Seth Godin’s New Book Tribes Inspires a New Kind of Marketing Leadership

In Seth Godin’s latest book, Tribes, he makes his usual attack on traditional thinking, this time on leadership. He describes how the internet makes it it easier than ever to build a tribe, or a following, around your business or your personal brand. Tools such as blogs and Twitter make it easier to attract people who are interested in what you have to say.

I think when people follow you by reading your blog or following you on Twitter, it builds powerful relationships with individuals who are more likely to buy your product or hire you to work for them. One example of this is the Obama campaign, which used Twitter to communicate with over a hundred thousand loyal followers. Obama’s campaign was able to utilize this relationship to their passionate followers to spread a message and encourage action, such as getting people to register to vote.

Seth argues that real leaders create change by challenging the status quo. He points out that our society works hard to prevent change but a lot of the best growth occurs when you’re not like most people. One of the most interesting insights that Godin makes is that a company can have a religion, not in the spiritual sense but rather as it relates to a set of practices that are followed because that’s the way things have always been done. Heretics are those that challenge the religion of the company and push for a new religion. A good leader is able to fight the social forces to keep things the same and lead change that will lead to growth. The creator of the Big Mac, was a franchise owner who broke the rules and created one of the most successful products in the company’s history. Being a heretic is not easy, but Seth says that is exactly what we need right now.

The book was heavy on inspiration and pretty light on substance, but I think the message is an important one. This is especially true when technological advances, demographic shifts, and global issues are rapidly changing the business environment. Companies can no longer settle for what has worked in the past, but must change their “religion” in order to adapt to the the changing landscape.