Social Web Apps Design
Online Community Development

Ranking & Reaching 2/3: Your Ideal Tribe

by Saul Fleischman on August 10, 2011

Expanding on what Dino Dogan of Triberr often says, I wholeheartedly agree: when selecting a tribe, evaluate whether the syndicated addition of your blog to the existing members’ Twitter (and in the future, potentially other networks) timelines will be of benefit to them, rather than just what the tribe would do for you. For those without an invite, searching for tribes to request an invite, look at more than the tribal reach (combined following of the Twitter accounts that a tribe potentially sends blog articles out to) and also look beyond a few prominent names among the membership of the tribe.

Getting into Triberr – Tactically

1. Read beyond the name, category and reach (yes, while you talk of community, learning… I do see this “reach” thing is what everyone new to Triberr is fixated on) and read on to tribe’s description and requirements. Be concerned if these are weakly defined or completely blank. Find tribes to apply to (it may take many applications – took me close to 20, for whatever that tells you) where you get the sense that they are looked after. Beware the Chief (blogger who started the tribe) who appears to look to grow lazily and without much thought in who they will open their tribe to: they started with a hefty following (or inbred it up to that), and now rests on those laurels, and takes nearly everyone with a large Twitter following. Inbreeding: this is the inviting to a tribe of members already in Triberr (open to just a handful of tribes, currently), a thing that is as good as it is bad, and a function that we asked for… and a sticky subject – something for another post.

2. Look at the bloOur Members Publish on: Blog Promotion, Social Media, SEOgs of the tribe members. Nearly all have it as the link declared in their Twitter profile. Are you blogging on similar topics? If you are an up-and-coming technology or social media blogger with 3,200 Twitter followers, and discover that the large-reaching tribes on those topics will not take you, you may see that mommy-blogger-themed tribes offer a large reach and many Twitter mentions (nice and nice, yes) – but get in such a tribe and you are signed on for turning your Twitter account into a vehicle for we-blog-anything characters, with too many Triber.it (paid Triberr blog post sendings) per day… coupon deals… cockamamie sweepstakes and dogs of about seven other colors. Truly, people’s definitions and standards on blogging are radically different. As such, do find a tribe where your blog fits. Join this one, and once in, the other members will like you, and you’ll like them. After all, since you may only join one and create three tribes (the Triberr system), apply to ones that you would be happy calling home. The good start that I enjoyed is much owed to the fact that I got into a tribe that I continue to like: Janet Callaway’s Networking Peeps.

3. Personalize your application, including your main Twitter handle and blog URL – and do so after reading the requirements. You will get the chief’s attention; they’ll definitely at least look at your Twitter following, and some, like me, will look at you blog as well. I, for one, am one chief who is thoroughly impressed when I see that you did not apply for my largest-reaching tribe (perhaps having read the follow-up to this post in which you see where you might fit and also qualify for), but rather, one or two of my tribes that are most appropriate.

A few suggestions on configuring Twitter and RSS connections

Assuming you have an invite code, be logged in to the Twitter account (in Twitter) that you will register, initially, for use in syndicating fellow tribemembers’ blog posts. You can add up to two other Twitter accounts later. If you see your Twitter avatar in Triberr, it is configured correctly. If you don’t see your Twitter avatar, watch their video (see their blog) to learn how to fix that.

RSS

Feedburner is supposed to be supported, but tends to send Triberr tweets doubling (multiple tweets of the same content – a really bad thing, and a Triberr “beta” unfortunate problem than Dan is working on, I am told). I thus ask people to install their standard RSS, or, if part of their blog would not be right for any specific tribe, look into setting up a category, such as “Triberr” and using the category-specific .rss to got to our Tribal feed. Normally, though, the whole .rss is fine; for WordPress blogs, just follow the .com with /feed. My .rss, for example, is http://osakabentures.com/feed

You will see an RSS message when you first create your account and before your first post is tweeted. This is a reminder to make sure you installed your RSS correctly. And if you have any concerns or difficulty, the guys are fast-acting, so contact @triberr for help. Kindly understand that I am just a user, not in the Triberr business, and cannot do your registering for you or fix problems. I can help you trouble-shoot, if you SKYPE me. I am always glad to help – but you need to speak with me during Japan business hours, sorry.

