Building a tribe requires more than technological smarts or advanced marketing tactics – people need to genuinely find value in following you and feeling like part of something bigger.
Seth Godin published a masterful book on this subject and a subsequent TED talk – highly recommend you check these out.
Creating a strong community who supports your work and vision is necessary for you to execute your large-scale mission. You might have the greatest ideas on earth, but if no one is paying attention, they’re worthless.
As I’m in the process of building my own tribe through the motivational speaking and business consulting I do, I’m identifying a lot of successful strategies.
Here are a few for you to use when building your tribe:
1) Establish a place for everyone to gather – Trust me, there are people out there WAITING for you to start what you have in mind. They are waiting for a group of “rock nerds” or “pog collectors” or “motivated professionals” to launch so they can draw themselves to it.
They just need a place to gather.
Your job is to just start one.
Start a private Facebook group and invite people to it who you think would be interested. Host a Meetup. Start a podcast. Start blogging. Publish content on your social media platforms around this theme.
2) Create content to support your thesis – Once you have people interested in your community or inside of it, continue to propel them to engage by giving them content to absorb.
This might mean hosting monthly Meetups or asking open-ended questions. You’re essentially shepherding them and continuing to provide content that enhances your objective.
3) Provide value – Overall, people will engage with you and continue to come back if you provide them with value.
This can either mean through information, or instilling confidence in them or challenging them or connecting them. Whatever it is, if you provide value, the right people will magnetize toward you.
4) Name them – Gary Vaynerchuk has “Vayner Nation”, John Lee Dumas has “Fire Nation”, My Favorite Murder has “Murderinos.”
It’s a way for members of your tribe to identify themselves through the noisy interwebs and find ownership in being part of your movement.
5) Focus on quality – It can be unnerving seeing your small community slowly start to build and you’ll find the urge to just add all your friends into your private Facebook group.
Be patient. If you’ve done it right and are truly providing value, you will attract the right people.
6) Establish a clear shared purpose – People have limitless options for what to do with their time these days and who to do it with. Your job as the tribal leader is to create a clear purpose that everyone can follow.
If your purpose does not align with that person, they will weed themselves out. If your purpose is congruent with that person’s values and you constantly execute on your thesis, you will have won over a fan for a long time.
Look – know that this may take time.
Building a community brick by brick, person by person, takes a long time. It may take a while for your group to gain traction, for you to gain notoriety as a leader.
Or it can happen really quickly.
The first My Favorite Murder podcast was in January 2016. Today, there are more than 150,000 people in its private Facebook group and sub-groups popping up everywhere.
The core fundamental here is you need to start. Start building and create a space for people who think like you do to gather.
Provide good, relevant, valuable content for them over the course of time and you’ll win them over.
What other recommendations do you have for building a tribe? I’d love to know in the comments below!
