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Have you heard about Seth Godin’s theory of tribes? If not, you should check it out NOW!!! Seth Godin talks about how to establish a tribe rather than finding individual customers for your business. A tribe, according to Seth, has at least one thing in common: a shared interest, a common goal, or the same look (Seth focuses on silly hats - yes tribes will wear them for you, if you let them!!!). People want to belong to a certain community that they can identify with. Why do you think people put their favorite movies and bands in social networks like Facebook? They want to connect with others of their kind, with similar interests, ideas and believes. In contrast to your regular customers, your tribal followers will be much more loyal and will help you to promote your business -  for FREE!!!

But how do you establish a tribe?

Here are 5 ways to build a tribe for your business:

1. Create an interesting product or service

This one of the most challenging tasks and some companies will not be successful with this, as you just cannot make fertilizer a trendy object. But with most products or services you can. Think about it: Jamba Juice created a life style around fruit juice, Apple and Microsoft users defend their beloved computer to the knive and even the German food discounter Aldi  has become a new and trendy way to shop for cheap groceries.

2. Enable Tell-a-Friend function on your website

As you want your tribe to communicate to their friends about your company, product or service, you should make it as easy as possible for them. Install on every product/ service description page a function to tell their friends and also give them the opportunity to leave a comment. It is important to open up a direct communication line between your company and your tribe and their network.

3. Brand your product or service with a recognizable image

 It is very important that you brand your product or company consistantly to increase the brand recognition. It is very important for your tribe to recognize your brand and other tribal members instantly, so they can connect. This does not necessarily have to be your logo though. In Germany for example, every driver of an old VW Bug waves at every other VW Bug that he or she sees, almost like a little family. Therefore, you have to create a cool and recognizable image for your company or product!

4. Concentrate on a niche market

 It will be impossible to create an allinclusive tribe. You should focus with your business on a well-defined niche market. Your customers and clients have to have at least one thing in common and be willing to create a lifestyle around it. Whole Foods and Starbucks did a great job with that in the early stages of their business, but then the sirens of mass distribution were to tempting and in the end, they just became another chain and lost their loyal tribe.

5. Establish a platform for your tribe

Your company needs to establish a platform for your tribe to connect and exchange their ideas and thoughts. The easiest way to do this is to create a platform on your website, where your tribe can create profiles, identify themselves with a brand and connect with other fans. The German company Mixxt GmbH can create such a platform for you. Their own platform Pl0gbar provides a social network for geeks to connect with their kind and meet up in person in cities all around Germany. They then share their ideas, comments and pictures about these meetups and tell their friends about it. Pl0gbar only has about 640 German members right now, but it certainly is a very successful mini-tribe. Just look at how much effort these tribal members put into their meetups and their platform. Wouldn’t it be great, if your customers would do the same for you?

When you have an established tribe, the tribe members will spread the word about your company and increase your sales. But don’t think this is the new holy grail of marketing. Tribe building and fostering requires a lot of work. Constant communication with your tribe is necessary, as tribe members also want to be heard by you. They will provide you with valuable feedback and give you advice on how to improve your product, service or company, but they want to be heard and taken seriously. Even though a building and leading a tribe can be a lot of work, it is worth it. You will have a more loyal customer base than your competitor and offer more customer oriented products and services. Trust me, it is worth it!

I am also writing about studying abroad, hence the name MariaAbroad. Check out my blog, if you are interested in this topic! I will incorporate my own students-abroad-network soon!