See Part Three of this three-part article series, on tribes I am developing, entry requirements, themes, to be published tomorrow: Ranking & Reaching 3/3: About My Tribes

I began this blog series yesterday, with Ranking & Reaching 1/3: Blog Cross-Promotion

About Saul Fleischman

Founder of emerging social media tool sites. Bootstrapping innovation with lean startup development teams. I do project management, user experience, PR, marketing and community development.

su.pr size it! http://su.pr/5ZZIsW

Related OsakaBentures Must-Reads

  • Pingback: http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/rank… « social media marketing & 英文編集の大阪ソール

  • Pingback: Ranking & Reaching 3/3: About My Tribes | OsakaBentures

  • Pingback: http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/rank… « SynterGrow

  • Pingback: Social Media Makers Tribe Showcased

  • Stan Faryna

    Saul:Triberr rocks. And most bloggers wouldn’t figure that out until (God forbid) Triberr crashes and burns. If Triberr dies and nothing replaces it’s automagical, community building, buzz-loving bang … Nietzsche has just whispered to me that blogging will be dead.You were among the few and the first to understand it’s value and role in a comprehensive online strategy.Oh- I wanted to remind you.Click thrus to blog post are
    just the start of gauging online authority and influence. Then there’s drive-by comments. After the relevance of the drive-bys comes a count of nicey-nice comments. After that” a count of thought provoking and insightful comments (as opposed to inspirations and fuzzies). And after that is the
    transaction whether it be a purchase, a donation, or a social task. It
    can be a long way from click thrus to transaction. Anyway, this is where
    the conversation gets real, insightful, and valuable. I love this.

    • Saul Fleischman

      Also for @yogizilla:twitter Stan, thank you, and here’s my Nietzsche back at you: “blogging IS dead – and we killed it.” (Triberr did not, haha)

      3K followers? I have no tribes that accept bloggers with that few. I network with people without Twitter accounts, and with low following numbers, of course, but let’s not fool ourselves. Triberr is about reach-extension. My proof is in that for every 30 bloggers who apply to my tribe that reaches 1.56 million via 25 Twitter accounts and features some rather famous names, I get about 1 application to my second-biggest triberr tribe, with 460K reach (and almost never get applications to my tribes with less than that). They’re coming for reach, you see. What else we get out of Triberr is all extra. It matters, but if you want to build a tribe with solid value, there’s no getting around recruiting well-known bloggers with:
      1. a solid, regularly publishing blog AND
      2. actual social networks “authority” (deal with that as you see fit; basically, while one guy will get you several page views and a RT or two, another will get you many. Let’s not pretend we do not see a difference) AND
      3. some semblance of a following. It is not actually meaningless, if it is not a “purchased following” (I snoop a bit… to the best of my ability), it demonstrates “time served” in social media and the affirmation of many, rather than the “out-there” guy whose message is met by just a few.

      • Stan Faryna

        I know people with 100k+ followers and they don’t command $25/hour. I also know people on Twitter with under 1000 followers that make over $150k+/year and rub elbow with captains of industry, heads of state, etc. What do you want to tell me? [laughing]

        Don’t forget Trey Pennington, the social media expert’s expert with 111k Twitter followers, 5000 Facebook friends, and 1,500 FB fanpage fans. If you remember, Trey committed suicide recently. He wasn’t making enough; he had a big family to support, massive debt, etc.

        Trey was the go to guy in social media as he championed answers about the missing ROI of social media.

        You like the metrics. I like meaningful outcomes. We each will have our preferences for all the right and wrong reasons. Myself, I don’t have a problem with a difference of opinion. Do you? [grin]

        • Saul Fleischman

          A Triberr tribe should not be a buddies club. Who you are, your success, your clout, these are not how I select people for my tribes; the three facets I noted do matter. Its about aligning bloggers and blog-promoters – who have similar “brand messages,” an pull promotional weight at a similar level.

