A theme that seems to be popping up quite frequently these days is the concept of building your own marketing tribe that’s basically composed of a vibrant community of individuals just like you and me that help contribute to each others content by syndicating it using social media marketing tactics. But as with any marketing plan it needs preparation, sharp focus and a keen eye on detail. Social media marketing tactics mainly consists of contributing to your online communities and tribes by sharing powerful and valuable information but if you listen carefully there is much to learn from your tribes and social networking site if you just know how and where to start.

SO if you are looking for solutions to a situation, challenge, or need to research your market what is the most common and practical thing to do? Why you listen of course, maybe ask some questions but mostly record the feedback and just sit back and listen.

1. Listening To Your Tribe and Audience

Use the following social media marketing tactics to gain an advantage over your competition and pay careful attention to what your community is saying about the market and also about you.

• Use Pipes.Yahoo.com to create one powerful RSS Feed that completely aggregates the results from Social Networking sites like Flickr, Digg, Youtube, Technorati etc…
• Blogpulse.com is a specialized search engine that helps you patrol the social networking blogosphere with four tools – (1) Trend Search, (2) Featured Trends, (3) Conversation Tracker and (4) BlogPulse Profiles. Use them to track the conversation about you or your competitors.
• SocialMention.com is a fantastic social media search engine that scans the internet compiling user-generated content from blogs, rss feeds, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos and microblogging platforms like twitter.
• Search the world of Blogs by utilising Trendpedia.com ‘s unique ability to monitor the “Buzz” online on any topics like a keyword, brand or topic to see whose blogging about the target topic and what they’re saying.
• Keotag.com is a nifty little tool that searches the web for Tags. Whether you’re looking for single or combination tags Keotag can do just that. It compiles its results by scanning across several search engines and social media sites, including Google, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Twitter, BlogPulse, Newsvine, Digg, YouTube and others.

2. Develop Your Tactics and Strategy

Use the following tips to gain an advantage over your competition and pay careful attention to what your community is saying about the market and also about you. Take time out to develop a tangible marketing strategy to ensure you get closer to social media marketing success, but as with most things that are worthwhile it requires the patience sit down and work on your plan.

Save time by following the advice from professionals so be sure to read and listen to what they have to say and stick to it. Avoid throwing all your eggs into one basket like focusing all your efforts on Twitter for example. It’s better to identify multiple channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Myspace, and spread the time among them and grow your Tribe.

3. Contribute To Social Media

You’ve put down all the groundwork and started building your online relationships, so now it’s time to go out and participate and add value in your communities. You can do so by leaving comments in forums and blog posts, ask and answer questions in various social networking sites.
Obviously the point here is to participate in various social networks so open and create accounts and get active and respond fast when someone sends you a direct message.

4. Measure Your Progress and Success

Use the tools listed above in point 1 and various other online tools to help you track and monitor the “Buzz” online. Doing so enables you to keep track of which efforts are working best which in turn speeds up the process harmoniously. Remember to be responsive to messages, emails or any sort of communication. Failure to do so can result in potentially damaging your brand and your credibility.

Most companies are quickly learning that they ignore social media to their own peril. Remember that social media marketing tactics takes time and effort, so be patient and the rewards will be worth it.

In a world where technology moves at breakneck speed and business tactics and strategies change every day, its no wonder that marketing tribes or clusters of people involved in all the various aspects of online marketing have forgotten that there are some simple and powerful truths when it comes to effectively and passionately using your marketing tribe to its best potential.

Old Vs New Marketing Tribes

Old sayings like: “Build a better widget, and the world will beat a path to your door”. …is rubbish. That way of thinking is way too outdated and whoever said that didn’t have an internet connection or even a computer. Its more like build a better widget and then blog and create videos and create some tribes around it like a “social media tribe” and joint venture about it and hope that the Widget Store features it and then maybe just maybe the world will beat a path to your door. You’ve got to admit it is quite funny when you think about it but make no mistake there are some serious undertones in that sentence.

See, the world is only willing to reward innovation if they know about it and if they get a sense that the masses will do the same. People (in the context of society / groups) are on average followers and will only follow trends; so it’s incredibly hard to influence this behaviour in a group, which will in turn prompt them to “beat a path to your door”.

With that in mind isn’t it about time to push things up to a totally fresh new level and embrace the simple truths that Tribal behaviour stand for and use those methodologies and techniques to not only create a better business but also a better you.

Tribal Wisdom

In a nutshell, a tribe is any group of people, anywhere or any colour it doesn’t matter, who are connected to one another, and a leader or leaders, and an idea… or better put a vision. This understanding of how tribes work and communicate is largely misunderstood or even worse, people are so programmed into old school marketing that they fear treading into new territory and just end up re-hashing the same old methodologies and practices.

This kind of thinking IS very dangerous and can prohibit your company from moving forward into the digital age, because like it or not, the world is changing and if you don’t adapt quickly you’re going to be left behind. Since the dawn of time the only species that survives the challenges of this world are those that adapt to change and fast too.

Start your own Tribe

Of all the countless hours of reading, studying and research around this topic one theme keeps sticking its head out and that is; if you want to succeed in this business of Internet Marketing, SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing or whatever you need to find an audience or crowd and connect with them and establish deep long lasting relationships that revolve around more than just “making money” and actually make a difference, exchange ideas and share a vision…….your vision…….. or even a joint vision between you and your new partners.

If planned carefully you or anyone can create a powerful tribe in any area you desire for instance; An Seo Tribe, Social Media Tribe, Photography Tribe, Gamers Tribe, Technology Tribe, Gadget Tribe or in this case a Marketing Tribe.

Once you “get it” then you begin to see a bigger and better picture not only for your business but also for you and your family. Imagine a life where you’ve created a successful business and made loads of great friends and contacts to enrich your life.

To conclude Tribes are more powerful than they ever have been. Before the internet, building and creating tribes was hard and. It was tricky to grow, motivate and manage action. With the internet, communication is fast, free and worldwide. In today’s world, politicians can raise $50 Million in twenty-eight days. In the fluid tribal world of today, social media marketing, blogs and a whole variety of other tools combine to add whole new dimensions of what it means to be a part of a movement – a Marketing tribe.