Helping Brands Speak to the Space Between Our Thoughts -- Tom Troja -- Social Symphony

Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk How Great Leaders Inspire Action has over 13M views. His focus is on answering the critical question for brands, society and people… The “Why.”

Simon explained his insights into a communication pattern that is common to all great leaders and organizations - and theopposite of everyone else’s.He puts forward the inspirational power of brands and people communicating from a deeper meaning within themselves by answering these questions: “Why does your organization exist?” “Why do you get out of bed every morning and why should we care?” “What's your purpose?” “What's your cause?” “What's your belief?” Powerful stuff. Let’s explore how a variation of this thinking is being applied by brands across social platforms.

These questions are hard for a brand to answer and to effectively talk about. As Simon illustrates they really do matter as our clients have begun to realize more and more in social. Our Social Archetyping≠™ process is built on similar principles and results in creating daily content based on the “Whys” that drives meaningful social conversation for brands such as Jack Daniel’s, Red Bull, Marriott Rewards and others. We find commonality and agreement with what Simon says about the core, and believe it’s important to expand on these ideas.

“PEOPLE DON’T BUY WHAT YOU DO, THEY BUY WHY YOU DO IT”

Biology drives this. Simon noted that the human brain is composed of both a new and an ancient brain. Our (new)Neo cortex is “responsible for all of ourrational and analytical thought and language.” Our (old) Limbic brain is “responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. It's also responsible for all human behavior, all decision-making, and it has no capacity for language. ” The Limbic is what we want to target.

At the center of Simon’s “golden circle” of communication is the core… the “Why,” coming from the part of the brain that speaks without words. Great leaders speak from that space, from the inside out - from the core first - with “Why,” instead of “What” or “How.” This is how we create passion, reach their gut and get people to join our cause.

The process of answering these questions and building content around those answers forces a brand to find its humanity and common connections with people. It is found in the brand’s relationship in people’s lives, families, adventures, friends, hopes, desires and loves. All these get to the feelings we have, that space in between our thoughts, that directs our non-language of like, love, dislike or don’t care.

“TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU BELIEVE, ATTRACT THOSE WHO BELIEVE WHAT YOU BELIEVE”

People spend time with friends in social because they are looking for human connection and meaning. Coming from the “Why” position makes brands meaningful and human, aligning brands with people in a human way, based on what people care about.

People who believe in what the brand believes in, are their enthusiasts to all their friends, their advocates who review their goods and services becoming their greatest sales people across all social channels. Having a powerful base and effectively communicating around the “Why” gives brands a competitive advantage based on human connection at a time when human connection is an inflating currency.

In social, our target is that space in between our thoughts, the conscious unconscious as Carl Jung called it, the “Why” as Simon calls it. When brands can hit those spaces in relevant, meaningful ways we help brands create gut feelings that just feel right, connecting with people, helping them believe what you believe.

THE ANSWER TO “WHY” IS FOUND IN THE HUMAN CONDITION

When we try to get to these human answers in business, many companies have difficulty answering them. For guidance, we examine the brands’ messaging, strategy and digital fingerprints for that purpose that connects brands with people. We help brands expand and fill out the answers based on multiple archetypes to give structure and meaning around health, love, travel, home, family or whatever is most appropriate.

Somewhere in this virtual puzzle we find hints to that purpose, we find human examples of meaning and in partnership and content build from there. We invoke the process for creating great music… conducting the conversation is crafting a powerfulscore based on human emotion and spirit. Our lyrics are built upon the foundation of brand purpose, cause and belief. This is the musical symphony that creates words and images in rhythm with the limbic brain that controls gut behavior and purchase intent.

We do this because we believe that in social, the brand is a person. Like a person, the brand must go deeper with truth, complexity and meaning. Tapping into the eternal archetypal source code makes it more likely that you will be understood. Done right, we all make social a better place as we serve the human spirit.

As CEO of the Social Symphony, Tom Troja works with brands like Jack Daniel's and Red Bull tohelp them create and deepen relationships with people in social, implementing his Social Archetyping™ that gets brands talking like a person, talking with people, natural, attractive, human and capable. Tom can be reached at TomTroja@TheSocialSymphony.com.

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