REAL-TIME MARKETING IN A VISUAL WORLD 179 There is a gold mine of social data available to marketing departments, but it takes the right tools, analytics, and mostly, the right mentality to make use of it. Brands that are changing their marketing strategies to integrate real-time social listening and social data are beginning to see the results—but it’s still in the Embracing real-time marketing early days, and many companies aren’t yet convinced that completes, for your business, the its of relevance to them. The sorts of examples that are fre- true potential of social marketing. quently held up—clever images that reference a current „PAUL OBRIEN, Dachis Group2 event that go viral on Twitter—might not seem signif- icant to many organizations. But RTM goes deeper than humorous visual responses or witty videos. It’s about responsiveness, truly knowing your customers, and taking a flexible approach to marketing. Think what that could mean to a brand: • Serving customers relevant advertising messages that they may truly be interested in • Personalized customer service • Research, development, or alteration of products based on an in-depth knowledge of customer needs • Instant access to a wealth of real-time market research • Marketing campaigns that reflect the public mood or even set new trends • Connecting with potential customers based on their social profiles and conversations We are at the beginning of a new era in marketing, one that has its finger on the pulse of consumers and can make decisions and implement them rapidly. We have an ability to know our customers as never before: what they want, 69% of B2B marketers rated what they are saying, and how they are thinking. “creating original content” as Why are we devoting a whole chapter of this book on their biggest content marketing the topic of visual marketing to RTM specifically? Because challenge.3 so many RTM strategies and tactics—and certainly almost