Building a tribe is about being a leader. Being a leader is about the relationships you build–online and offline. So it makes sense that the two should run hand in hand. But you can’t simply jump in, take over and start building a tribe. No one likes the pushy guy in the group who just takes over. You first need to start building relationships before you officially start your own tribe, you’ll get more respect that way.
Tribe building is a marketing strategy. The term was coined and launched in 2008, but it hasn’t taken the Internet by storm. In fact, there’s not a lot of information out there. Reviews of the book titled, Tribes, are less than enthusiastic too. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a great concept and it won’t work, it’s still in its infancy, so what people do with it in the long run remains to be seen.
Remember Webrings? Community forums? If you’ve been on the internet for very long, you remember these things and probably even joined a few. You made a few close friends, you trusted their recommendations and you interacted. Tribe building relies on the same concept, like minded people, joined together to promote an idea or niche of common ground and focus in a specific topic or area.
How To Build a Tribe
How do you build your own tribe? First, you need patience, it won’t happen overnight. You need to network with people who have the same ideas and goals that you have to make friends.
Once you start networking with these people in different community areas; like blogs, forums, etc. you need to start establishing yourself as an authority in your niche, give them sound advice and only promote products and websites to the group that you trust. Never promote products that you don’t believe in, building a tribe and being a leader is about trust.
After you get established with several groups that have like minded people as members, and you’ve proven your worth, then you can start building your own tribe to bring all of these people together in the same arena.
Start a Facebook Fan Page for your tribe, get a twitter account and start attracting more people into your group who have the same goals and ideals.
Develop a blog and use it as a social hub for your tribe. Update it regularly with useful information, create your own informational products to sell and give away as incentives.
Building a tribe is like bringing any group of people together. Be someone the group trusts and be a shining example of what you wish to accomplish.
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I love your explanation on how to build and start a tribe,
very informative.
To be a Tribe leader you definately need to be a shining light
Awesome post Donny, great way to both sum up the benefits and clarify just what Tribe Building is for the reader. I consider Tribes the grown up hip, sexy, brother of the original Blogging Alliances. Blogging alliances used to be all that and a slice of cake for creating organic blog traffic and now with Tribe Syndication we can once again raise the bar. Good stuff as always!
Great tips on developing your own tribe. And a good reminder for me to start my Fan Page soon
I think the tribe concept will be taking the internet by storm and people of like-mind will be able to support each other in powerful ways! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for continuing to promote the Tribe Building concept. I have been talking about this for years also as I saw the power of Seth Godin's book.
I look forward to talking Tribes with you!
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