Tribes

They Will Be Pleased, Regardless

Garth Beyer

Don't Appeal To The Mass

When you make an effort to reach the masses, to please the majority, to advertise to all, you are inevitably creating a bitter experience for some.

You see this with retail stores quite often. Owners spend their time outside of the store trying to reach the masses, and in doing so, they neglect and devalue those already in it. It’s better of them to treat and please the customers already in their store if they wish for more newcomers.

We need to recognize people will want us to build an experience for the mass. The thought process of most is that one event that calls out to a majority is better than five events that call out to smaller groups.

Writing a book that is safe, that anyone walking around the bookstore will want to pick up, seems to be the most logical thing to do, but it’s not. It’s better to write five shorter books that target a specific tribe.

You may win the lottery, you may have a successful large event, but all who attended, all who bought your book will revert back to their search for the one that makes them feel most valued, most part of a tribe.

They will eventually be pleased, regardless of the decision you make because it’s our natural inclination to find a place where we have a consistent pleasurable experience, one that connects us with like-minded people, one that all who attend or purchase can give the same answer to “People like us ______.”

We can’t please everyone at once, so why bother?

But we can please everyone over a period of time/a series of events/a number of books by recognizing the tribes people are part of and creating a remarkable experience for each of them.

Thing is, you may find out that pleasing one tribe is all you need to do. Stephen King doesn’t need to write a book specific to a bunch of tribes. All he needs is one group to please.

Anyway, if one were to measure effort, I’d say it takes about the same to appeal to the mass as it does to appeal to smaller tribes. The results, however, are different… very different.

 

Stay Positive & Different Is What You Want

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The Big Sort And What It Means For Marketing

The Big Sort And What It Means For Marketing

Garth Beyer

Sorting Skittles

Funny how things come up again, but have a different meaning the second time around.

A tad over a year ago I wrote a short essay on the big sort. The big sort, according to Bill Bishop, is a political, geographical theory. Actually, theory might be too weak. It’s the truth. Americans are sorting themselves out. Moving to places where like-minded people live. Thing is, Bishop (author of the big sort) focuses on such a small part of the big sort and is far too pessimistic. The big sort couldn’t be better for marketers.

In terms of marketing, there’s no need to push anything down anyone’s throat, no need to shove a product into customers’ hands of which are already full, no need to create an ad that appeals to the masses anymore. We finally have a new (dare I say, better) way of reaching people, because that’s what they are now, people, not eyeballs, and they are gathering around other like-minded people, creating tribes.

Marketing is marvelous when the message is received by the right people at the right time. Now people are sorting themselves and as a result making each individual and each tribe more reachable. Best of all, the walls people had to put up from years of brute advertising are becoming more transparent.

When you look at it this way, marketing seems pretty easy. Then again, while it is easier to market, it’s ever more difficult to create a message that’s remarkable. Yin and yang. Ebb and flow. So it goes.

 

Stay Positive & Rainbow Chasers, In One Neat Place For You

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Reaching The Market Outside Your Home Town

Reaching The Market Outside Your Home Town

Garth Beyer

Marketing Outreach

This is a longer post than I usually write. You could easily skip it and respond to the notification awaiting you on your phone. Alas, I hope you find this as practical, if not more.

We’re All Marketers

I’ve never understood PR folk talking about “outreach” in their own community. To me, that’s inreach, as in, easily in reach; as in, if your business is remarkable enough, the success of it will have enough momentum to touch all those in reach. A great business has inreach built in. Steven P. Dennis calls the hometown diehard fans of a business the obsessive core. Marketers, therefore, are for reaching out beyond the core.

Business plan = inreach.

Marketing = outreach.

Clear? Now let’s tackle the outreach by going over a few tools every marketer needs to understand to reach the market outside their zone, their base, their marked territory.

Not Your Average Advertising

As complicated as Facebook advertising is to understand, it’s quite easy to use to target consumers outside common ground.

Say you’re marketing MobCraft Beer to a state other than Wisconsin where they are based and a current Wisconsin resident follows Mobcraft’s FB page. This follower also has a few out-of-state friends she regularly interacts with. Facebook’s advertising algorithm will pick them up and advertise directly, noting to them there Wisconsin resident friend has liked MobCraft Beer’s FB page and they should too.

