Guest blog by Maria Hilden, Business Development Manager with a background in communications and public relations. She blogs at mariahilden.blogspot.com.
Why do people of highly diverse backgrounds connect online? The notion of ‘tribe’ is the predominant way to convey what social connectivity online is all about. It cannot stand alone, however. Indeed, a preoccupation with online tribes obscures a range of opportunities for companies and organizations to connect with and engage individual stakeholders and threatens to leave obvious business opportunities unexploited.
Tribes
The notion of ‘tribe’ elucidates how people gather online around shared interests and preferences. The word ‘tribe’ itself connotes strong in-group ties, stable group belonging and group longevity (born an Apache die an Apache, once a Coca-Cola fan always a Coca-Cola fan). Also, it suggests well-defined demarcations between tribes (either you’re in, or, you’re out).
The notion is accompanied by the understanding that companies and organizations can support already existing stakeholder tribes and/or initiate and facilitate the formation and maintenance of new tribes. It also suggests that once a company or organization has identified its online tribes it can map out how it intends to tie these tribes ever closer to company products, services and brands.
Now, what if tribes and tribe belonging aren’t as stable as all that? And what if tribe ‘engineering’ isn’t as straightforward as suggested? We need to take a closer look at social connectivity and group belonging from the perspective of the individual.
Fluidity
We all have multiple social identities – online as well as offline. It depends on the situation which identity and corresponding group belonging is predominant. When travelling abroad it’s relevant to think of myself as a Dane and as belonging to the group – or tribe, if you like – of Danes. Not so when studying Nike’s homepage. In the latter context my identity as jogging female and my affinity with other female joggers might predominate. My identity as activist looking for indications of child labour might also be relevant for me in relation to Nike’s products and brand, however.
What we see here is the situational or contextual character of identity and group belonging (we slip in and out of our various identities and corresponding groups depending on the situation at hand). We also note that a stakeholder may relate to a company, organization or brand in several capacities (jogger, activist and more). Some refer to this phenomenon as fluid identity.
The way forward
Online identity and group belonging isn’t as stable nor tribe engineering as straightforward as implied by the notion of tribe. That is clear by now. The concept of fluidity, however, gives us a handle on the complexity of social connectivity online. The concept enables us to recognize and act on the different ways in which a company, organization or brand is relevant to individual stakeholders. Thus, it allows us to explore and exploit the whole range of opportunities to connect with, engage and do business with the stakeholder.
The notion of tribe remains as the ideal goal of stakeholder community engineering. Obviously, the closely knit and enduring online community consisting of highly loyal individuals is what we strive to achieve when supporting existing stakeholder groups or initiating and facilitating new ones. In the meantime we had better connect with and engage stakeholders both on the group (tribal) and individual level.
Afterthought: It may prove profitable – in all meanings of the word – to consider the idea of fluid segmentation. Fluid segmentation takes the individual customer’s needs, interests and preferences – rather than predefined categories – as its starting point. It keeps us focused on the various ways in which the company’s products, services and brands may be relevant to individual customers at different times. Online business platforms, traffic tracking and business intelligence make it possible to employ fluid segmentation in a cost-efficient manner.
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