So you’re wondering how to go about building a tribe so you can sell people on joining your membership site. But there’s a practical consideration: Is tribe the same as community?
It seems like a trivial distinction, but understanding the ins and outs of communities versus tribes can help you fine-tune your copywriting, and how you go about marketing your business.
Is Tribe the Same as Community?
No, a tribe is not exactly the same as a community. While similar, tribes go over and above a typical community because they include leadership, a strong degree of member interaction, a strong degree of emotional commitment to the group or to the leader, and a high degree of enthusiasm over the group’s focus.
Note that all tribes are communities, but not all communities are tribes. If presented as a Venn diagram, the tribe circle would fit inside the community circle.
Core Aspects of Communities
The concept of “community” is a bit more relaxed than that of tribe. Communities have at their center a commonality bringing all community members together. This could be as simple as being a student at a university, or living in a neighborhood.
Community members are not always designated as members not by a burning desire to be a part of something, but simply by sharing some involvement in a focus area.
Consider the University Student example. University students are considered community members of their university because they attend school at their given university. Not all students like their school, are interested in their area of study, being there, meeting with others, and there can be a wide variety of opinions shared about topics related to attending their school.
We consider university students to be community members simply by attending a particular school.
Likewise, people living in your neighborhood are considered community members not by some burning love for their neighborhood or passionate involvement in living there, but simply by the act of living together in the community.
Core Aspects of Tribes
The concept tribe is a bit more intense than that of the concept community. Tribes designate communities where there is leadership and intense devotion to their community and community’s area of focus, and members tend to be fairly cohesive in thought and behavior – at least having to do with their community’s focus.
While university students don’t constitute a tribe, Grateful Dead fans certainly do. The Grateful Dead is a niche rock band that toured around the USA for years, followed by devoted fans, called “Deadheads,” who loved their music.
The Deadhead community has leaders (even apart from the band itself), an intense devotion to the band, and members tended to have very cohesive thoughts and behavior around the band… wearing t-shirts, buying cassette tapes & CDs, putting up posters at home, etc. This behavior is emblematic of the whole tribe phenomenon.
The band Nirvana had something similar, before Kurt Cobain’s demise. While there was no official name for the tribe, Cobain was the clear (and reluctant) leader. Fans bought all their albums, knew all the songs, lined up to go to their concerts, and even tried to dress like the band. There was some intense love for the band, and all of this helped constitute their fans as a tribe.
Leverage Tribes For Marketing Success
Is tribe the same as community?
No.
And marketers who can leverage tribes will see long term success. If you can build a tribe around your business, you will have loyal followers and a stable income for years.
The question is how to do that. Certainly personality – yours – helps, but so does having a unique and appealing offer in your niche.
We were able to do this with Net Net Hunter, which has led to 15+ years of great earnings.
Read next: Can I Create My Own Tribe?
