Tribal Communication

Seth Godin, in his book Tribes, talks about how to improve your Tribe. He gives some bullet points but I would like to expound on these thoughts for a minute.
 
The two requirements of a Tribe:
 
• A Shared Interest
• A Way to Communicate
 
There are all different kinds of Tribes out there…Dog Lovers Tribe, Mix Martial Arts Tribe, Habitat For Humanity Tribe, your church could be your Tribe, etc. Heck, I was on a business trip in NC a few years ago and in the hotel I stayed in was the National Taxidermists Society’s yearly convention!! That’s a Tribe if I ever saw one!
 
Well, since we are all really focused on Social Media I’ll explain how the two bullet points above relate to us. We have a shared interest in home based business and marketing on the internet through social media avenues. Our ways of communicating are through several different avenues such as Facebook, Email, Skype, Phone, YouTube, Twitter, Blogs, etc.
 
So that makes us a Tribe!
 
Within the Tribe communication can be done four different ways.
 
• Leader to Tribe
• Tribe to Leader
• Tribe Member to Tribe Member
• Tribe Member to Outsider
 
Let’s talk about each one of these and how the communication is done:
 
Leader to Tribe
 
It’s important for the leader to stay in constant communication with his / her Tribe. If you lead a Tribe you need to be constantly communicating the Tribe’s vision to the members so everyone stays motivated and educated.
 
One good way to do this is webinars that the leader may host. Some may be free but some require a fee. If the leader is putting out a solid vision and the content that is being taught is valuable and will empower the members then the fee will be well worth it.
 
Tribe to Leader
 
It’s always good for a Tribe members to communicate with their leader, but what’s more important is that the leader communicates back to the members. Here’s an example, the leader writes a blog post on their blog and the members start commenting. A good leader would respond to all the comments that were being made on his / her blog. This shows that the leader cares and wants to be engaged with his / her members. When a leader stops communicating with his / her members the members might find a new leader.
 
Tribe Member to Tribe Member
 
Tribe member to Tribe member is great because it helps create relationships and partnerships. One way this can be done is through social networking sites like the Ning Community. With this community established member can talk to each other, share content, and learn from each other. Many times partnerships or joint ventures can establish within the Tribe that would have never happened if the leader didn’t bring the community together and empower the members to communicate with each other.
 
Tribe Member to Outsider
 
This is great because it allows the Tribe member to be an advocate for the Tribe and promote the Tribe to other people. If the Tribe member does a good job at this the outsider may be interested in joining the Tribe which will increase the Tribe with another like minded member and that new member can do the same thing…tell another outsider about the Tribe and continue the momentum.
 
So as you can see there are many ways to communicate but the most important thing is to keep a steady stream of communication going. Great communication allows for a Great Tribe!
 
Please comment and retweet this if you like it!
 
 

Tagged as: communication, Leadership, Social Media Marketing, Tribes