How to get instant results in today's fast-paced world

Wake up, it's revolution time! Gone are the days when you could plan out your marketing and public relations programs well in advance and release them on your timetable. It's a real-time world now, and if you're not engaged, then you're on your way to marketplace irrelevance.

"Real time" means news breaks over minutes, not days. It means ideas percolate, then suddenly and unpredictably go viral to a global audience. It's when companies develop (or refine) products or services instantly, based on feedback from customers or events in the marketplace. And it's when businesses see an opportunity and are the first to act on it.

The book by David Meerman Scott, the author of the BusinessWeek bestseller The New Rules of Marketing and PR, explores how the media environment has changed the ways businesses of all kinds, including companies, nonprofits, government agencies, and even rock bands, interact with consumers and the media and how they can gain a clear path to navigate and succeed in the changed business landscape.

The book delves into ways to both proactively and reactively utilize real-time strategies in order to effectively reach or respond to customer or media demands, complaints or ideas and how to incorporate them into business strategies. Scott provides multiple real-life examples of companies, both large and small, groups and individuals that have utilized real-time marketing and PR in successful campaigns and also of those whose reputations have been altered because of their lack of understanding of these techniques.

With all of the new technologies available allowing everyone to search for, read about and discuss brands to purchase, services to use and places to eat, shop, stay, play, et cetera, there is no excuse for a company not to utilize those tools. The book explains that the key to a business or brand getting one step ahead of its competitors is to reach consumers faster through the media they are consuming on a daily basis, at their convenience. The book also explains techniques on how to stay on top of these media and how to use them to a company's advantage.

In addition to the example techniques everyone can execute immediately, this book enables readers to:

develop a business culture that encourages speed over sloth;

read buying signals as people interact with online information;

crowdsource product development, naming, and even marketing materials such as online videos;

engage reporters to shape stories as they are being written;

command premium prices by delivering products at speed;

deploy technology to listen in on millions of online discussions and instantly engage with customers and buyers.

(China Daily 01/24/2011 page17)