Become a Tribal Chieftain

The need to belong is an intrinsic motivation to affiliate with others and be socially accepted. Let’s face it, that’s the first big draw to social media. The marketers know it, and if you think they aren’t taking advantage of that, think again. We all want to be part of a group, to be accepted, to be approved of, and to be missed when we are gone. In short, we want to be a member of a tribe. Where do these tribes begin, and how do they grow?

The first part of that question is easy. They begin with you. I’m gonna use Twitter for most of my examples here since it is, arguably, the most used marketing tool in social media. As you build followers you are, in a sense, starting your tribe.

The answer to how is a bit more involved. Put away the idea that you need 10,000 followers NOW. Focus on creating connections with the right people. Effective marketing is about building a group of people around you that believe in your message, actively engage you, and above all, trust you.

Three simple words here: Motivate, Connect, and Leverage.

How do we use these elements to grow our tribe?

• Motivate: Share your tribe’s message. You tweet, you get an answer. Feedback is instant and world-wide. Let people know where you are and where you are going, your mission.  Social media allows us to keep all in your tribe in the loop, instantly
• Connect: We communicate in three basic ways; aurally visually, and  kinaesthetically. We have social media platforms now that fit all these types of communicating. We have the ability to utilize these, and get our mission to our tribe in ways that are most beneficial to us and most comfortable to  those in our tribe.
• Leverage: You are one, and they are many. One post on Twitter can be viewed by an almost unlimited amount of people. Twitter’s leverage has the ability to spread a tweet globally in seconds and create a movement.

When growing your tribe don’t worry about the “influencers”. These are the people like Robert Scoble, Seth Grodin, and Chris Brogan. They have massive amounts of people following them and clicking their links. The internet has levelled the field and democratized information. The most these guys will do for you is to add a one day surge to your site.

This isn’t to say that you should ignore them altogether. They can help you reach the masses of “nobodies”. Keep in mind that a nobody is a future somebody and it is much better to have a throng of nobodies than a couple of somebodies that may or may not be too busy to see what is going on with you.

We have the ability to create our own tribes. With the tools available to us we can do it in just about anyway we can imagine.