In this talk at TED, again from some time ago, Seth Godin adds weight to the argument that push marketing has had its day – he’s promoted the idea of tribes (the title of one of his books) as being the way to go for brands in the connected world we are in.
In the talk he suggests that social networking technology has helped tribes form easily around niche interests and galvanize themselves into creating change - sometimes on a world scale.
He gives examples of how change can happen from Al Gore to Tom Shoes (in the interesting places column on this blog).
Status quo challenging ideas from leadership thinking, that become stories or big ideas that a person or a brand stands for are necessary. Then it's harness tribes to create a movement and create change individuals couldn’t achieve by themselves.
But thanks to these times of internet connectivity, it seems like power to the fans of ideas that create a better way, is gaining on the power of the mass mindset.
Another good case in point showing the influence of the internet and the power of social networks, is in this two minute extract of a talk given by Scott Thomas, which I found on Coolhunting.com.
Scott designed Obama's digital campaign. Instead of just having people ordering campaign merchandise online, people were able to download Obama branded assets so they could create merchandise of their own.
Net result; Obama's vision of getting people more involved in the political process is achieved - and from involvement comes commitment, which leads to loyalty, and then advocacy, towards the nirvana of customers as brand fans - resonators and zealots and the best marketing machine a brand could wish for.
Here's an image from Seth Godin's TED talk.