          • Stan Faryna

            Dino and Dan might be saddened to hear how you use Triberr. They created Triberr with the intention of giving bloggers a chance to succeed through merit of their content. I happen to believe that is a relevant cause – especially if we want to predict the valencies of blogs, the blogoshpere, and (more broadly) the sum magnitude of the social web.

            I had wondered why they unexpectedly capped the number of tribes and connections. [laughing]

            In my opinion there is not a lot of fresh insight, honesty, and servant leadership coming out of the social media corner with the kind of high Twitter followings that you seem to be focusing on. How many people are talking about Klout today? Yesterday? Last week? Is the conversation getting anywhere or are people just talking about Klout to drive comment (and hopefully community-building on their blog)?

            If you like, we can work together to analyze the content pushed by one of your tribes and score it. You choose the tribe.

            The reverb on the echo-chamber of social media commentary, think and posturing is ridiculous. You know exactly what I mean. [grin] Ironically, the echo on the talk about how ridiculous it’s become… has become alarming.

            You’ve misread my comment. On the one hand, I don’t have anything against someone building an exclusive tribe whether it be of their real world network or people with 3000+ Twitter followers or more. On the other hand, the point that I was trying to make is that your focus on being exclusive could be interpreted as pretentious, contemptuous, or cliché.

            I’m not saying that I see you in this perspective. Because we’ve talked on skype. Your kindness and sincerity come through loud and clear on skype. But I do notice that people are reluctant to comment on your posts and give you love. Despite the fact the your reach CRUSHES mine by many times over.

            Aligning awesome bloggers and heavy-hitting “media socialistas” (I like the Portuguese expression) blog-promoters is an obvious beautiful solution. I couldn’t agree more with you. But what I imagine is happening in too many tribes, is media socialistas trying to up or start a sucky to mediocre blogging game. The consequences will be a deafening echo chamber, the next wave of copy-cat bloggers, and a tragic misuse of hard drive space.

            Keeping those awesome bloggers out of tribes because they have less than 3000 followers may end up putting you in the problematic described above. For example, Yomar Lopez (which you and I both consider to be an exciting social force) has a Twitter following of 1000. And then there is me who has unfollowed mass quantities of trash-producing and dead accounts three times during my presence on Twitter to the cost of losing several thousands of followers.

            Analyze your followers’ Twitter accounts. [grin] I think a sample of 300 will do. We can work on this together. Maybe, I’m greatly mistaken about some things.

            • Yomar

              I’m with you here, Stan.

              The last time I really sat down to chat with Dino about Triberr and his vision behind it, he made it clear that many people don’t “get it”. Of course, the beauty of the tribe model is that folks can unite under a single vision and (mostly) consistent voice.

              That said, a Triberr group is what you make of it. It can be a buddies club, a mass-reach farm, or whatever tickles your fancy.

              You know my thoughts on reach. Most say reach but really mean “mass following for broadcasting purposes” but that is a mouthful. Everyone also defines engagement differently but I look at true engagement as any time you can “go deep”, having people introduce you to their friends and spreading your message because they want to.

              Sure, there are some folks with massive followings AND engaged audiences.. But who can REALLY engage on an individual basis when they have anything over 10K in following? Sure, you can use lists, spot-check main streams/timelines, and put tools to work so you can find your “key players”.. But you’ll still see around 5% of your audience doing 70% or more of the “work”.

              With my “measly” little Twitter audience, it’s always the same few people that are at the top of my lists of supporters, influencers, and most-engaged tweeps list (thank you@commun_it:twitter for making that job easier). That’s in spite of the fact that I try to reach out to new people by visiting their sites, leaving sincere, valuable comments (not just spreading warm fuzzies and cookie-cutter responses), retweeting and favoriting the best stuff I spot in my streams, adding the right people to the right lists, connecting via other social platforms, and introducing tweeps to like-minded folks.

