Obviously, the desire by marketers to provide customers with exciting real-time content is strong. It's a way to capture attention. The key to using this content effectively is to keep your customers at the center of all your efforts.
Focus on the idea of creating content that speaks to specific personas on their customer journey. Don't get sidetracked by providing real-time content that doesn't speak directly to your customers.
Customers have grown used to having their smartphones and other devices with them so that they can communicate as needed. Companies should expand their content messages as much as possible to take advantage of real-time content. But creating real-time content doesn't limit you to clever tweets during the Super Bowl. Here are some other ideas that can expand your real-time reach:
Newsjacking: Newsjacking is defined as the art of using news stories and celebrities to create timely content for your customers. You've probably seen content with titles like "What [insert rock star name] can teach you about [insert concept]." The trick with this content is to actually make the information valuable, as opposed to just using a celebrity name to get attention.
Some marketers argue that getting attention is what newsjacking is about, but your audience will tire of it if you keep providing content attached to famous names and events that's just not useful.
Conducting Twitter chats: Don't only rely on tweets. Twitter chats are available in real time to all interested parties. You may be able to interest new users in your company by appealing to them from this channel. In addition, the transcript (content) will be available to them after the live chat.
Hosting Google Hangouts: Developing a webinar (an online seminar) for Google Hangouts is a quick and easy way to target customers on Google, the web's most popular search platform. It also lets you create content that can be viewed later.
