• by Paul Knegten , April 14, 2009

The "Real-Time Web" is the new black.

We're hearing about it mostly because of social media developments such as FriendFeed's new release, the growing ubiquity of Twitter, and perhaps the criticism for Facebook not being real-time enough. Everyone -- including Google -- is becoming aware of the power of the real-time Web.

For marketers, the real time Web can be a gold mine. Access to the emergence of thoughts and trends can certainly give us cues to consumer sentiment, purchase intention, and a myriad of brand intelligence that can guide our decisions as marketers. The opportunity of the real-time Web, however, is not just in one-way data gathering -- we can use it to shrink down the purchase cycle with time sensitive offers.

Yet, online advertising, especially display, most often shows us messages that are static, dated, and don't at all reflect the real-time data that exists in our product inventories, Web sites, and showrooms. There's a real-time Web of offers out that is -- dare I say it -- far more valuable than even Twitter.

What we need to be doing is tapping into our Web sites to turn them into the real-time Web that we want our customers to consume. The combination of social media real-time and the real-time market can be a marketer's dream:

BrownEyedGrl: Should I go to Bali for my honeymoon?

TravelRUs: Today we just discounted our Bali fares from where you are to $1999, do you mind a stopover?

Obviously we're not quite there yet, and there are certainly ways that we can take intermediate steps to get our Web sites to market our offers effectively, and in real time:

• Use feeds: if you don't already have an XML feed of your Web site, get one. You can have one built from your database, or there are a few services out there for making one yourself really easily off your Web site itself.

• Target, target, target: Feeds need to be targeted. Run your ads on networks that can give you a contextual, behavioral or geographical cue to decide which product to pull from your feed to show in the ad.

• Create urgency: The great thing about real-time advertising is that you can give consumers offers that will self-destruct in 5...4...3... as prices go up, limited inventory dwindles, and a time-sensitive offer expires before their eyes.

• It's the content, stupid: Creative is important, but what really drives purchase intent in a real-time offer is be the offer itself. Let the content of your unbeatable offer be the focal point of your real-time ad.

These are just a few ways we can get beyond the static billboard-type ads that we run today into something that is delivers much higher ROI and can be as buzzword-worthy as "The Real-Time Web." Feel free to Tweet about it once you've gotten it underway.