              Yet the number of people that I consistently touch.. And vice versa. Heck, often the people that go crazy supporting me are not even the ones I collaborate or support the most. They do it because they care… Because they’ve seen I’m not here to build an avatar-style, pre-fabricated brand or just self-promote. They know that *I* care.

              All right, moving on…

              I have been building my own tribes for months now. I am hand-picking members for each one. I don’t care about their reach, rockstar status, credentials.. None of that junk we see in the corporate world. This is small business, it’s about finding the right personality fit above all. Sooooo…

              Yes, content should align well.

              Yes, a tribe should set proper expectations.

              Yes, there should be rules for each tribe but those rules are up to the tribe chief.

              Yes, we can be friends and still succeed together.

              My tribes each have their own theme and focus. I have some tribes based on activity requirements over content alignment. I have other tribes that are more focused on specific types of professionals and content. This is what works for me.

              I don’t want a-listers or mainstream rockstars. I like the vision of Triberr that was intended.. The vision that positions the platform as a way for little-known bloggers and thought leaders to get noticed. The networking opportunity alone is worth it.

              I’m finding myself spending less and less time on the most popular blogs. Why? Most of the folks there are plastic. They’re leaving comments because they want some of that link juice and exposure. They figure that, if they associate with the big names in our industries, they’ll be cool too. Hey, not problem there.. It’s just not for me.

              I’ll comment when I feel there is something unique that really moves me.

              @stjohnmarketing:twitter would agree with me here. In fact, we touched upon these issues in our first podcast (Episode Zero of the Not Just Another Business Podcast).

              Ultimately, a Triberr tribe (sounds redundant, I know) will succeed if there is a match in communication style and goals. I have a mixed audience that is receptive to just about anything I tweet because they like me and I’m not a robot. That means a lot to me. I know there are some folks that don’t like me and I’m okay with that. I at least know it’s not because I am bean-counting and pushing for big numbers.

              Believe me when I say, if I had seen nothing but a-listers and huge brands on Triberr when I initially poked in, I would have skipped on it. Who wants to be over-shadowed by folks that have gotten so big that they can now pay folks for outsourced social media services?

              I like the authentic folks with fire in the belly. The folks that just speak to what they really are passionate about and worry about the hot trends later. They feed a need in their own way and their loyalty comes because they consistently show they are the real deal.

              Folks that come to mind are@faryna:twitter ,@eugenefarber:twitter ,@laurindashaver:disqus ,@DaveRGallant:twitter ,@gingconsult:twitter ,@janetcallaway:twitter , and@smartboydesigns:twitter.. Just to name a few.

              Some of these folks have massive reach and some do not. They all get the results they want. They’re all great to chat with, too.. I don’t get the stench of used car salespeople or cue-card regurgitations from them. ;o)

