Seth Godin talks a lot about tribes – an idea not so different from a swarm. A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.  A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate. Members of a tribe contribute to and take from like-minded people.  Tribes used to be local, but now the internet eliminates geography and crosses boundaries. This makes tribes bigger, more influential, and potentially more diverse.

With choice expanding faster than the speed of light, consumers are less and less interested in an off the shelf solution; and more and more interested in finding something they can believe in.  What ties them together in the hunt for that solution is not geography and not the limits of the marketplace. They pursue an idea, and are brought together by leadership that believes what they believe. And they are willing to do something about it, but need a focus for their collective energy. Create a movement, not a product – and you will be leveraging more power than your own.

Marketing has always been the act of telling stories about the things that we make. But now more than ever, marketing is about engaging with the tribe and co-creating – not just delivering, but co-creating products and services with stories that spread because they grow naturally out of the needs of a group and are developed as a solution for the group.

Seth Godin talks on his blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/, about the power of finding the 1,000 people that are in your tribe. The ability to find and organize 1,000 people, he says, is a breakthrough opportunity. One thousand people coordinating their actions is enough to make significant change.

• 1,000 people willing to spend $250 to attend a day-long seminar gives you the leverage to invite just about anyone you can imagine to fly in and speak.
• 1,000 people voting as a bloc can change local politics forever.
• 1,000 people willing to try a new type of service gives you the ability to make project successful.

 “What’s difficult? What’s difficult is changing your attitude. Instead of speed dating your way to interruption, instead of yelling at strangers all day trying to make a living, coordinating a tribe of 1,000 requires patience, consistency and a focus on long-term relationships and life time value. You don’t find customers for your products. You find products for your [tribe].”

Does that 1,000 number seem insurmountable? Realize, then, that you can get to the 1,000 people by finding first the 100. And if you follow that logic further, you can get to the 100 by finding the 10. We used to call these champions; but building a tribe requires more interaction than that. If you find 10 people with tribes of their own that can commit to making your tribe work, and they are willing to engage with you, they will bring their tribes to the task. And so on.