Friday Book Review: Real-time Marketing and PR
I really did enjoy reading “Real-time marketing and PR” by David Meerman Scott.
He sites good examples of how monitoring online conversations and reacting to them can make or break your PR and marketing efforts. The use of social media is prevalent throughout the book and if you are searching for good, real life case studies on the cause-effect that can take place with social media and PR and marketing — in a pro active way– this is a must read.
His big idea is that we now live in a society that’s 24/7 and as such, we need to be more aware of what’s being said and be able to act quickly.
I love the example of the musician who saw his guitar being abused by a United Airlines baggage handler and how they refused to pay the $1,200 in damages to his instrument. After 9-months of trying to resolve the problem he hit a dead end. Then, he took action and he wrote a song about the incident and it went viral, forcing United to respond. Here is the YouTube video of the song. Note: over 9,000,000 views to date.
Better yet, the guitar maker offered up a free replacement and a case maker offered up advice to musicians on how to pack their instruments and also came out with a custom case named after the musician, Dave Carroll, who had the tragic experience and hence wrote the song.
Tragedy turned into a marketing opportunity for the musician, the guitar maker and a guitar case maker. Not so much so for United Airlines, as their silence on the issue made the viral impact louder, swifter and more pointed against them.
This book is a stand-out if you like real world examples and not theoretical mumbo jumbo.
