The dangers of real-time Marketing

This year, the game of the Super Bowl will not stay in our memories like the most spectacular game ever (I was kind of bored by the game itself). The stars of this year are the companies advertising during the many commercial breaks. The war of the brands was fought on TV, of course, with a very nice selection of good commercials, but it was also online, on social media. Oreo started last year what we now call real-time marketing, a tactic involving a constant flow of tweets and posts, as a live coverage for the event.

Hey guys…enjoy the game tonight. We’re going dark. #OreoOut
— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 2, 2014

This year, Oreo decided not to tweet during the Super Bowl, maybe they were well inspired because this year has shown one of the biggest fail as a matter of Social Media. One brand went viral with tweets full of typos and basically unreadable : JCPenney.

Who kkmew theis was ghiong tob e a baweball ghamle. #lowsscorinh 5_0
— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 2, 2014

Toughdown Seadawks!! Is sSeattle going toa runaway wit h this???
— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 3, 2014

These tweets went viral right away with more close to 40 000 retweets, a dream for any online marketer. But even if they tried to fix the apparent mistake by creating the hashtag  #TweetingWithMittens and explaining that the typos were due to the fact that the marketer was typing with mittens, the damage was done.  But is there really a big problem with these tweets with typos or is it turning into a very efficient Twitter campaign?

Oops...Sorry for the typos. We were #TweetingWithMittens. Wasn't it supposed to be colder? Enjoy the game! #GoTeamUSA pic.twitter.com/e8GvnTiEGl
— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 3, 2014

The first reaction of the brand reminded the one from Chipotle last year, claiming a hack of their Twitter account. They claimed that because of the weather, they were typing with mittens and that would explain the typos. The typos themselves would not have been a problem if they have been seen and corrected. The bad trend started when brands like Coors Light and Kia answered the tweet, making fun of JCPenney. It has been managed the best way by the marketers of JCPenney, but the damages on the brand's reputations will be hard to fix.

.@JCPenney We know football goes great with Coors Light, but please tweet responsibly.
— Coors Light (@CoorsLight) February 3, 2014

Hey @jcpenney need a designated driver?
— Kia Motors America (@Kia) February 3, 2014

Big corporations started it, and more and more businesses are following the trend of real-time marketing. The trend is attractive because it creates engagement, direct reactions, and discussions on social media. The idea is to be always on the edge of any news, trends and be the first to tweet. Time is the main component of this strategy. But if on one hand it will bring animation and movement to your social accounts, then on the other any mistake will be fatal. By being always on knife's edge, there is no checking of the content itself, which can lead to a problem like the one JCPenney is facing. A company like JCPenney will be able to recover from it with time, but it would be way more destroying if it happens to a small business.

To summarize, these tweets are the symbol of the new trend on social media: the real-time marketing . This strategy creates engagement and discussions on social media and it is a good way to increase your audience and brand awareness. But no mistakes are permitted, and any typos or misspelling can be turned into a joke, go viral and produce the opposite effect. So keep on tweeting fast, take a minute to spell check the tweet, and take it EZ.