Brand journalism in real time: a powerful tool
Jinfo Blog

By Jan Knight

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Is your dentist on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and taking time to publish books and blog?  Helaine Smith, a very successful Boston, Massachusetts, cosmetic dentist took the plunge and has done all this and more.

While it’s likely that we don’t have too many dentists among our readership, the concept of Brand Journalism and Real Time Marketing are pertinent to us whether we’re selling products and services to outside clients or our research/information services to internal colleagues. The dentist has become almost a case study for getting out of the box when it comes to marketing her practice and educating people.

Leading marketing strategist, author and speaker, David Meerman Scott speaks and publishes on the topics of “Real Time Marketing and PR” and “Brand Journalism”.  Brand Journalism, according to Scott, is the “creation of web content (videos, blogs, essays, eBooks, etc.) that deliver value to your marketplace and serve to position your organisation as one worthy of doing business with”;  Real Time Marketing focuses on doing your research and reacting quickly to opportunities as they arise – being in the present.

An example that Scott provides of how individuals and small companies have taken advantage of online media and, more importantly in this case, the real time aspect, to capture a new audience, is evident in the responses to the 2010 Dave Carroll’s United Breaks Guitars viral video. Wikipedia actually has a good summary of the events.

Upon hearing that United Airlines had broken a musician’s guitar and were not exactly exhibiting superior customer service in handling the complaint, both the Carlton Guitar Case company and Taylor Guitars jumped to social media to respond publicly and immediately. Along with a new guitar and guitar case, the companies offered helpful tips on travelling with guitars and keeping them safe. It appears they have become as famous, and more positively thought of, than United in this viral video environment.

Listening to a very engaging David Meerman Scott speak at last week’s AIIP Annual Conference and cite these examples is encouraging me, and I assume other information professionals who were present, to think about how we can be part of such stories. We can help our marketing departments, or our clients’ marketing departments, react quickly to such situations.

It can have immediate effect and, like many social media outlets, can be done somewhat inexpensively. The presence of information professionals and journalists in marketing, according to Scott, can have a positive effect. As a former marketer and now business researcher, I'd like to think so!

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