7 Ways to Build Your Tribe

I pressed the “Send” button and with audible relief, I told my agent, “Guess what, Rachelle,” I gushed into the phone, “I just finished my book!” I thanked her for making the risky decision to represent a first-time writer. After sincerely congratulating me and saying all the supportive things an agent should tell an author, Rachelle replied, “I am honored to represent you. A good idea like yours makes selling books much easier.” Then she added, “I’d rather represent a brand new author with a good idea versus a three-time author who has only sold, say, 6,000 books each time.”

Wait just a minute. Rewind. “What?” I said. “I thought that getting published was the big hurdle and everything after that would be a cake walk.” Rachelle laughed and then gently leveled with me. “For your first book, you are published on potential, but for every book after that, you are published on results.” Gulp. That meant my work wasn’t finished at all. In fact, it had only just begun.

After putting over a year into the proposal, sales process, and book writing, I can look forward to another year of marketing. “If it were easy,” said Rachelle, “then everyone would be doing it.” Fortunately for me, I love marketing even more than writing. Not so fortunately, the art of marketing is starting to look more like a science.

The Web 2.0 world demands (enables – however you want to look at it) a more technical approach to marketing. After reviewing my platform with me, Rachelle said it was time to shift gears. “You know that book Tribes by Seth Godin?” she asked. “Actually, I do,” I replied, picking up the half-read book from my bedside table. “That book is your new bible.” The time has come for me to build a tribe.

What is a tribe? According to Seth Godin, “a tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea.” That means that I am supposed to lead, or at least facilitate, a group of my own. “The internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time,” reads the book cover, “so it should be easier than every before for any person to connect and build a community.”

Notice, I said, “should be” easier. But it isn’t necessarily easier, at least not for me. I am almost as uncomfortable wandering into an online forum as I am a room of people I don’t know. Now I’m supposed to sweep in and “own the room” on these sites, attracting all kinds of followers? How does one do that??? One person at a time. At least until you start generating word of mouth. How long does that take? As long as it takes, I’m afraid. “It’s not hard. It just takes effort and it takes time,” says Rachelle. “Once you figure out how these tools work, it’s a no brainer.” There are no shortcuts to building relationships, even online. But there are tools that make the networking process easier. Since I’m going through this, I figure I might as well teach others while I’m learning it. Misery loves company, right? Just kidding. This is going to be FUN!

So, here’s to all you fellow and aspiring writers, entrepreneurs, and change makers: My recipe for building a tribe:

1) Join media sites and blogs related to your topics of interest. Notice I begin with “join” as opposed to “launch your own.” The best way to begin building a tribe is to become part of a larger group of people seeking similar answers. From there, you can zero in on topics that need more fleshing out and meet like-minded people.

2) Build expertise in one or two areas of interest. The world is a big place. Your best chance to save the planet is to focus on a little piece of it. I am interested in everything “green” under the sun, so this one was a challenge for me. Issues ranging from oceanic conservation to peak oil grab my attention, but I am neither oceanographer nor geologist. So I honed in on what I do know best: green living and green business. Turns out there are plenty of people looking for leadership in those arenas. I’ll leave the more technical discussions around oceans to the likes of Cousteau. It’s like Socrates said, “Know Thyself.” Nobody will follow you if you don’t even know who you are.

3) Establish a hub. “Imagine the spokes on a wheel,” Rachelle told me. “Your blog is the central hub, the gathering place. Everything else that links to that is a spoke on your wheel.” Lord knows I’ve got spokes – I write several blogs for different media outlets, but I still lack is the hub to pull it all together. So, now I get to start another blog. Stay tuned!

4) Form a group on Facebook. Different from your personal FB page, this is a place to network with people who actually care about the issues you do. Check out the various ways that people set up discussion groups and public pages. Find people you admire on FB and pattern yourself after someone doing it the way you would (if you had thought of it yourself).

5) Be a facilitator. You know what you’re interested in and maybe you’ve even delved into writing about it. But pretty quickly, you may find that have already you run out of stuff to say. That’s the perfect time to step aside and pull someone else in. Interview someone else for your blog. I started a blog called "Eco-Leadership" for Greenbiz.comfor the sole purpose of interviewing experts on things I wanted to learn more about. The funny thing is, the more you facilitate, the more you become an expert yourself!

6) Put links in your email signature. The other day I received an email from someone who offered links to FB, Twitter, Skype and his website – all at the bottom of his email. Obnoxious, maybe. Effective, absolutely. I'm trying this new idea out right here. Check out the link to my site at the bottom of this post!

7) Do it every day. This is the hard part. But like Rachelle said, “If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it.”

Becoming a person of influence takes dedication and discipline, but really any one of us can do it. If you have a God-given mission to change the world, there’s no more room for excuses (or so I keep reminding myself). Everything we need to make the difference is right at our fingertips. Kind of like my alarm clock. Looks like it’s time for my fingertips to quit hitting snooze. If anyone has any other tips for how to fit all this tribe-building into my daily schedule, I’d love to hear them!

Anna Clark is president of EarthPeople, a sustainability consulting firm. She is an author, speaker, and blogger on green living and leadership. Anna lives in Dallas with her husband and two toddlers in one of the first LEED-certified Platinum residences in Texas. Visit www.annamclark.com for more on all things green.