Author: Peter G McDermott

For the past few weeks I have been trying to better understand my audience on Google+. As an early adopter, I was fortunate to take the opportunity to grow a large audience. The people that have circled me are from all over the world, and I would be surprised if more than 50% of them spoke English.

For those that do speak English (or were able to translate), I created a Google Form to collect data to better understand my audience. This is something that businesses could easily do from time to time to poll their followers. In the survey I asked a few questions relating to peoples’ use of Google+ and what they typically enjoy seeing in their streams. The results were not shocking, but very interesting. Out of the first 245 surveys completed, here’s what people had to say.

For the first six questions I asked users to answer a question on a scale of 1-5 to see how they felt about certain things in their stream.

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How to engage your audience

Maybe your friend gave you an invitation to join Google+ before it was available publicly. Maybe you joined a few weeks ago and have been posting some very intriguing content. Either way, if you have had a lot of people “circling” you in the past few weeks or months then you are on your way to building a tribe.

What exactly is a tribe and why do I want one?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a tribe as: a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.

Let’s dissect this. First of all, in your tribe, you are probably the leader. In social media the purpose is to market a brand and promote that brand through successful interaction with your audience. In most cases, for us, you are the brand. The slice of the audience that is consistently reading and interacting with your content makes up your tribe.

Now, just in any socio-organization, it is important to remember certain members of your tribe, or organization. In the case of social media, and Google+ specifically, you probably have a few followers that consistently comment and re-share your posts. This is very desirable behavior for building your brand. Whether you are trying to educate your followers, market a product or make a point, having your words, photos and videos shared with people outside of your audience is a great compliment to your work.

Keep in mind that the people sharing your content are therein endorsing your content. I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of products out there that I wouldn’t feel comfortable endorsing. That tells me that the people that re-share my content have a firm belief that they stand by what I am saying, feel interested or compelled to share it with their followers. This is a conscious decision they are making.

How do you reward the important members of your tribe?

Maybe it’s a +mention, re-sharing some of their content, or interacting with their posts. Whatever it is you do, it is very important to recognize the people that have helped you build your brand and promote your content. Do you have a small project you can include them in? Are their opportunities for them to work within your brand? No matter how small, or how big, anyone that is active in engaging your content will surely be pleased by your recognition for their doing so.

In order to build a tribe, the leader of that tribe must have followers that respect him or her and members of the tribe that support that leader by engaging others. So, if you want to continue building your tribe, make sure you are offering compelling and relevant content (“I just flossed my teeth” could be considered informative, but unless you have a following of dental hygienists, you might not be reaching your audience effectively).

As you watch your tribe grow, make sure that you are actively engaging them, participating in their content and sharing their successes as well. If you stand on a soap box and keep yelling without paying attention to the questions being asked, the comments being made or recognizing the people sharing your message, you will betray your tribe and watch your following drop. The numbers may not disappear, but the engagement will slowly fade away.

What are you doing to build your tribe? What are you doing to celebrate the people sharing your content? How do you approach your most consistent content engagers? Do you have a plan?

Share your comments below and feel free to re-share this post with as many as you would like!

It used to be that the people you talked to online were totally anonymous. There was a time, and there still are places, where people communicate entirely under pseudonyms. Having conversations with your “online” friends was rarely interrupted by spending time with your “real” friends.

Enter social media.

Times are a’ changin’. No longer are we bound to communicating and sharing friendship within our local communities. Cities are losing their borders with their suburbs, countries are blurring their lines and people are interconnecting.

This is happening online as well as offline. Now we live in a culture when you can share a beer in a hangout with people from 4 different continents and then coffee in the morning with people from 3 others. Or, you could hangout with +will.i.am while he performs live in NYC to learn that one of the people doing the very same thing lives right in your neighborhood.

Location Isn’t Anything

It doesn’t matter where you live anymore. It’s changing the way people shop. It’s changing the way people communicate. The Internet is changing the way businesses seek talent.

If you don’t have a LinkedIn page yet, HR departments might not take a serious look at you. If you have a very niche hobby or talent, the Internet can put you in touch with people that share your interests better than you might find in your own small community.

The Internet is blurring borders and all of a sudden your “online” friends mean just as much to you as your “real” friends. Anyone that has attending SXSW will most likely tell you that they’ve made some of the best friendships in their lives in Austin, TX.

In Conclusion

So, as the digital cloud starts touching down on planet Earth we’re starting to live in what I call “The Fog” and that’s a great thing. I wanted to share with you probably the BEST piece of GMail I’ve ever received in my life and tell you that social networking, with a little time invested, can create some of the strongest bonds, friendships, conversations and opportunities. But, you have to put yourself out there, engage your audience, and most importantly, interact.

Happy Holidays, +Zach Eggert!