            • Saul Fleischman

              Thank you and @yogizilla:twitter for such a well-thought comment. With many to get to, I must be concise in replying:
              Being invited or accepted to a Triberr tribe may come with a bit of “warm and fuzzy,” but truth be told, a tribe is about aligning blog content to reach more (and as I should acknowledge Yomar’s salient point – more of the people who are likely to convert to new business and/or friend/networking “valuables). We can, in fact, simply know each other, thanks to Triberr and/or this or that, and elect to connect, network, befriend, collaborate. This does not mean that the tribe one of believes is “where we should be” – is necessarily a tribe that the Chief of that tribe believes has a place for us.
              As for my policies with my tribes, and as for Dan and Dino’s “intentions,” too much to vehemently disagree with, but for starters:
              1. when they first displayed their “featured” members on their top page, the ew who made th cut were there based on precisely one thing: number of Twitter followers. After I spoke with Dan and Dino about it, big supporters, including both Stan Faryna and I were also included. That was my doing, Stan. It made immediate sense when I explained to them who they might do well to acknowledge – but it was not obvious to them until I explained it to them.
              2. I am not sure where the “3,000″ thing you have brought up a couple times from. I am not so simplistic in assessing the “likely” (can never be sure until you add a blogger to a tribe) reach a blogger will bring, regardless of his Twitter following, Klout, etc. I am selective. Those already in my tribes seem to be very “okay” with me being selective – about future additions to our little tribes.
              3. Though by Triberr rules we can be connected with up to 150 bloggers, from my own experience I see that the Triberr “drum” cannot send out any of my posts to anywhere NEAR that many, not even 100 of the bloggers I am connected to. As such, Triberr is not a network like Twitter, etc. where there is any benefit in being connected with many “contacts” (as Tribesmates, at least – as “networking connections,” or FRIENDS, like Yomar and you, Stan are, of course!) is beneficial. In fact, once you exceed… not even sure… maybe 60-70 connections, you begin to see that Triberr gives up after a certain amount of time, and many of your connections thus do not tweet your blog post. You thus need to consider who gets you page views and who does not and then (again, in acknowledgment to Yomar), which o those page views are likely to do anything important for you – whatever that might mean – to you.

              I think I know a thing or two about building a tribe from nothing.

              Please understand that until you create attraction in a tribe, you will have one HELL of a battle in bringing the bloggers you want to join it. They will listen to you, and then join the tribe with the biggest reach they can get into. I know this from MANY experiences. “The grass is greener” syndrome, if you will.

              As such, I have, indeed, become increasingly on the look-out for tribespeople who will bring a tribe pageviews, retweets, quality leads (i.e. where those page views come from does matter, and Yomar, “I do as I can” on that), and all that is on top of the first thing I assess: whether the blog’s topics, post quality, and so on (no self-promotional stuff, compensated reviews, etc.) are in line with those of myself and other existing tribe members.

              Wouldn’t you prefer to be in a tribe where you know that members added – after you – are going to be evaluated in such a manner? That is one benefit that I offer – with my tribes. However, let’s not fool ourselves; Triberr is where bloggers go to get their blog seen, and the topic(s) and quality and social networks authority (more networks to come, besides Twitter, we hear) are not enough of a draw. They are attracted by the reach of the tribe, alas. You will, at some point probably find that to be useful, if you ever build a tribe with a large reach. Whatever that means to you, you enjoy an uphill battle without much o a tribal reach.

              Triberr is only a fabulous basis for networking with bloggers because people like Stan, Yomar, and a number of others decided to do just that. But that is not how I can select members to admit to my tribes. I do need to at least attempt to predict what value they are bringing – also in terms of targetted blog audience-building, for existing members and myself – before admitting bloggers to my tribes.

      • Yomar

        There’s a lot of great stuff to discuss here but let me start by saying blogging is NOT dead. Anyone that says that is trying to push some hot new medium and is not seeing the big picture. Blogging combines social media, thriving communities, collaborative opportunities, and remarkable content (sometimes).. That will always be relevant.

        I must say, I’m glad I got to meet you outside of Triberr space, Saul. Had I applied to one of your tribes when I first decided to take the leap of faith several months back (thanks to@dino_dogan:twitter sharing his words of encouragement with me and really making me a believer with his amazing vision), I would gather that Triberr was a bait-and-switch deal.

        As we discussed before, you did strike me as one of the stuffy, self-absorbed broadcasting types that we see in the social media arena often. But I’ve had the opportunity to be proven wrong with that.. I am right that our beliefs when it comes to online marketing are vastly different in key areas. We don’t have to agree on everything and, really, it’s better that we do not – that’s what keeps us challenged and innovating!

        To me, what excites me is the concept of Triberr as the “great equalizer”.. The “reach multiplier”, as it is advertised via tagline, doesn’t excite me as much and probably never will.

