Tribes

I finished the book in two days. Again, pick it up to counteract the dark weather. What a motivator.

There are plenty of blogs and books about how to create and capitalize on Web 2.0 "tribes" for marketing purposes. This book hits hard on the human element, which is everything really.

The basic premise of the book is, "if you think leadership is only for other people, you're wrong. We need YOU to lead us." Society is moving from hierarchical to flat, due to cultural changes in some part, but more importantly, the ability for all to access information and communicate as broadly as they wish.

It's human nature to join tribes of all kinds. We love them - to belong to something bigger than ourselves, to work toward something we believe in or share our passions, to connect, to have a voice, to be heard. The old barriers are gone, so that there can be a tribe for every interest, regardless of geography.

While this book emphasizes the opportunity to lead, I'm also excited to think about the prospect of people being able to become members and find like minded others who used to be too few and far between. That is a great gift. All in all, a great thing for leaders and followers alike.

Some handy links:
Tribes on Amazon. The author encourages me to pass the book on, so if you email me in a couple of weeks I may be ready to do so. But if you can't wait, you can buy it... I'm sure he wouldn't mind.
The author, Seth Godin's blog
This person named Kristy Colvin, who points me to good books and ideas like Tribes: Fresh Webware

Go For It

Welcome to my inaugural blog. I have a boutique marketing consulting business working with high tech companies. I'm an implementer and an evangelist.

My favorite thought of late comes from the groupery where I worked until this month. What they did, which I really loved, was if they got an idea, they'd definitely kick it around. But then they would try it. In the time it takes to meet, analyze, meet again, analyze, do research, meet... we could try the idea in real life and get real results. I joined them in the first place because of this. They put out their web service in just a couple of months and I saw it and I was hooked. Two years later they continue to refine and refine. But they got their earliest converts by delivering something useful for real life users, not with a lot of talk.

Of course a big key in this circle of trial and error is the other half of the circle - acting on the results, good and bad.

I know this sounds like common sense but just think - is this next discussion session or round of research really necessary or are you already ready?

This is a lot easier for startups than big companies. But, to use the words of the week, we can all be mavericks from time to time, doggone it. Go for it!