Here's the Simple Yet Powerful Lesson Every Leader Should Learn From Fans' Response to the Foiled Taylor Swift Terror Attack

Two teenagers have been arrested in Vienna for planning what would have been a horrific attack on fans at one of three Taylor Swift Eras Tour concerts planned for the city. The concert's organizers, in consultation with Swift's team, quickly decided to cancel all three shows. Though their tickets will be refunded, it's very sad news for more than 200,000 fans, many of whom took international flights to get there. Many more had been looking forward to the concerts for close to a year.

A lot of the fans have reacted by doing the same thing--and there's a lesson there for every company founder or business leader. With no way to gather at an actual concert, they're finding other ways to exchange friendship bracelets with each other. Friendship bracelets are a widespread feature of Swift concerts. Many fans come prepared with a bunch of them that they give out to strangers. In fact, about a year ago, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce tried and failed to give a bracelet to Swift at one of her concerts, which eventually led to their romance.

Swifties who had tickets to the canceled concerts have been posting on social media, offering to mail bracelets to each other or otherwise facilitate exchanges. In fact, as one Swift fan noted on X, even before last week's events, there were already Facebook groups set up for the express purpose of exchanging bracelets with other Swift fans around the world. 

People in Vienna can just hand them out in person. Though the concerts aren't happening, Swift fans have gathered in the city to commiserate over the canceled concerts, sing their favorite songs, and apparently in one case, become engaged. And, of course, to exchange bracelets. Lots and lots of bracelets.

About those bracelets. Anyone can make them, usually for pennies. It doesn't take much effort or skill. They're made with alphabet beads, so you can use them to express whatever thought you like. (The bracelet Kelce wanted to give Swift had his phone number on it.) The friendship bracelet is perfect, simple, and widely available object that Swift fans routinely use to recognize and engage with each other.

You don't have to be Taylor Swift, or even have an outsized fan base, to use simple objects in the same way to engage with your customers, employees, or audience. Bill Stainton, an Emmy-winning television producer and TEDx speaker talks about connecting the dots as a way to unleash creativity. But he doesn't just talk about it. He may also give audience members simple round buttons (in other words, dots) to wear during the events where he keynotes. People wear the buttons as a way of signaling that they've Stainton's fans and they use them as conversation-starters and to connect with one another. Which fits right in with Stainton's message to encourage audience members to connect with unfamiliar others as a way to spark their own creativity. Those buttons probably cost even less than the friendship bracelets do. The buttons, like the bracelets, are simple, inexpensive objects that people can use to form a connection, show that they are part of a large community, and, almost incidentally, identify with a specific brand.

Is there a simple object you can give away that would let your customers, employees, fans, or other constituents identify each other and connect with each other? Something small and seemingly inconsequential, costing virtually nothing, can still carry a very powerful meaning, depending on how people think about it. Give it that meaning, and you'll deepen your engagement with your audience at the same time.

There's a growing audience of Inc.com readers who receive a daily text from me with a self-care or motivational micro-challenge or tip. Often, they text me back and we wind up in a conversation. (Want to learn more? Here's some information about the texts and a special invitation to an extended free trial.) Many are successful entrepreneurs and business leaders who know how important it is to form a strong connection with their customers, team members and fans. Gifting a small object and providing it with special meaning can be a powerful way to do just that.