From the Oscars to the Super Bowl and everything in between, we’ve talked about how ‘newsjacking’ (real-time marketing) is a great way to get new social followers and engage your current followers at the same time.
No matter how convinced a small business owner may be of the value of real-time marketing, however, there will always be those that say “that’s great for some businesses, but my industry is just not exciting enough for my videos to go viral.”
Au contraire. No industry is too boring to create exciting, engaging, delightful content; some will just require a little more creativity.
If a blender company can do it, so can you.
The first step is to step back and take a look around you. What’s going on in the world, or in your immediate area, right now? What is coming up in the next few weeks? Come up with a list of things that people will be talking about on social media in the near future, and task yourself and your staff with creating some ideas for things you could do to capitalize on all that social conversation.
A great example of real-time content marketing that really doesn’t even feel like marketing comes from Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island. If you live anywhere near the East Coast of the US, you no doubt know we’ve been having some nasty weather. That weather has resulted in a lot of school closures lately – a LOT.
If you’re a teacher or school administrator and school is closed, the most important thing you can do is make sure everyone KNOWS that school is closed. How can you make sure people spread the word about something as mundane as a school closing announcement? Make it hilarious.
To really drive home how brilliant this approach was, note only 765 students attend Moses Brown at any given time. Even if you factor in their parents, you’re looking at a maximum of 2,300 people for whom this information is pertinent. Since launching 6 days ago, that video has garnered 221,700 views.
And while getting the information about the school closing out efficiently is great, the real benefit of this video is as a piece of fantastic content marketing. Not only do hundreds of thousands of people now know that Moses Brown School exists, they know that it’s a place where teachers and administrators are passionate enough about their work to make a video like this for their school community.
So the next time a major weather event is headed your way (I’m lookin’ at you, East Coast), or any other trend that is likely to spark conversation on social media, think about Moses Brown School and feel inspired.
How can you join the conversation in a way that engages and delights people, and reflects positively on your brand?
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