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Gil Scott Heron is considered the godfather of rap. His lyrics were vocalized somewhere between jazz and poetry slam, more spoken than sung. It’s the voice of Gil Scott Heron when you hear the words “The Revolution won’t be televised”, the obligatory backbeat behind the Showtime series “Homeland”, TV spots and other streams. When Heron recorded his song poem in the RCA recording studios in April 1971, his 1960s revolution was carried out underground through a ghost network of activists, political theorists and reformers. Gil Scott Heron’s revolution was whispered, anecdotal, and rarely televised.

But today, tiny revolutions in the areas of racial justice, sustainability, public health, wage reform, education, energy, the environment and other issues are spreading on video screens for anyone holding a 1792 × 828 pixel digital handheld device.

In fact, the first step for any move in 2021 is to try and go viral via one of the social media streams: TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc.

How do you start a movement? Nearly 20 million people took classes by watching a guy dance on YouTube at the 2009 Sasquatch Music Festival. It’s a fun example (one man starts dancing alone, a bystander joins in, and soon everyone joins in) and the lesson is valid, but moves that want real impact and intent require more than exposing awkward dance moves.

Social and political movements are motivated to remove the friction points in life and to push for a positive solution (similar to any design thinking project). They require a shared belief system and brand narrative that targets the powerful new vision and communicates some likely steps along the way. Driven by a small group of staunch advocates (zealots), these communities become so passionate about their success that they themselves drive it forward. You speak out and get others to speak out. The importance of this reinforcing effect cannot be emphasized enough. As Mary Ellen Hannibal nods in her recent book Citizen Scientist, “Most of what is done is by a small group of fanatics.”

Cass Sunstein, a professor at Harvard University, would likely agree. In his current book “How Change Happens”, Sunstein points out that supporters fall into at least three camps.

The first Supporters are by nature rebels. They may be outraged, brave, committed, or just plain angry, but these hardcore first-time adopters are the basis of every move.

If there are born leaders, there are born followers. The second Group of advocates will only follow when someone else steps up and takes the lead. Sunstein points out that this group needs continuous support from the first group. This can be through hands-on social communication, tweets, snap, TikTok, Instagram posts, YouTube videos, blogs, five stars, clapping emojis, window banners or just attaboys and backstage passes.

The third The group only becomes active when it sees the first two groups in motion. These people, says Sunstein, “don’t do anything unless they see them [first] and [second] Group rebellion. But if they do, they will rebel too … The twos are followed by the threes, the fours, the tens, the hundreds and the thousands. “

Networks also come into play. Network theory shows that three people who talk to each other only have three lines of communication. But when five people talk, they open 10 lines of communication. When 10 people start speaking, they connect the dots with 45 lines of communication. From then on, the network effect multiplies the increase many times over.

Movements like Arab Spring 2010, #MeToo, Climate Change Strikes in September 2019, #BLM and more have benefited from social media showing how crowds around the world can engage and rally for grassroots movements anywhere, anywhere.

Time turns forward. What Gil Scott Heron did wrong (or couldn’t have imagined) is that in today’s revolutions, you don’t have to take to the streets, just go to the screens of the billions of smartphones, tablets, laptops and other mobile digital devices .

If everyone else is, all you have to do is sign up.

Contribution to Branding Strategy Insider by: Patrick Hanlon, author of Primal Branding

The Blake Project helps brands start revolutions through stories in the Strategic Brand Storytelling Workshop

Branding Strategy Insider is a service from The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in brand research, brand strategy, brand licensing and branding

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