I was browsing through the NLB app after reading Platform when I saw this. I figured that it was close enough, since Tribes is about influencing a group of people and Platform is about connecting to the right group of people, so I borrowed it.

Recap: I’m reading about marketing because one of my job roles involve coming up with, and writing blogposts for my company and I’m trying to see what I can propose that will add value.

Tribes is a pretty short book about the value of leading tribes. Tribes are group of people who connect over a topic and leaders of tribes help the members connect to each other. Towards the end, the book talks about the five things you need to create a movement, which I thought was the most concrete advice in the book. The five things are:

1. A manifesto to unite the tribe
2. A way for people to connect with you
3. Making it easy for followers to connect with each other
4. Realise that money is not the point
5. Track your progress

This book was pretty short, but I think it could have been even shorter. A lot of it felt like it was repeating the point that tribes are important and leading one is a great way to create change. Perhaps it’s because I bought into the idea pretty quickly, so a lot of the book felt superfluous. Perhaps it would have been more effective as a manifesto?

Still, this was a good reminder that building a community is important. I’m still looking for tips on how to do that, but at least I know that I should be focusing on communication, both within the group and with the company.