Recently, I was in a conference in Las Vegas, speaking about the ” Social Media – Taboos & Innovative Uses”. The focus was to help professional women of different ethnic backgrounds understand how technology, specifically social media, help or hinder their personal and professional development. Though they all understood that these days you cannot afford to ignore social media as one of the key ways in which companies and individuals communicate, there was this FEAR of it as well.

Continue Reading my post on Active Garage: Social Media and Tribes #9: The fear factor

A recent report from Nielsen Company demonstrated that more and more Americans are spending time on Social Networks. Share of US internet time spent on social networking is 22.7% which clearly dominates the time (as highlighted in the list above) of where users spend their time online. There is an increase of 43% from 2009, which clearly indicates that it is no more an activity embraced by early adapters but now is part of the main stream population.

Continue Reading my post on ActiveGarage and check out the list: Broadcasting to intimate social circles

More and more, I am observing that people are denouncing Twitter and there is an emerging war between the “For” and “Against” parties. Most recently, retired basketball star Sir Charles (Barkley), on a CNBC replay said that, “people who use Twitter are idiots”. Well! it is these statements that categorize people into “those who have a life” and “those who don’t have a life”.

I am not here to say what is “Right” and what is “Wrong”. I am here to illustrate what Twitter can provide if leveraged strategically.

# Using Twitter is about reciprocation. You need to promote other people who work at companies you’re targeting and business leaders you respect. If you are looking for a job, the best way is to help people in companies that you are interested in. This is possible by sending a email newsletter to your network, a Re-Tweet along with a link to their website. This will eventually have a better reciprocation if you ask them help with your initiative.

# Using Twitter is about connection – Continue Reading this post on Active Garage – Social Media and Tribes- Is Twitter doomed to fail?

Tribes do not include everyone… or in other words, not everyone forms a tribe. It is constituted of people who care about a specific topic or interest or looking to bring a specific change. Real change comes from real people – who then influence others – who, in turn influence others.. .and before you know you have a tribe!

Tribe is needed to change the world. And Changing the world is addictive.

Social Media can be overwhelming but it has created a tremendous opportunity for anyone to be a leader. There is no test to pass, no permission needed. Before you needed millions of dollars to get on Television. NOW you need ten dollars to create a video. So, if you care about something, you can get up and lead.

If you are someone who wants to change the world, you will continue reading this post because you still need to understand how to gain advantage using social media and not get simply distraught by its demands. The understanding involves:

Continue Reading my post on ActiveGarage: Social Media and Tribes #6: Changing the world is addictive

I have been to many conferences and people often tell me that they are extremely scared of Facebook as it has the potential to tarnish your professional identity. But who would have thought that it will become a force for people who are searching for jobs. There has been a lot of talk about recession and unemployment. But the fact is that 90% people are still employed and social media has reduced the time needed to build really effective relationships.

Two myths about social media and career:

Myth #1: It is about sitting behind a computer:
This is NOT the case. It is a tool to build relationships and take it offline to build stronger relationships.

Myth #2: It can hurt your reputation
This is NOT always the case. You can actually be strategic and craft a reputation that fits your career goals.

How can you create a career by being social by intention?

Continue Reading my article at on Active Garage under the series: Social Media and Tribes : Social by Intention

What is a Tribe?

A group of 20-150 people. In these tribes most of our work get done. Naturally occurring groups.

What is Tribal Leadership?

The leader of one tribe meets someone who is a member of one tribe and find someone of another tribe and make introductions. That is what great Tribal leaders do.

People form tribes – they always have and they always will. But not all tribes are the same and what make them different is their Culture.

How people behave?

People behave based on how they see the world. If they see the world as a unfriendly place, they will behave unfriendly and isolated. But the good news is if they see the world as friendly and collaborative SO will they BE.

How does culture shape the Tribe?

* Level 1 – You are in a dumb culture, and people in such cultures stay dumb and live together. You succumb to your circumstances and you feel life is horrible and powerless.

* Level 2 – You are an elite – You see yourself as an expert and NOT others. This is where we become sarcastic, resentful because you only value your contribution and NOT the contributions of others. This leads to the creation of an environment where there is no acknowledgment and bitterness reigns.

Continue Reading the article on my series Social Media and Tribes on ActiveGarage: Tribal Leadership

Tribes today have shifted to multiple affinity tribes. For instance, professional tribes, social identity tribes, etc. People move into and out of tribes online…..for work, fun, and play!

Herd mentality implies a fear-based reaction to peer pressure which makes individuals act in order to avoid feeling “left behind” from the group. Herd mentality is also sometimes known as Mob mentality. A related idea is that groups which hang out together tend to stick up for each other. As can be seen on MySpace, FaceBook & Twitter, members of a tribe will work to promote each other.

