As the digital revolution is shaking and shaping our ever evolving existence, many of us are left wondering whether we are getting lost in the jungle of the internet. As creatures of emotions, cultures and habits, it’s always been important that we belong to something, have our close knit communities and families around us, and indeed, have our own turf and pride to call our tribe.
Find your tribe
In order to find our tribe in the World Wide Web, we most likely browse through quite a few channels and platforms before settling into the few selected and relevant communities that we can call our own, that we can provide value in and feel that we belong to.
For some, these channels may be social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. For others, the chosen platforms for interactions may include LinkedIn or search engines such as Bing or Google, which most likely will usher us to even more granular places of tribal engagement such as blogs, forums and individual websites.
No matter what our chosen path is, it’s important to realise that the majority of the global population is now heading to find it digitally. The digital era is fast becoming the norm, the continuum of our physical existence as human beings. As such we are finding it increasingly normal and even necessary to find a functional balance between our physical and virtual being.
Challenge for marketers
As the local and global digital population grows, it’s progressively more challenging for us marketers to ensure our clients and their brands, products and services are matched correctly and relevantly with their desired tribe. Not forgetting the ever increasing competition as well.
We need to ensure that we are creating wholesome brand experiences that customers belong to, with a long term relationship in mind – rather than only trying to sell online.
So how can we ensure we create a mutually beneficial ecosystem around brands, products, services and customers? Let’s take a look at a few methods to start with;
- Create a strong and solid brand story -> ensure you plan and execute your values, vision and mission as consistently as you can. Be transparent and ensure your customers are at the core of everything you do as a brand. Make your desired (customer) tribe a part of your brand experience.
- Be specific -> know your target audience, your customers and their specific needs and wants. Establish how your product or service can be part of a solution to make your customers lives easier, more functional and convenient.
- Create happiness -> ensure your brand provides your customers with positive experiences and a feeling of belonging. Your product or service should be more than just that to your target market, they should serve a purpose, they should make your customer feel they cannot live their lives happily without them.
How to use data to identify your tribe’s whereabouts
The beauty of the internet and the digital channels is that pretty much everything and anything we do online leaves a trace, a breadcrumb trail.
Some users may find this slightly disturbing as they read articles about ‘big brother watching’ – however most of us actually feel quite positively about digital platforms capturing our behavioural data, as we are therefore being served with individually relevant content. Our experience in the internet is enhanced, it’s positive and we feel that we are not lost in a completely irrelevant environment.
As marketers, we have several tools we can use (and most of them for free) to analyse where our desired tribe hangs about, and how to best reach out to them.
Conclusion
Regardless of your tribe or if you indeed are a marketer or an individual customer wanting to experience excellence within the digital world that revolves around us today, it is imperative to keep in mind the ways, methods and solutions that can make our daily lives more efficient, meaningful and fruitful by utilising the full power of the virtual world we belong to.
It needn’t be a jungle, it can be a joyful ecosystem we all can enjoy and make our mark in. Statistics, data, platforms and digital channels are there to serve us, not to scare us. They are there to accommodate our diverse tribes.
