Marketing communications may do more to shape US-Cuba relations in the decades to come than diplomatic dispatches pertaining to politics, according to Jack Leslie, chairman of Weber Shandwick.

cubaIn the current environment, social media trumps print or broadcast media, he wrote in the July 20 Huffington Post. "The amateur videographer documenting an event on Vine may reach a larger audience, and do so more persuasively, than the professional journalist on broadcast news."

Leslie believes long-term relationships will be built on "dispersed, private, person-to-person" moments. Cubans will be wary of companies that seek "profit without partnership."

The island's communications infrastructure will provide challenges for American businesses. Only about five percent of Cubans have access to the Internet with broadband connections costing more than in the US.

Yet despite the lack of robust communications channels, Cubans are far from unsophisticated.

"Cuba is a highly educated and skilled country," wrote Leslie. "It is brimming with potential partners. It will simply require a creative investment in marketing communication that discovers unique channels and audiences."

Cracking the Cuban market will be neither quick nor inexpensive. There will be "misfires and backfires."

US companies "need to understand that these prospects must be based on relationships and after a separation of more than half a century, relationships—genuine engaged relationships--will take time to build."

Weber Shandwick has published a three-pager called "Charting a New Course for US Business in Cuba."