Earlier today I was listening to one of my favorite songs. It's called 'Belief' by John Mayer. I've copied the lyrics from that song on this blog before. But today, the first verse really caught my attention and I wanted to share it with you:
Is there anyone who
Ever remembers changing their mind from
The paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls
Ever breaking rank at all
For something someone yelled real loud one time
John's making an excellent observation about how small an impact something like a sign or a person yelling at cars driving by them can have. Inadvertently, he's communicating a truth about communications that so many people get wrong.
Real, impacting change in people's lives, whether it pertains to a product, a service or even a religion happens most often in relationship. Outside of a relationship with your audience, you cannot hope to market your product, service or even beliefs with any great success.
As one example, so many people hail social media as the silver bullet to all our marketing needs. What they miss is that it's not social media that is the silver bullet, it's relationship. Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are simply the mediums that allow us to connect in a way and frequency that we've never been able to before.
But at the end of the day, it's still all just about relationship. Just like good marketing has always been.
So when you stop to think about your marketing and communications plans, think seriously about how you plan to build relationship through every medium you are considering. That's the silver bullet.
