Shared worlds & tribe ambassadors: marketing with people, not at them

Summary: Marketing with people can only happen when they feel truly a part of your brand. When you demonstrate that their presence and their stories are valuable to you and the community. If you're not living that brand, you're closed to their experiences. That's a fast track to failure. Bring in your tribe, and make them your ambassadors by showcasing them. Everyone loves to be in the spotlight. Your job is to articulate a purpose, and create a platform for storytelling.

"Marketing is not something you do at people. It's something you do with people." Seth Godin

How does that work?

Marketing means standing behind a table at a trade show, talking to convince people that they need your stuff, and trying not to drool at the sight of a credit card.

Right?

Seth's simple change of a word means the change of a world.

Shared Worlds

Marketing with people means something critical in the context of your tribe.

Your brand doesn't exist without your tribe.

See, if no one bought from you, your brand would be shelved, declare bankruptcy, or be rebranded.

Brands pop into existence all the time. Anyone can build a brand. Few get it to market, and fewer build a tribe that keeps the brand alive.

You need them as much as they need you.

That's the happy symbiosis of a tribe; a servant leader who enables the lives of others. Someone who has seen the future, and goes around empowering others to see it and get there too.

It's not your world. It's not your 'brand world'.

It's shared.

Your brand is touching the lives of each person you work with. Their expectations, results, and successes are yours. Their failures, gripes, and unmet expectations are yours.

Too many bad experiences, and your brand starts to die.

Brands die when no one talks about them. When no one cares. They disappear when the tribe militates together against it. You are now no longer within the Venn Diagram at all; your brand exists to unite them against you. Not a great place to be in.

But if you can own the overlap in the diagram, if you can live there, share the space with each person, celebrate their contribution, and be in a state of constant engagement and dialogue, then you'll thrive.

You'll be helping each member get to know and support each other member. You'll be creating a micro-community who believe the same thing, and are a source of inspiration.

You are giving them all belonging.

You are giving them an empathetic ear ready to listen, and able to act.

We all hope to be heard. We are surprised when we find someone able to act with us. And usually can't live without it.

Tribe Ambassadors

When you are clearly human, relatable, open, and excellent at your service, you transform lives.

Not a million lives maybe, probably not even a thousand.

Maybe a hundred. Maybe 10.

But if that 10 can't get enough of you, your message, your updates, and the stories you're telling about them together as a tribe, you have super fans.

Your tribe will do your marketing for you.

They will tell their friends. They will be your ambassadors to their communities.

That 10 doubles, triples, and scales because of word of mouth.

Now you are marketing with people. Not at them.

You're not trying to convince people that you have the stuff.

You're letting your tribe do the convincing with you.

Your website could be saying something like this:

• Amazing new product guaranteed to keep your hair looking amazing all night. 20% discount to first-time buyers. Endorsed by celebrities and used on Broadways every night for that stellar look. Now you can look like a star in minutes, and save on expensive salon experiences! 100% satisfaction, or full refund.

That might work. In fact, it probably will work. Everyone is doing it.

But is it building up a tribe? Are you leaning into the stories of the tribe so that they are marketing with you?

What if instead you said something like:

• 1000 soccer moms and Instagram celebrities use this amazing product every day. Read their stories right here, discover the inspiration and ideas you need to style your mane like a glamorazzi. Forget about salons. Join us in a hairvolution of homemade amazing. Look incredible, with little effort. Together, we're changing the face of hair care, and your chance at being a star.

Or something.

And then apart from somewhere to buy the product, your tribe is all over your website. Imagine live Instagram feed of it in action. Testimonials slide by, a tweet stream of successes and feedback updates every day, and you can browse curated galleries of people passionate about this product.

All you did was create the tool, and articulate the vision.

Then you created a space for them to gush about it.

You're marketing with people.

Today, every person is a mini influencer - to their friends and family. Give them something exciting to talk about, something that impacts them in a positive way, and they will.

You're networking worlds together.

You're creating a shared world, a Narnia, a Minecraft. A platform to celebrate the stories and general journey.

All you have to do is keep being chief dreamer, servant leader, curator.

Remember, it's not your tribe. You don't own it. After a while, you might not even be leading it.

But you're the marketer who gave them a platform to feel connected together.