An Authentic Life @ edlamour.com

I post the following with sincere apologies to Bob Dylan, who I imagine might laugh about the lyrics of one of his most well-known balads about social change being used to provide advice and guidance to marketers.

In 1963, Bob Dylan recorded The Times They Are a-Changin’ and today it once again reflects Dylan’s explanation of what the song meant back then when he said: “I can’t really say that adults don’t understand young people any more than you can say big fishes don’t understand little fishes. I didn’t mean ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’‘ as a statement… It’s a feeling.”  While Dylan specifically refers to adults and young people, a very relevant analogy can be drawn to marketers (adults) and consumers (young people).

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.

That “feeling” is now a tidal wave of emotion as human beings are connecting online at an astounding rate. Web 2.0 and social networking has enabled the faintest voice to be recognized and become amplified through connecting with like-minded people who spread thoughts and opinions to other interested people and so on, and so on. This phenomenon is something that savvy marketers, reporters and media execs are tuning into and taking heed of…as well they should.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.

The power now belongs to the people and how marketers dialog with consumers in this new environment will ultimately determine who are the winners and who are the losers.  Consumers are now choosing products and brands and services based not on advertising and whose voice is the loudest or most repetitive but rather based on whose voice is the most believable, the most authentic and, in many instances, the most silent as consumers want marketers to shut up and listen before they talk or attempt to start a dialog.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

So, consistent with the “first will be last” sentiment Bob Dylan expresses in his song, I’ve saved the song’s first verse for last since it provides sage advice to PR and marketing people who may not yet be on board with the significance of social media and Web 2.0.

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.

Sage advice from a most unlikely prophet, indeed.