All social network advertising, not just social media networks are taking into consideration the value of connections, of handshakes, of conversations over the value of eyeballs. You don’t want the mass, anyway. You want those who matter. Right? Advertising isn’t what it used to be. (That’s a good thing for us marketers.)

Working Email and Mailing Address Lists

There’s no reason not to be A/B testing.

A/B testing in its most simplified definition is trying two different things and seeing which works better. Does a zen-like website page get more click-throughs than a collage-designed page? Will a handwritten card with a great photo on the front work better than a brochure? Will emailing small-time bloggers be more effective than a press release to those in authority? It’s time to find out.

Test and measure, test and measure.

And remember: Don’t get on the scale unless you’re willing to change your diet and exercise routine and don’t change your diet and exercise routine unless you will regularly step on the scale. Test and measure.

Surfing the Internet

If I’m not doing some grunt work, I know I’m not doing the best marketing I can. No matter what client I’m working with, I search on multiple search engines to find forums, blogs, and other places where the tribes have gathered. (And, yes, I go into the depths of Google, far beyond the first, second and third pages of results.) The long tail matters. Every small tribe matters.

A smart place to start is Reddit. A fellow PR daily contributor, Mickie Kennedy wrote a short bit on how to use Reddit for PR.

Through surfing the Internet, you’ll realize very quickly (if you haven’t already) how critical being human is. Most online tribes are skeptical; they will downvote blatant advertising and seek clarification of credibility before they upvote, make a purchase or share what you offer.

You’ll also learn (if you haven’t already) those who are the most loyal to brands are the most likely to turn their shoulder to a brand if they feel the outreach is robotic, if they believe the email they received is the same email everyone else on the list received, if they think you’re just in it for the money or job security or because it’s what your boss told you to do.

Moreover, Outreach has Changed/Improved/Realligned

When I get a pitch that tells me I am part of a company’s ‘blogger outreach program,’ it feels condescending to me. My inclination is to get bristly with the person doing the pitching. Other social journalists feel the same way.” – Shel Israel

Now, I wouldn’t be the first to say you have permission to market to everyone, but why would you need 10,000 strangers when you can make 10 friends, 10 people who trust you, 10 acquaintances who respect you, 10 passionate folk who need you.

Permission is one thing, participation is another. Participation is what matters. Find the 10 avid bloggers who need your product or service and connect with them. Find 10 die-hard craft beer drinkers and get on a Google Hangout together. Successful outreach rarely comes from a single click of “send;” it comes from continuous care, effort, and conversation. There’s another obsessive core out there. Reach out to them.

Successful outreach has improved since the days of mass advertising. It’s not about eye balls anymore; it’s about eye contact.

Now is your chance to build your tribe, to establish connections that matter. As for my last PR/marketing tip: never refer to people you are reaching out to as your target market, as part of your outreach program, as part of your market. They are not a special case because they are outside your hometown, your normal campaign realm, your regular target market. They are all strangers at first, then friends, then customers, no matter what geographical market they are in.

 

Stay Positive & Only Reach Out If You Plan To Truly Lift Someone Up

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A Tribal Puzzle

Garth Beyer

We are all programmed to find, build, and invest in tribes. It’s just one natural order of being human. Seth Godin proves it in his book Tribes and Lee Richard states the obvious of it in his introduction to Jack Reacher’s Rules.

What puzzles me, though, is that we work best in smaller tribes, yet strive to make large tribes. In businesses, the rule is 150, Dunbar’s number. It’s the maximum number of people who can work socially and effectively in a group. Yet, most businesses do their best to fit as many employees in one large building as possible.

There are three major startup curators in Madison, WI. (100state, Sector67, and gener8tor.) All are working to come together under one roof. To that, I ask, why?

When all data reflects the smaller the better, why strive for more, more, more?