        No right or wrong here.. Just a matter of priority, communication style, and core values, I’d say. 8)

    • Yomar

      Oh gosh Stan.. You went Nietzsche on us. I have a few books sitting right here on him. Interesting parallels you’re drawing here, bro… Are you implying some ubermensche (sp?) tendencies are seen in the blogosphere, mayhaps? ;o)

      • Stan Faryna

        One thing is for sure: you are uber, Yomar.

        • Yomar

          Thanks bro – I think you’re uber yourself, and not in a potentially elitist way as we discussed above! =oD

  • Pingback: Let’s Not Push Buttons Prematurely | | OsakaBenturesOsakaBentures

  • Pingback: Triberr Rocks, But Not For The Reasons Most Love It Or Hate It « Yogizilla's Blankity Blank-Blank (An NoF Portal)

  • Keri at Idea Girl Media

    Saul,

    I received a tweet from Disqus that I was mentioned in discussion here, but somehow I didn’t make the cut. Though, I am happy to see this post, the interaction, and those involved in conversation!

    While I agree that Triberr was developed to create amplified reach, as you mention, Saul, I do appreciate what @yogizilla:disqus notes regarding it being an “equalizer,” or giving the little dog a chance at a bigger dish. At the same time, I do smile at @faryna:disqus’s comments – Dan & Dino might flinch a little at such strong theories on positioning your tribes. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t — I dunno.

    I do agree that Triberr should not be a buddies club. We all belong to and participate in organizations where we have our closer buddies and our professional contacts. Triberr is no different. I did not join triberr to play poker on Saturday evenings. Rather, I invest in my tribe members – with time and support, and by purchasing bones – to create pathways of providing value and strengthened position.

    That said, I’m still a quality over quantity girl.

    I recently dismissed one tribe member. This may surprise you, Saul,
    as this was someone with a big number of followers. Even so, clicks
    generated were not producing Re-tweets, and the tribe member was not
    bringing value to the tribe as a whole.

    In examining other tribes, and evaluating my own, I’ve found some
    “A-listers,” or those with larger followings, to move into the “set and
    forget” mode, when jumping into Triberr. Which promotes lack of
    communication and does not necessarily mean a tribe with strong
    foundation. That is not my preference.

    Not to say there aren’t
    exceptions to the rule! It is possible to have a tribe of people that do not communicate a lot, but are quite happy.

    Also recently accepted one person leaving my tribe. Reasoning was that some of the material was not fitting for their brand. I translate that they are focused and not concerned about business tangibles. Which is their choice. Since then, we have replaced their following count with a more diverse set of opportunities.

    My goal is to structure a tribe that:

    * Reflects professionalism.
    * Brings like-minded people together.
    * Creates and builds upon trust.
    * Encourages and instills support.
    * Continually increases reach.
    * Provides a well-rounded set of business-oriented topics.
    * Attracts credible customers.

    Logically, if I’m including people that share my values, and blog tweet about topics other than, but tangible, to social media I’m offering my followers useful information from sources inside my network. So, we build a unit – - followers are less likely to go “elsewhere” when they finally make the step to request services. Additional services would hopefully be referred within that same tribe network.

    So, along with social media, I might want to include members covering Sales, Conversion, Tools, Marketing Legalese, Mobile Marketing, SEO, Branding, Project Management, etc.

    This is the perfect opportunity to build Joint Ventures and collaborative partnerships. That type of situation does not come from volume concern alone. But it’s also not a club of buddies.

    Surely, those that develop closer relationships within the tribe might consider forming mastermind groups.

    Triberr does rock – My social position has improved 180 degrees since I joined a small handful of months ago.

    A lot of words, but hopefully insight into my views – however similar or different than they are from yours.

    Saul, I respect your position, and think you’ve been a marvelous champion of Triberr!!

    ~Keri

    • Saul Fleischman

      Thanks, Keri and Disqus is not to be trusted ;-) Hope @yogizilla:twitter sees this as well (and my longer reply to him and Stan, above).

