HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

Real Time at the Oscars

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.

Twitter  |  Case Studies  |  Real-Time Marketing & PR  |  Crowdsource  |  Best Practices

Oscars retweet2It was fun to see Ellen DeGeneres do a selfie as she hosted the Academy Awards telecast. It injected some fun, real-time quirkiness to what is an over-produced event.

The photo brought Twitter’s servers down for about 20 minutes and by the end of the Oscars broadcast had become the most retweeted tweet ever.

In the photo, the actors aren’t posed like you usually see them. And it’s not a paparazzi shot. It’s just people worming their way into a photo just like we’ve all done. It adds a great deal of humanity to people who seem super-human. Front row from left, Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Ellen DeGeneres, Bradley Cooper, Peter Nyong’o Jr., and second row, from left, Channing Tatum, Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Brad Pitt, Lupita Nyong'o and Angelina Jolie.

Real-time in your business

Real-time is now a part of every business. Live broadcasts like the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl bring people together. But it’s no longer a passive one way watching of television. Instead we share or thoughts via social networks.

Speeches, corporate events, and conferences include a real-time back channel where people discuss what's happening on stage. Presenters can participate too.

We react instantly to the news. If you have a take on what’s going down, you can showcase your expertise at the precise moment the world is looking for it. Newsjacking is the art of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story.

For salespeople, real-time is critical. Today buyers are in charge. The idea of mystery in the sales process is over. We research someone online before agreeing to a first date—is he a creep? We fire up LinkedIn an hour before an initial business meeting—does she have anyone I know in her network? We watch an on-demand movie trailer before deciding which film to see that night at the theater. We check out restaurant reviews and browse menus before making a booking.

We’re in a new world. It’s real-time. But you know that. Not because I say it a lot but because you’re living the new world every day.