“Stop chasing the likes and do more likable things.” An interesting thought from Mark Schaefer, the morning speaker at a recent National Speakers Association conference in Orlando. His session illustrated how marketing and advertising has changed and how we must do the same if want to truly connect with people in our live audiences or on social media. His advice: Create more human connection. Be more human.
Mark shared that in this third rebellion of marketing that our brand is no longer what we say it is, but what our customer says it is. In this era of “Cause Marketing”, consumers want an emotional connection to a human, not a product.
I spoke recently at a convention in the Philippines and had the privilege of meeting Anton Diaz, of Our Awesome Planet one of the top food and travel bloggers in the world. I was so impressed with his expertise on how to connect with Millennials that I invited him to listen in at Together We Can Change the World’s “Global Leadership – Creating Relevance in a Disruptive World” conference in Manila a few months later and to give advice to our speakers from around the world. His advice for all of us: Create more human connection. Stir more emotion in our stories and in our slides. Take our audiences on an authentic journey so that in it, they see their own lives. Once again…be more human.
Whether it is a product or your personal brand, the most effective form of marketing today is making your story, their story. The best leaders/speakers/companies/products give people a sense of belonging. People want to be a member of the tribe, part of the movement. They want to feel that you care about their life. They will judge you by the warmth you create–the human touch. The goal is to make the customer the hero, and thus the customer becomes the marketer.
The most effective ads of today are the ones that stir the human emotion where we can identify with the hero. WE feel the hero’s pain, joy and struggle in their life journey. Their journey becomes our journey!
Want to build a more powerful personal brand? Connect with people on social media and in person? Have more fun and enjoy your life journey? Be more human!
