The conversation with iCrossing’s Rob Garner that fueled this post really sparked my understanding of (and interest in) the real-time opportunities the accelerated and connected world of social networks presented to communicators. David Meerman Scott has since labeled a related opportunity “Newsjacking.” PR Newswire is calling the concept (broadly) “Agile Engagement.” However you describe it, the opportunities a heads-up, dialed-in communicator has these days are boundless. But you have to be paying attention.
Last week I listened into a webinar hosted by Search Marketing Now on the subject of real-time search, featuring Rob Garner of iCrossing. As is often the case with these things, I walked away bristling with new information, and some interesting insight for PR.
Real-time search (“RTS”) is the immediate inclusion of information from social networks in search results. Like traditional search, RTS is based on crawler based algorithms – the search engines actively go out, find information on web sites, and index it. But there’s a new twist. Search engines are also bringing in content from the human driven social layer. Google in particular is adept at integrating content from the social layer. This is real-time content – Tweets, comments and other interactions. And it’s changing what search engine users see in their search results – which is driving change in human behaviors.
Sources of real-time content
First…
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Sarah Skerik 