The way I see it is this, if you release a product, make sure it targets a small audience. Focus all your attention on the 20 percent that you can profit from and forget the other 80 percent that will take all your time and energy. And if by some chance, your product begins to appeal to the other 80 percent as strongly as the first 20 percent, then open it up. But until that day, quit striving for it.

I guarantee more creative projects will come out of the three startup curators while separated than when under the same roof.

 

Stay Positive & Less Is More, More, More

Garth E. Beyer

What’s Next For Internet

Garth Beyer

You already know my obsession with questions. (No? click here) So when I was asked a question that I had no immediate answer for, that I had to really sit down and ruminate on, I got excited.

A phenomenal freelancing reporter and great friend of mine, David Douglas, had asked me what I thought was next for Internet. Well, here is my response.

What’s Next For Internet

Better question is what new way can we connect more? People have yet to completely open up.

Since the digital revolution began in the early 90’s, a stigma has grown around face-to-face interaction. Even though we feel more and more connected online, people still have a difficult time connecting in person. Despite this setback, our minds remain open, we’ve become natural learners, and we continue to discover the extent of the simultaneously happening information revolution.

What’s next for the internet is based on our next need, desire, and the demand which I can tell you in a moment. First let’s look at how we started and where we are now.

– We began with individuals creating specific content for small groups.

– Then individuals began creating general content for a general audience.

– Then groups began creating specific content for other similar groups.

– Then we entered the age we are in now – the age of mass: mass groups creating mass content to other mass groups.

With recent years, the internet – side by side with the mass – has developed individuals who are creating specific content to specific groups, essentially connecting, creating tribes.

What’s next for the internet is what will assist us in partnering, grouping, and associating more than ever to create ultimate forms of content. Not just any content – content created for the peculiar, the individualized,  the artists. The internet has provided us unlimited information and it has provided us unlimited connection, but it has yet to harmoniously combine the two.

Of course, it’s not just about creating a medium that synchronizes information and connection, it’s also about creating more new groups to continue the cycle. What comes next won’t be something that can be monopolized when its goal is to continuously reproduce more of its kind.

Internet will have to morph into a medium where small groups get together to build on each others content with the assistance of other groups – not necessarily growing with them because they are focusing on a new idea already, but assisting in their artistic growth. It’s about the associated life in which the goal is to exit, meaning that the goal is to develop a new group, a new tribe.

It’s not just a melting pot of special people and great ideas, it’s artistic alchemy.

 

Stay Positive & What’s Next For Internet Can Be Predicted, What Will Be Produced From It, I Can’t Even Begin To Imagine

Garth E. Beyer

How To Grow A Tribe (Not Numbers, Quality)

Garth Beyer

It’s 6 degrees out and I decided to go for a run. While out, running through town, I saw a cluster of black, red, and white colors moving up Bascom Hill. Heading that way myself, I came to find that it was UW Madison’s Women’s Rowing Crew.

When I go out running, I always hit Bascom Hill once. This time, I found myself trekking up it 3.5 times with the crew. After 3 times some of the crew were stopped while others were finishing up. As I was running past those standing, I shouted, “You guys [should have said ladies] are kicking my butt!”

After that, a few girls hollered and a stampede started. They all started running with me and with all the other girls who were finishing up. The pride these girls had, the encouragement they handed each other, and the determination each had to finish as a team was insurmountable.

That alone is a less than good tribe.

They didn’t stop there though. What makes a good tribe is being open to the influence of others, connecting with like-minded individuals (me) or tribes. Even more so, what makes a great tribe is placing yourselves where you can have a challenges from inside and outside the tribe.

Building a tribe isn’t about unity, about definitive togetherness, or about exclusion. The best way to grow a tribe from within, is to grow from out, from the surroundings, from all the people around you. You’ll never know what challenges you’ll get … or give.

 

Stay Positive & Inclusion Isn’t Vital, But Awareness Is

Garth E. Beyer

Tribes: We Need YOU to Lead Us

Garth Beyer

Tribes, by Seth Godin. Bestselling author of Purple Cow and The Dip.

Here are some short snippets of his book that I wanted to share. Enjoy.