The Classic Mob-Mentality

When we think about play, from Facebook to MySpace and now Twitter, Mafia-themed games have more or less taken over. Mobsters, a game created by development company Playdom, is the most popular application on MySpace’s platform. The mechanics of the tribes of this games involves that you can join a “mob” with friends on a specific social network on which the game has been built on. You can carry out missions, including “killing” other players in rival mobs, in order to earn points. Your activities are broadcast, via news feeds or Twitter posts, to your friends.

Tapping into Ego

Every tribe has ego associated to it. And that is why violence is a popular factor in making these games successful. When someone kills your character, you tend to avenge it forcefully and engage in missions that feed your ego. Similarly, the tribe derives special pleasure when they “get on the top” or “get recognized” (a.k.a. earn respect of your tribe) for some mission. This gives the biggest boost to your ego.

Social Tribes reinforce your beliefs

Continue to read my post on Active Garage to find out how social groups reinforce our existing beliefs: Social Media and Tribes #3: Mob mentality

Recently, I have been to many conferences where people are talking about how they have an email account that is just set up to receive garbage emails. One guess for the what are garbage emails. These are emails from marketers shoving their premier offers on you. Asking you to buy this OR that. And somehow they even get your work email and stuff starts showing up in your Work Inbox. And if you are an iPhone user like myself, you spend 5 minutes in the morning TRASHING garbage in your inbox.

What does this mean for the marketeer?

They are still using this fast dying technique to spread the word on something they want to market. They fail to realize that EMAIL has become a JOKE. And it is the user on the other end who is having the last laugh. Dumping it because there is no scarcity of such offers so there is no value they hold for him.

What does it mean for the career of the marketeer?

He is outdated and the technological advancements won’t stop. Email is DEAD. The newer web marketing is based on the foundation of TRUST with your Tribe.

So, how do we go about BUILDING Trust within our tribe.

Getting back to BASICS.

Tribes are a concept that has existed for a long time. Like as in the older times, cyber tribes are build on the people coming together, being authentic with each other and being in constant communication – which is nothing like the one way communication we see in email marketing.

A marketer who has mastered the ‘The art of building a tribe” is Lady Gaga. She doesn’t just sing and entertain. She has connected people on an emotional level and has developed a Gaga “tribe” through a story.

Here is how to build TRUST with your tribe:

Continue Reading my article at ActiveGarage: Social Media and Tribes #2: DEATH of Email; RISE of branded Tribes

My passion has always been Marketing and I believe it the corner stone of each business. With Marketing, the common belief, is that you can help spread the word and get more people interested in your services/products….RIGHT?

WRONG. Marketing helps you tell a story and a narrative that is compelling for the receiver.

Marketing is SELF promotion that cuts the NOISE. And the objective of SELF promotion is to increase REVENUE – make more money. But we spend too much time on strategy and miss out the small stuff that is needed to have a higher impact.

The objective is to find the best resource equipped to market the sort of services you have to offer, then give that person a good block of stock in your offers and tell him to go ahead and promote you! And OfCOURSE! we have met people who do not believe in SELF promotion.

Here are the dont’s OF SELF Promotion:

1. Self advancement cannot be built on bluff, fear or flattery! Only morons and nitwits like to be flattered. People who think resent all forms of flattery. Insult to their intelligence.

2. Avoid GREED and HIGH PRESSURE. If your motive to market is GREED – most likely it is visible to everyone EXCEPT YOU. Build a pleasant experience and people will come back for more.

3. CONNECTION COUNTS: INAUTHENTICITY DISCOUNTS: There is a connection to making a sale through marketing BUT hit or miss method where you are unaware of what matters to your target market, usually, misses. So, don’t just say why it is important for you CONSIDER speaking to why it is important to the target.

Let the show begin….

Media was designed to be an medium for the message of man. It was a way to broadcast a message to be able to connect with a community that might have interest in what you might have to stay. MOST importantly it was the extension of our Human Tribe. A Tribe which was based on interaction of the social community – where commerce was created through referrals, recommendations and participation. The objective was to tap into the intrinsic behavior of the TRIBE and most often people were motivated by certain social behaviors and NOT necessarily by money.

In traditional media, the idea was to blast something to everyone who had a device like TV, radio to receive it. These medium was designed to interrupt people like an ad within a TV program, a song on the radio or an article in the newspaper. It was an intrusive way of marketers to grab attention and shove their message. They wished that people will be touched by their message and will be moved into action to buy, refer or participate.

Here is the major issue with all of this, the media channels eventually took over the control of what will be printed. Newspaper won’t print anything you sent them. Sometimes, you have to advertise with huge sums of money to get a spot on TV, radio or newspaper. Over time, the power of community to share information over media got depleted. And the Human Tribe which was based on many-to-many communication was reduced to a DICTATOR model of one-to-many communication.

And then arrived social media, suddenly you could print anything on your blog, upload any video and even make your podcast on whatever you fancy. And media became TRIBAL. We were able to share our opinions, our businesses and our tribes.

Continue Reading my POST on ActiveGarage: Tribal behaviors 2.0