Blogging can be quite a solitary pursuit. Although you have the ability to interact with sometimes thousands of people at the touch of a button. Most of us write away on our laptops and send our posts out into the world. What happens after that is largely beyond our control.
I believe that to be a successful blogger you need a blogging tribe.
So what is a blogging tribe?
There are so many tribes in life, your work tribe, hobby tribe, your family, the list goes on. Basically a tribe is a group of people sharing the same niche/interests. For the purpose of this post I am talking about a blogging tribe.
Your tribe is a small group of like minded individuals who are your biggest supporters, and you theirs. All tribe members should be on a par with each other, rather than competing against each other.
You might have 10k twitter followers, but you’re really only getting engagement from your true fans. Those who are tuned into you and the rest is just padding. Within your true fans may well be potential tribe members.
The people in your tribe will share your posts for you and they will be regular commenters on your blog. You and your tribe members will develop a friendship that’s mutually beneficial.
Together we are stronger
A tribe works best when people are fully engaged and committed to each other. This is easier when the numbers are quite small. Imagine if you had a group of twenty people and you had to stop by commenting, sharing the content of all of these people. You would probably run out of time to write and share your own posts. So a good number would be below six give or take. You can of course belong to as many tribes as you like, but you must ensure you have the time to invest in order to benefit the most.
Check out what Seth Godin thinks about tribes.
Finding/Creating your own tribe
So you like the idea of a tribe, a group to support and promote each other.
Now how do you find one?
- Chat to people on social media. Do you have people on Twitter, for example, with whom you chat regularly to and that you share the same goals? You could ask them if they would like to work with you.
- Talk about your blog to friends. A lot more people write a blog than you realise. Talk to people about your blog and you never know who else might have one.
- Blog conferences and meet ups. These are a great way to connect and meet people in real life. So they could be a place to start to form a tribe.
- Facebook groups. There are lots of blogging Facebook groups and you might well find like minded people in one of those.
- Collaborative projects. Collaborating with other bloggers is a great way to build relationships and start creating a tribe. You could run a linky together, do charity work, guest post for each other or even start a joint blog.
When you have a tribe? What’s next?
- Support – The most important thing you can do for your tribe members is to support them. Be a sounding board or even a shoulder to cry on, but be available to them. If you’re in the right tribe, this will be reciprocated.
- Share – Share your knowledge, as well as sharing their work.
- Be Honest – Be honest with your tribe, can you see something they could improve on? Can you help them do so?
- Celebrate – Praise each other and celebrate each other’s successes. We all need a pat on the back sometimes.
- Recommend – Recommend each other for opportunities that come your way or recommend the content from your tribe to others.
- Collaborate – You could collaborate on a project, a series or even a competition.
I’m so lucky to belong to a couple of small tribes and a larger tribe in the form of my blogging niche. Do you have a tribe? How did you find each other?
