HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

real time + marketing = revolution

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

Real-Time Marketing & PR  |  Books

RTMPR PBThis week, the new paperback edition of Real-Time Marketing & PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now is out.

The book was originally published in November 2010 in hardcover, and this edition is revised and updated with new stats and new examples.

As I was writing the first edition, I felt like a lone voice in the wilderness. Every time I searched the web for talk about issues relating to real-time marketing and PR, results were scarce. Pundits and practitioners seemed locked into thinking about long-term campaigns and not how to seize advantage from what’s happening right now.

More than a year later, search engines tell a very different story: "real time + marketing" is a topic that has exploded. Even the Direct Marketing Association is in the game. The DMA annual conference, one of the largest gatherings of marketing professionals in the world, is now billed as "The Global Event for Real-Time Marketers."

What happened?

Although my humble book did climb to number two on the Wall Street Journal best-seller list ("and stayed there for a week or two," as Jerry Garcia once said), I can't claim paternity here. The wave was coming, like it or not. I just happened to spot it early.

A Real-Time Revolution

When I first sat down to write, protestors in Tehran had just figured out how to use social media as a weapon of civil disobedience. Less than a year later, the same real-time techniques were toppling despotic regimes such as those in Egypt and Tunisia.

Even among CEOs 80 floors above the street, the realization has begun to seep up from below: "What happened to Mubarak is not unrelated to my business." The revolution now underway is not just political and it’s not just an "Arab thing." Upheavals are coming. Those who understand and adapt stand to be among the winners. Those who ignore what's happening may not fare so well.

The real-time revolution is very much a "people thing." And the people I interviewed for the book are its heart and soul: passionate characters at the forefront, from Amsterdam to Boston to Tokyo, each with an eye-opening story to tell. They made researching and writing such a compelling experience for me that I hope... even those who'd choose a root canal over a marketing book will not be disappointed if they decide to read Real-Time Marketing & PR.

RT and NRBy definition, this is a subject that changes quickly. So if you read the first edition you will find many new examples and anecdotes added.

I worked with my publisher John Wiley & Sons to make the look and feel of the new paperback edition of Real-Time Marketing & PR similar to the new third edition paperback edition of The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Similar cover, same fonts, consistent use of terms and language. In a sense, Real-Time is a continuation of New Rules.

If you've read New Rules and not yet read Real-Time, this might be the time.