is going to affect Corporate / PR Communications. Real Time has become a mindset that affects everything. If you can't react in real time not only you can miss big opportunities but small issues can spread creating crisis situations for brands. In fact there should be, besides the Crisis Committee, a Real Time Crisis Team that can react in no time! Your take?

[David Meerman Scott]

Manuchat - What's important to remember is that "crisis" is only part of the issue. That term "crisis" implies something bad.

However, I see many more opportunities that are positive. Very few companies react to positive things in the news and social media.

[Manuchat]

True. In this case, Social Crisis scenarios are what makes them prepare to react in real time. After that, you (should) react to anything positive and negative (well, actually, in the perfect world) :)

[Raquel Richardson]

Each Thursday our team has a "Square Lunk" (our business name is Silver Square; we call ourselves Squares and lunk is just a name for lunch) and we talk about various topics. Next Thursday I'm going to use your scenarios as discussion to see what we would answer. We are good on our feet and I believe we would react well, but, this will be good food for thought and practice.

Always good stuff!

[David Meerman Scott]

Raquel - That's cool. I hope it is a success. If you able to do so, please update us on the result.

[Claire]

What's the best way for a time-poor company to keep an eye on what people are saying? A daily Google search?

[David Meerman Scott]

Claire - Easy and free would be a combination of 1) a mainstream media + social web alerting such as Google alerts and 2) a Twitter management tool such as TweetDeck or HootSuite.