Interaction is the agent of human decision.
If someone decides to pay attention to, press the like button for, buy something from, become a follower of, or tell others about your brand, it’s likely because of an interaction they had with another human being.
Namely, not you.
Real marketing isn’t about what you do to people, it’s about what you enable people to do each other. It’s about creating social meaning above and beyond your product or service.
If your brand is the instrument that connects the disconnected, gets them joyfully interacting with each other, persuading each other to step out on the dance floor, influencing each other on your behalf, telling each other about what you do, and ultimately treating each other as the final authority of trust, you’re the hero.
Because it’s not who you know. It’s not who knows you. It’s whose life is better connected to other people because they know you.
I wonder what would happen if, in addition to selling a great product, your brand helped satisfy the underlying social need within each of us to belong.