Trendology ─ Building an Advantage Through Data-Driven Real-Time Marketing

Should an airline be talking about the royal baby? What's a candy bar doing Tweeting about a soccer match? Since when does laundry detergent weigh in on TV shows? Those conversations seem crazy, right? They're mismatched, they're nonsense… and they are working.

In today's ongoing battle for consumer attention, brands have been using a new strategy called real-time marketing to engage their audience on topics that are already top of mind. In Trendology, Chris Kerns uses a data-driven approach to analyze how brands are using social media to finally answer the burning question: How should brands best capitalize on trends?

Kerns dives into the data from more than 100 of the top brands on Twitter (including Disney, MTV, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, BMW, J.C. Penney, Nike, Sony, IKEA, and many more) to uncover patterns of real-time marketing performance across huge global events, smaller pop culture moments, breaking news stories, and daily hashtag trends. Along with these insights, readers will also learn:

- What works for brands doing real-time marketing, and what should be avoided?
- How to measure the performance of your real-time social strategy
- How a brand can leverage trends on an every-day basis
- Best practices to build a data-driven approach and team
- The future of brands and social trends, including interviews with digital thought leaders from Arby's, the Boston Celtics, the Wharton School, the PGA Tour, and many more

Trendology brings insight to a topic that has, for too long, been fueled by opinion and luck. This book not only shows that real-time marketing is here to stay, but gives brands the tools and guidance to build out a smart, data-driven approach to the newest marketing trend.

Chris Kerns has been at the forefront of digital data and insights for over a decade, defining digital strategy for some of the world's largest brands. He currently leads the Analytics & Research group at Spredfast, a social marketing platform that empowers enterprise organizations to connect with consumers in an increasingly social world. Previously, he led Digital Analytics at Bazaarvoice, mining user-generated content for groundbreaking insights. In an earlier role, Kerns served as head of the Digital Analytics group for the global agency POSSIBLE, where he helped Fortune 500 clients like Ford, Microsoft, and Nike maximize their digital performance. His research has appeared in The New York Times, Forbes, USA Today, and AdWeek, among other publications. Follow him at @chriskerns.