So, what are tribes?
Tribes, a social group of people who are connected to each other through a shared idea or interest – often situated outside or rejecting mainstream culture – and who thrive on a necessity to form social bonds and have face-to-face relationship.
This is the theory of tribalism as made by anthropologist Paul James, who describes the idea of tribes as a reciprocal relationship between groups of people with a strong bond to a place and/or environment and often having some type leader or follower.
The fundamental basis is a pretty easy to fathom notion. Every day we see and come in to contact with individuals who display strong tribal characteristics. They could be anyone from the suited businessmen who commute into London every day, to the gangs of urban hipsters who appear to hangout outside trendy cafés every day.
In fact we ourselves will all in some way be part of one or more tribes.
The two I just so happened to mention are the main tribes that I come into contact with while on my journey into work.
Whilst it would be pretty difficult to find two more different groups of people, they both show a strong sense of unity, a well formed common identity and are as much identifiable through their community as they are as individuals.
How does social media fit into this?
One of the major criticisms of social media is that it’s disconnecting us, as individual, from society and real physical interactions.
Sherry Turkle debates this subject in her Ted Talk ‘Connected, but Alone’. Initially overjoyed by the idea of technology as a new way of communicating with one another, she saw social networking as a way to help how we live and communicate in the physical world. She then goes on to say that social networking has now overtaken real connections, and we currently only have the illusion of connectivity.
At the heart of her argument is the idea that communication via social media is not an authentic form of conversation, and is inferior to face-to-face communication.
This suggests that one of the key attributes for all tribes is being diluted, and therefore by default tribes are as well.
However whether they’re communicating via a computer or to someone’s face, the need for connectivity and the act of communication is still ever-present. In fact Robin Dunbar argues that the Internet has amplified our ability to communicate as we can now do it 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and on a global level.
If a fundamental part of tribalism is communication and connectivity then social media arguably holds unlimited bounds for tribes.
Mumsnet for instance has completely changed how we view mums as a social group. While marketers and advertisers may have seen them as a target market, they probably never thought they would be an ever-connected all-powerful tribe who could even make politicians quiver in their boots.
What happens when these tribes band together?
One of the significant changes with tribes converging online is their ability to unite together against opposition.
Recently an Independent columnist wrote a damming piece about Beauty vlogger and tribe leader Zoella. The response that followed was a huge digital attack against the columnist for her piece, ranging from mere disagreements to full blown threats.
The tribe that currently follows Zoella stands at over 6.5 Million on YouTube alone. That is no measly tribe, and the case with the Independent columnist shows that they are also not a tribe to be taken lightly.
But as well as this it shows that even though the tribe is almost entirely based in cyberspace there is still a very close connection between these people, probably more so than some of the relationships we have in the physical world.
What has this changed for brands?
Seth Godin proclaims that the major change with the induction of social networking is that advertisers and marketers can no longer merely push content onto the public and expect that people will merely buy the product.
We expect brands to not just satisfy our consumer demands, but to satisfy our need for connections or at the very least be listening to our conversations.
For many brands this offers the chance to constantly be in connection with the conversation of the 20% consumer base who make up the 80% of sales, whilst also being able to make people be ‘raving fans’ of fanatics before they are even customers.
GoPro are masters at this. GoPro hunt throughout the Internet for user-generated content that they can share on their social media channels. The subsequent effect of this is that it encourages more GoPro users to upload their content to the Internet as there is always a chance they could be seen by the millions of GoPro enthusiasts on Facebook.
These people are no longer merely consumers, but an integral part of the brand’s identity. In this manner GoPro has created a ‘real’ notable tribe online who do communicate with the brand and one another.
However…
While it may seem great that brands can be tribe leaders, social networking can cause real problems. The main issue being is that all of sudden everyone can make their voice be heard, and they will.
The reveal of the Xbox One in May 2013 shows how a brand tribe can quickly turn against their leader.
The game console did not live up to the expectation of many of the Xbox 360 fanatics, who went on to lampoon the brand for creating something that was subpar and inferior to the product being produced by their main competitor. The consequent affect has been that the new Xbox is way down on sale figures compared to Sony’s PlayStation 4.
To sum it all up…
The actual nature of tribes is still fundamentally the same. It’s still important to communicate within a group based around a shared interest and/or idea.
What has changed with the rise of social media is the amount of niche tribes that we can and do have. We have recognisable tribes based around anything from Breaking Bad to local sandwich shops.
These tribes might have anything from a million people to ten people.
For brands this has allowed them to create a relationship with their consumers and followers, and be at the centre of their very own tribe. However it also means that brands also have to service the demands of their consumers/fans.
Brands can’t just tell the mums of Britain that they have the best toy on the market for their daughters, because they know they’ll be straight on to Mumsnet finding out from more trusted sources real details about the product.
