Real-Time Marketing & PR… in Brisbane

David Meerman Scott fans in Brisbane finally got see him in action – via satellite from the USA. Here are the two biggest discoveries I made at today’s event.

David Meerman Scott was beamed in via satellite

Real-time engagement is what matters

Tomorrow, next week, next month or next year isn’t good enough in the Internet Age.   You need to be acting now. In real-time.

And just like the Wall St trading floors in the 80s, there is money to made by responding in real-time and by the same token – if you snooze, you lose!

David provided great clarity for me when he explained this concept (which I’d been struggling to clarify in my own head.)

“Social Media are the tools.  And Real-Time is a mindset.” – David Meerman Scott

In all the hype of recent months, “social media” has taken on a lot of baggage and is often dismissed by senior management.  However communicating with your customers ‘right now’ is as relevant as ever. Hence “real-time” is a mindset!

Source: David Meerman Scott's 'Real-Time' ebook

ROI is usually the elephant in the room

The elephant in the room at social media events & with reluctant senior management is the issue of ROI.  And David Meerman Scott has two neat ways of explaining it.

Firstly, the cynical way.  When confronted with this common kick-back about the ROI of social media, he counters, “do your staff have blackberries, email and internet access…? And what is the ROI of each of them?”  Naturally, people struggle to answer those questions, but they agree these are business critical tools.  David argues that the same goes for social media.

Secondly, the more appropriate way. In a study of the Fortune 100 companies, David compares the stock price of organisations that engage in real-time, and those that don’t.  The results below speak for themselves.

Comparison of Fortune 100 companies

Here’s what David saw from his end when he was beamed into QUT’s lecture theatre.  It came as no surprise that David took this picture on his iPhone, then tweeted it during his talk — all in real time!

What David saw from his end of the video conference in Lexington, MA.

Hopefully the webinar will be available shortly for those of you who couldn’t make it to Brisbane.  And you can check out the rest of the pics on facebook.

Finally, David, thank you so much for joining us on your Thanksgiving long weekend – we thoroughly enjoyed your presentation.

You can follow @dmscott on twitter or visit his blog Web Ink Now for more.

What good Aussie examples of real-time engagement do you have?

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