Must Market

How Do You Save The World?
One of the sneaky social media marketing trends is how so much connection and involvement is changing US. Our desire for THINGS is going down even as our passion for unique experience increases. 

Easy to see why, as the CEO of Tough Mudder proclaimed, experience is the new branding. In a social connected world where "unique" is getting harder to find we are willing to pay people to spray water in our face and shock us as we go for a run. 

The more we KNOW the more we want heroes and the harder they are to find. Read Joseph Campbell's book A Hero With A Thousand Faces to realize our desire for the universal hero is true through time and across cultures. 

Everyone does something that saves the world in some way. Every company and brand, no matter how small or new, is connected to a larger community and truth. This slideshare, now with more than 8,000 views, states a simple "new marketing" truth - the more articulate you are about how what you do saves the world the more connections you can make. 

Connections, those magical Likes, Links and LOVE provide confirmation. THEY confirm what you think. If you think you are saving the world because you do X and brand advocates think it is because you do Y then learn to speak about Y. 

I'm not saying you should DROP your values, philosophy or beliefs to cater to a sentient mob. I am saying that, as communicators, we must learn to align our walking and talking with its social confirmation. 

Days we any company could create a market by sheer forces of expenditures are long gone. The good news about social media is every brand, company and idea must be humble enough to gain acceptance. Perhaps, this need for confirmation will eventually create more not less SAMENESS. 

Our connections are so nascent now it is hard to understand scope or direction. One thing is beyond clear - to the degree your marketing researchers beyond itself AND achieves confirmation of that research you will win. Sounds like saving the world is a CSF (Critical Success Factor :).