Twibes: Follow The Leader

This article is based on Seth Godin's new book: Tribes. A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest, and a way to communicate. Tribes need leadership. Sometimes one person leads, and sometimes more. People want connection and growth and something new. People want change. Your leadership can provide that change. You can't have a tribe without a leader, and you cant have a leader without a tribe. Seth's definition of a tribe is strongly related to the new micro blogging platform, Twitter. Twitter is one of the ways to form a communication channel between the tribal leader and its followers. Through this means of communication you can create a movement. Your followers follow you because they have a shared interest or are connected to a common ideology. The leader gives its followers something to believe in. When your followers believe in your idea, they will evangelize it. Twitters method of evangelizing is through retweets, direct messages, etc. Twitter allows us to be change agents, and is what has inspired this article and the development of our new term: Twibes.

Twibe: A twibe is a group of people connected to one another, a leader, and a common ideology. They communicate through Twitter, are motivated by updates, and evangelize to others by becoming opinion leaders themselves.

Opinion Leader: An opinion leader, or buzz marketer, has extensive knowledge on a certain subject and lets other know he feels about it. People listen to what he has to say because he has gotten the influence and credibility needed for others to pay attention.

Twibal Leadership: Twitter is not updates on your life. It is ok to do it from time to time, but this is not a reality television show. A twibal leader begins by giving his followers something to believe in. Everything he does is related or inadvertently related to his and his followers goals. This does not mean eliminate the water cooler talk. There is value in water cooler talk. Water cooler talk is the very reason that we are more likely to hear about changes to the world at the proverbial water cooler (twitter) rather than straight from "the media" (tv, radio, etc.). My point is, do not get distracted and stay focused on your vision.

Interaction: As twibal leaders what should we be writing about? Being a twibal leader is all about developing a relationship with your followers. When they see that you put up an update, they need to get excited. Ask thoughtful questions. Do not judge one's wisdom by the answers given, but by the questions asked. Get links to other websites/books you're reading that you think your followers might be interested in. Do not just promote yourself. Get something that you think is worth retweeting to their own followers. That creates a win-win situation. Your followers are satisfied because they have interesting information to read about, and they are also given the opportunity to themselves become "twibal leaders" to their own followers. Direct messaging gives a personalized touch between you and your followers. Dont use it often. You want your followers to yearn for a DM. Show them that you care.

Silence: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. A delay in your tweeting gives room for your followers to respond to what you have to say. You do not want to annoy your followers. Strategically placed pauses are golden.

Hashtags: The power of a viral discussion. For example, we do "Book Review Fridays". I'll send out a tweet friday morning similar to "today is book review friday. what are you reading right now? tag it #breviewfri". A hashtag is the hash (#), followed by a word related to the discussion you are starting. Followers that respond to this discussion tag it with the same hashtag, etc. Hashtags are a good tool to use because there are many search engines (summize.com) and websites (hashtags.org) dedicated to them, and allow you to find out which ones are the most popular.

Private to Public: Whenever you are having a conversation through direct messages and you feel it is of interest to everyone, take it public. One of the key elements to be an effective twibal leader is inclusion. Nobody likes to be left out.

Media training: As a twibal leader some of the replies we give to our followers go public. When replying to your followers, try to include a bit of the message given to you at the beginning, along with your answer. This communication strategy has the potential to generate more conversations from other followers.

The beauty of a twibe is that it not only has unlimited potential for growth, but also that the hightened level of interconnectivity spawns only more growth: a leader sends a twit to all of his followers--followers who are leaders themselves. The strength of a tribe is in numbers; but the strength of a twibe is in potency. The influencialism of a twibe is the idea of its ability to speak to a few and influence many. Accordingly, a twibe follows survival of the fittest, yet not through strength; a twibe survives and thrives based on nothing less than merit. Corruption does not come into play; the power of a twibe is pure . . . or nonexistent. Take care to care and take your care with care. Don't be confused, leadership is gained through merit. It is an honor to be a follower of a great twibal leader because you simply obtain more information to pass to the followers of your own twibe.

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Ruben Harris
Adam T. Wamack--A Young Influence (co-author)