Social media is creating a new form of communication for companies called real time marketing. This kind of marketing allows for interaction between the companies and the customers to be relevant to what is going on in that particular moment. Since the social media world is quick and clever, companies have only a window of time to capitalize on what is happening in that exact moment. If they are quick thinking and cunning enough they can win it big. With that being said, how can companies effectively do this?

Let’s rewind a little and look at what Oreo did during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII. When a power outage cut out the lights for 34 minutes, Oreo’s 15-person social media team wasted no time taking the opportunity to capitalize on the outage. They tweeted out a photo of an Oreo lit up in the dark reading, “You can still dunk in the dark.” The picture got nearly 15,000 retweets and BuzzFeed even quoted it, “The most powerful bit of marketing during the advertising industry’s most expensive day.” Companies were paying $4 million for commercials during the Super Bowl and the Oreo tweet during the blackout proved to be priceless.

When looking at the dollar sign comparison, companies undoubtedly took notice to the power of a tweet at the right time. Realizing just how influential and powerful these messages can be, companies should try to utilize this real time marketing whenever they have the opportunity. Clorox bleach recently took a stab at it by capitalizing on the Sochi Winter Olympics. After the trending #SochiProblems took off many photos surfaced of the obscure and horrible conditions in Sochi. One of the more famous #SochiProblems was a photo of twin toilets without any stall between the two. Clorox mocked the twin toilets by introducing a double wand toilet cleaner with the tag line, “Inspired by Russia, designed for you.” Although it didn’t cause as much buzz as the Oreo tweet, the Clorox brand still received tweets and many applauded their ability to playfully poke fun at the Sochi games.

A message resonates with people because it is relevant. Therefore, companies can and should apply real time marketing. In our world encircled by social media, a tweet at the right time can be, well, priceless.