      Triberr is doing great things for many of us, and actually, in many of the same ways. Just had a great SKYPE yesterday with Chris Voss and also advised Stan Faryna, Paul Morin and Knikkolette on how they might fair better in building their tribes. I hope to soon debate our mutual friend, Yomar (just as I did with Stan) on the intra-tribal engagement factor that you, Stan, and Yomar have written about. I will good you my standpoint right here:

      When I wrote – of a tribe – that “it isn’t a buddies club,” I cannot imagine that Yomar would think that I do not value, first and foremost, the friendships and alliances we are forging in there. What I meant was that I do not believe in inviting bloggers because of who they are, how much we hit it off, friendships, etc. Many people must; you would not believe how many times someone looks at Social Media Makers http://triberr.com/ext/profile-tribe.php?tid=1813 and tells me how they already know most of the members of the tribe… already… we’re friends… and so on.

      Go on being friends. What I need to look at is, first and foremost, the topics you write on, a couple minimal writing quality points, and then, the factors that we would all argue on, which I assure you are important:
      1. What is the applicant bringing to the party. Is this blogger likely to get us pageviews? Who might they be from, to the best I can guesstimate…? It is a reciprocal community, a tribe, and since we can all comment on blogs, or not, and cuddle up together in other manners, at the end of the day, the gearing of a tribe, the thing that we came to triberr for – is reach. I have to evaluate how likely an applicant will extend our true reach, and if the pageviews they bring will likely bring us business, networking opportunities, or other good things.
      2. Not Klout, but actual social media authority. Its fine with me, in all my tribes, if an applicant is not well-known. If they bring with them a solid reputation in social media, such that their links get opened, and get people talking, sharing, retweeting… This is attractive.
      3. With Triberr, when its just little ole’ you, its one heck of a battle recruiting your first members. One lady recently asked me how to get around a problem she is up against right now: after explaining Triberr to bloggers, answering all their questions and concerns… they four out of the last five people turned around and then went “tribe shopping,” and finding they could get into a tribe with a LARGER REACH, they did just that. People are people. Call me dark and negative, but I deal with reality – realistically. If you do not build a tribe that has a fairly high total reach and also a pretty strong reach/number of members ratio, experience tells me (I have several tribes that nearly no one applies to) that new people wont come a-knockin’. You’ll either not grow, or you’ll perpetually be recruiting. I recommend you do what it takes to have them coming to you.

      I thus propose to you – as I did to Stan and Knikkolette just yesterday – that if you do not want it to always be a struggle, it pays to build attraction in a tribe. Due to the themes of my tribes, alas, for the majority of them I could not and cannot do this. I have accepted several bloggers with under 2K Twitter followers, but solid blogs. With The Business of Change (450K reach for just 16 members) and SMMakers (1.6M reach for 26 members) I have been able to attract some of the more prominent and influential bloggers who have joined Triberr.

      When considering a new member to add, I do also evaluate if the addition will make the tribe more desirable to those shopping for a tribe to apply to, and if they will be a welcome addition to the tribe. I believe that I am not perverting the aims of Triberr in thinking this way. Members tend to stay in my tribes, only a few having left/been booted; I must not be doing all the wrong things, policy-wise.

  • Keri at Idea Girl Media

    @Yogizilla:disqus , @osakasaul:disqus , and others,

    I don’t remember which tragedy I wrote about that you are referring to. Am I getting old?

    This is a good discussion, and at the core, I think we all believe that finding quality and trust within a tribe is what we’re after. It just gets interesting when each of us defines quality, and trust.

    I too really like Networking Peeps – my “home” tribe led by @janetcallaway:disqus . Her invitation changed the way I network, and escalated my online presence!

    As a chief, I can only hope to lead by example, following Triberr guidelines to the best of my ability, as Janet has trusted me to do…

    Build and develop tribes that include the following: intelligence, authenticity, goodwill, collaboration, friendship, and thought leadership. Surely there area few more.

    At the end of the day, our approach must be timeless – based on principle – if we want our groups to continue together long-term.

    Just my 2 cents,

    ~Keri

Previous post:

Next post:

All rights reserved, OsakaBentures 2012