I find it interesting, that when you talk to people about news and where they get their news from, most people remain fairly loyal to their brand of choice.
Some will swear by a local news stations — especially their investigative reports.
Some will swear by CNN or MSNBC.
Others will swear about CNN and MSNBC and swear by FOX News.
Some will rave about their local daily paper, while others will curse their local daily paper.
Either way, we’ve found a source we can trust and only rarely look elsewhere.
For me — it’s NPR and Twitter (including the Twitter accounts of several of the above mentioned sources).
NPR has become my main source for in depth reporting and balanced coverage. If I want the full story — I always hear it on NPR or NPR.org.
And then Twitter is like my go between — giving me breaking news and information the instant it happens. It’s what I use to stay current throughout the day when I’m not sitting near a radio.
But an odd thing happened in 2009.
The King of Pop died on June 25th, between 4 and 5 p.m. CST in the afternoon.
How do I know? Because I was at work, waiting for the day to wind down when the first tweets and re-tweets by TMZ began announcing his death. (Wikipedia reports that doctors pronounced Jackson at 2:26 p.m. PST and TMZ sent out the news via Twitter at 2:44 p.m. PST, or 4:44 p.m. CST.)
But yet I was very skeptical — as some of you may be by me using Wikipedia as a source.
Here I was, a Twitter evangelist — someone who had recently found out about the plane crashing in the Hudson River, riots in Iran and more — but now a gossip columnist was breaking news on Twitter.
Could this source really be trusted?
So I immediately went to my other main news source – NPR and NPR.org. No confirmation about MJ’s death. Nothing.
Several Twitter feeds like @BreakingNews were sharing the tweets by TMZ, but none were fully committing themselves to the breaking news.
It was almost as if they didn’t trust the news either. They made sure to say, “TMZ reports….” etc.
With no other confirmation, I went to numerous other websites, checking to see if they had any confirmations about his death. Surely if a celebrity news site had the news everyone else would have it as well.
Nothing.
It wasn’t until I was almost home (sometime around 6 p.m. CST) that I heard confirmation via NPR that indeed Michael Jackson, the King of Pop had died at the age of 50.
I had the correct news at 4:45 p.m. – but it wasn’t until 6 p.m. or so that I actually believed it.
There were even other sources backing up the news story — at 2:51 p.m. PST (4:51 CST) the Los Angeles Times confirmed the death of Michael Jackson.
I just didn’t know where to look.
I had the best news (as in most current/correct) out there — right as it was announced — yet I didn’t believe it, because I couldn’t trust the messenger.
I wonder how many times we’ve tried to share our message with others only to get mad and frustrated when they don’t believe us. We know our message is 100% correct. There are no holes in our message and we believe it with all our heart.
Yet those hearing the message ignore it because they don’t trust the messenger.
Perhaps they have no clue who we are. Perhaps they’ve heard others tell similar messages only to watch them lie, cheat or steal in other areas of their lives. Perhaps they’ve heard our message and watched as we’ve lived out a completely different message with our lives.
The reasons could be countless — but either way…
People won’t trust our message until they trust the messenger.
So get out there and build a relationship with your audience — no matter who they are. Take the time to get to know them. And build a relationship without an agenda — build a relationship as if you could care less about whether they believed your message or not.
Then if the opportunity arises (i.e. they ask), tell folks why you think your message is relevant to them. Why does it matter to them? How do you think your message will benefit their life?
Next, be real. Be authentic. Be revealing. Even if you’re only 90% certain about your message and how it relates to them — tell them. Don’t hide who you really are from folks. People want authenticity.
Finally, once you’ve built a relationship, you’ve shown them why it’s relevant, you’ve been authentic with them — give them a chance to respond (aka “the closer”).
Some may suggest that this is where you really push them for the sale.
I disagree.
I am a firm believer that if you’ve done the steps above — and really have a great message — folks will respond without any extra prodding from you.
When I worked in retail sells, I was often a horrible closer when it came to selling extended warranties. Whether it was a cellphone, a computer, a TV or a rental car — I hated closing the deal on extended warranties — because I didn’t believe in them.
But when it came to the product itself — I rarely had any trouble whatsoever. I believed in the product and my customers believed in me.
By the time it came to closing the sale, I didn’t have to ask them if they wanted to buy the product, we had already built a relationship, they had had put their trust in me — and as a result, were anxious to buy whatever I suggested.
So again — just to refresh your memory….
- Build a relationship
- Share why your message is relevant to their needs
- Be authentic about who you are and your message
- Allow them to respond
Did I leave anything out?
It's hard to sort relationship and authenticity. Authenticity could be the foundation for relationship. Relationship could easily distort authenticity. Say, I love the beautiful brunette. That would be a good relationship. However, in fear of losing the brunette, I cannot be authentic. The same would be true if we find anothers approval and then cannot be authentic for fear of losing it. This can happen easily in a marriage.
There's always a fear that being authentic will kill a relationship. I've heard it said before that “the only reason you like me is because you don't really know everything going on in my head.”
However for a relationship to grow – people MUST be authentic.
If you're not authentic – people will see right through that and the relationship will be destroyed regardless.
Sure, it sucks sometimes, sure it's going to put strains on some relationships, but if you're not authentic, people these days won't trust you or your message.