Businesses Beginning to go after “Tribalization”
January 13th, 2010
guest blogger: Megan Jeffery
Interesting read I found this evening… detailing a study, the “2009 Tribalization of Business Survey” that came out a couple of months ago about how businesses are finally growing into Social Media. Rather, the business use of social is beginning to mature.
Many businesses, according to the study, (approx 94% of the companies surveyed) said that they plan to not only keep up thier online community activities, but grow them as well.
I found the name of the study intriguing. Tribalization of Business. Makes you wonder to what the title is referring. There are any number of businesses that have been very successful with this approach. It involves basically, creating an online community, but it’s more than that. Take Pampers for instance. (I know, lame example, but they have a really good model!) They have built a site that revolves around babies, of course. Babies are a constant source of wonder and confusion, so they set up a site where you can search for articles, post to forums, and the kicker to the whole deal… in each package of Pampers you will find a code for points (nice -invitation to convert even before the customer gets to the site!) . The collection of said points is what leads many people to the site, as you can collect points and exchange them for different items. As a result, a community begins to form. Many of the same people go back to ask, and answer questions from other posters. These questions and answers are often involving what could be thought of as ‘controversial’ topics. Anything from breast or bottle to vaccinations to whatever people feel strongly about. So, people begin to take sides, form communities. They also become fiercley protective of anyone in thier particular community. Tribalization occurs.
Bloggers have especially devoted and active tribes. Especially if the blogger:
a. Has some problem or emotional upheaval
b. Relays details about said problem
c. Posts often
The tribe / community surrounding the blogger become active comment posters, and will flay anyone posting who poses a negative or accusatory comment. Tribalization.
So, back to the point, how can you make all of this work for you? If you have a blog for your site, that’s a good start. Depending on your product or service, you could use the blog to try and start a debate, get a conversation going. This could be anything from debating the way to fix a carburetor, or whether the four door Jeep is really a Jeep. Something that pertains to your readers, and will ignite a spark. If you are successful, watch out, there are definitely some opinionated folks out there, hopefully you won’t get more than you bargained for!
February 28th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
[...] these simple rules into practice and you will be an active blogger, which is good for your business, and hopefully, your bottom line. If You’d like more information, there is a great article [...]
May 2nd, 2010 at 6:53 pm
[...] It’s really all about relationships, of the human, rather than bot variety. If you link to a site, make sure you value the site. If you develop a relationship with the site, site owner, etc., then your link to them will be appreciated, and perhaps, one day reciprocated. This all goes back to the concept of tribalization… [...]