New Tribes Book from Seth Godin

If you’re a fan of Seth Godin, you’ve undoubtedly heard some of the buzz around his latest book – “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us.”

Here’s his synopsis of the book:

“It argues, as clearly as I am capable, that leadership is the best marketing tactic to any organization–a company, a school, a church, a job seeker.

Our role today is to find, connect and lead tribes in order to make change happen.”

I haven’t read it yet, but I wanted to outline some of the pre- and post-launch marketing activity. I thought it was pretty clever.

1. In July, he invited readers to join a “members-only” tribe for marketers and leaders.

It was an exclusive announcement – only readers of the blog would know about the invite, and you could only join if you pre-ordered his book. Seth reminds us, “It’s not about selling more books, of course, it’s about creating a small hurdle to get the right people in the door.”

Check out the announcement here.

2. He then used this community group (on Ning) to create a free, downloadable ebook discussing the very topic of his new book.

Coming in at 240 pages, it’s a collection of thoughts about leadership and tribes, covering every topic imaginable.

Download the ebook here (PDF), and read the blog post announcing it.

Here are some of my favorite “tribe stories” so far – I’ll post the rest when I finish it in 2025.

Community Tools Do Not Create Communities

Saying ‘we need community features!’ is like looking at a building and saying ‘it needs more concrete!’ Community features, AJAX, streaming media (remember the fuss over streaming media?) are all just fancy new pieces of the infrastructure.
– Tamara Adlin

Traditional Taekwondo at Chun’s Black Belt Academy

There is a lesson to be learned from Chun’s Black Belt Academy: a goal-oriented tribe is better off in an environment controlled and managed by a masterful leader, one who doesn’t require his tribe to do anything that he is not prepared to do himself.

Surfers

Their leader is the ocean. The sea is a living thing, powerful, moody, globally influential. More surfers than you might think go out even when the waves are trivial, to paddle, or just to sit and contemplate. They connect with their leader. For some surfers, it’s a good day just to be in the water, in contact.
– Tom Bently

The iPhone Hackers Tribe: Determined to “Unlock!”

“Jailbreak,” “unlock,” and “activate” became the new tribal lingo for the iPhone hacking tribe. These terms became the default language by which the tribe communicated with the rest of the world. The tribe of iPhone hackers were all collaborating toward one essential goal: to hack the iPhone. But it didn’t stop there. As Apple began releasing new updates that “bricked” any hacked iPhone, the tribe of hackers was further challenged to come up with a new hack every time.
– Dr. Saleh AlShebil

3. Lastly, check out the Squidoo lens for more info on the book and the idea.

There are a ton of good links to more information on the book, the event, tactics from the book, and more. Check them out here or use the widget links below. Enjoy.