1. “We’re embracing a factory instead of a tribe. The irony is that all of this fear used to be useful. Fear of change is built into most organisms, because change is the first sign of risk. Fear of change in a huge factory is appropriate when efficiency is the order of the day. Today, though, the fear that used to protect us at work is now our enemy; it’s now the thing standing in the way.”

– Even knowing this, I still have fear throughout my work day. I fear bumping into other employees in an awkward moment, I fear discussing the idea of receiving a raise, I fear being turned down and frowned upon when I ask for more duties since I am getting my one task done too quickly. We are nothing without fear, but only if we use the fear. Imagining what you would do if you did not fear the result is the best first step. The next step is breaking it down so you do not overwhelm yourself. You are in control, find a way to use your fear. And let’s face it head on; you may lose out, you may get pushed back, you may get fired, but there will ALWAYS be another spot to be filled! Always. And the next spot you fill, might just be the perfect one. Remember, challenging fears involves other people, and other people have fears too. Persistence and Patience.

2. “‘How was your day?’ is a question that matters a lot more than it seems. It turns out that the people who like their jobs the most are also the ones who are doing the best work, making the greatest impact, and changing the most. Changing the way they see the world, sure, but also changing the world. By challenging the status quo, a cadre of heretics is discovering that one person, just one, can make a huge difference”

– This is why I want to open a College of Passions. (Will be explained in a later blog post)

3. “‘Good Enough’ stopped being good enough a long time ago. So why not be great?”

4. Life’s too short to fight the forces of change. Life’s too short to hate what you do all day. Life’s way too short to make mediocre stuff. And almost everything that’s standard is now viewed as mediocre.”

5. “What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticism. We choose not to be remarkable because we’re worried about criticism. We hesitate to create innovative movies, launch new human resource initiatives, design a menu that makes dinners take notice, or give an audacious sermon because we’re worried, deep down, that someone will hate it and call us on it”.

– I only have one thing I want to say; Just because you think no one else is acting does not mean you shouldn’t. The absolute best way to become a leader is to be the first to TRY SOMETHING. Because when it’s a success, you begin leading. You bring out the best in others and this is something our globe needs. People to toss away their fear and start acting on their ideas and passions. Be the ignition!

6. “A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it. As opposed to a curious person who explores first then considers whether or not he wants to accept the ramifications. A curious person embraces the tension between his religion and something new, wrestles with it and through it, then decides whether to embrace the new idea or reject it. Curious is the key word. It has nothing to do with income, nothing to do with education, and certainly nothing to do with organized religion. It has to do with a desire to understand, a desire to try, a desire to push whatever envelope is interesting. Leaders are curious because they can’t wait to find out what the group is going to do next. The changes in the tribe are what are interesting, and curiosity drives them.”

– “If you don’t try, you fail.” is part of the tattoo I have on my back.. And it stands true for every “curious” person in the world. Can you recall a time that you tried something because you didn’t want to be the only one not trying it? (I don’t recommend falling your friends if they jump off a cliff) But, now all you need to do is take that same emotion and change the scenario where no one has tried it. Be the first, and be the best.

7. “Faith is critical to all innovation. Without faith, it’s suicidal to be a leader, to act like a heretic. Religion, on the other hand, represents a strict set of rules that our fellow humans have overlaid on top of our faith. Religion supports the status quo and encourages us to fit in, not to stand out.”

– What a new look at faith. LOVE it.

8. “A couple walks by, obviously on their way to bed, having pushed the idea of vacation a little too hard. The woman looks over to me , in a harsh whisper a little quieter than a yell, says to her friend, ‘Isn’t that sad? that guy comes here on vacation and he’s stuck checking his e-mail. He can’t even enjoy his two weeks off.’ I think the real question–the one they probably wouldn’t want to answer–was, ‘Isn’t it sad that we have a job where we spend two weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty weeks a year?”

– What a remarkable view of the event. Overall, wonderful book. It is not something I would push to the top of your reading priorities, but it’s definitely near the top. I got my notes here so I will be sharing this book now with someone else. Exciting. Hope you enjoyed what I posted and check the book out. I’m always here to talk about it if you want.

Stay Positive and Embrace Fear

Garth E. Beyer