Loving and Respecting Your Tribe
There was a LOT of emotion flying (105 comments or so at last glance) on Charlie Gilkey’s Productive Flourishing blog about a post by Marissa Bracke called Launch Fatigue and How Not to be an Infomercial. The title says it all, but opinionated folks chimed in with their feelings (or lack thereof) about the “inner marketing circle” (big names like Darren, Naomi, Brian, Danielle, Chris, Pam, etc.), being pitched to all the time, and being ignored when you are not a “big name”.
Kudos to Marissa and everyone else for bravely stating their points.
Here are my feelings about how to treat your tribe, no matter how whack they are:
1. Don’t disguise a pitch as a newsletter every 2-3 issues. I sign up for newsletters, not sales letters. It is ok if you tell me about your new product once or twice in the newsletter (in fact, I want you to!), but do NOT make the newsletter a pitch on a routine basis.
2. Ask your subscribers how often they want to hear from you and respect that. They can always find you if they want more. Colleen Wainwright is brilliant at being restrained with her newsletter. Jeannette is great at not hitting you over the head with products for sale, but letting you know just the same.And she is PROFOUNDLY generous. It has paid of with a huge, loyal tribe.
3. If you aren’t monitoring Twitter activity about you (ha ha ha ha), then you should be. And when you see someone really promoting you, especially if they have enlisted your services or purchased your product, DO follow them in return. I can’t believe I even have to say this.
4. If someone emails you, especially if they’ve asked if you’d consider accepting a guest post or if you’d look over something, it is totally ok NOT to do it. But you should acknowledge receipt of the attachment with a brief “thanks, but…”.
5. If you’ve offered your product to affiliates, respond to EVERYONE who asks to be an affiliate, even if you feel their pond is too tiny.
6. Pick a follower you believe in and promote the hell out of them in return for no reason except it is simply good karma. Do this frequently. Occasionally accept an interview request from someone with a small following and help them build it!
7. Ask non-affiliates to review your products and accept bad reviews graciously. If you are reviewing a product that you are an affiliate of, let us know (and it is the law-Randi says so).
I highly recommend that everyone read each and every one of the comments on Charlie’s blogs about Marissa’s post if you are considering a launch of everything. And, remember, you don’t have to just launch e-books and you don’t have to tweet the hell out of much of anything if you have cared for your tribe. Kelly Diels, who I adore and follow religiously, slipped in a new business opportunity at the bottom of a blog post. In the end, I (HAPPILY) bought a (KILLER) consulting session with her and Dave Doolin.
Treat your tribe well. Keep listening to them. They will reward you with fervor!
10 Responses to “Loving and Respecting Your Tribe”
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Hey- I loved what you wrote on Marissa’s blog post and I love what you write here! This isn’t that hard and is really great when people do this thing right! Awesome!
Thanks, Kelly, for compiling this list. While so many people only saw complaints, there have been plenty of great suggestions for how to do exactly as you say – love and respect your tribe.
Interestingly, as things have developed for me, I can say that it’s surprisingly hard to follow everyone who supports what I do. It’s even worse when Twitter somehow unfollows people you’ve followed. Imagine my embarrassment when good friends ask me why I’m not following them when I sent them DMs just a few days earlier.
And, really, Colleen, Jeannette, Randi, and Kelly? You apparently know how to find great people. Or maybe they find you. :p
Ah, you are kind. I think it was such an important conversation! Yes, I know that it can be tricky managing Twitter and I certainly don’t recommend following everyone. But you know the folks I’m talking about. However, I was NOT aware that Twitter (amongst its other issues) was accidentally unsubscribing people. EEE GADS. This is why every online supastah needs a killer online business manager-to keep up with these details!
Hi Bridget! I’m glad you’re here! Was that not a killer post? (NOT mine-Marissa’s). So important to keep the communication open. If you poke around on the blog you will see an amazing interview with Jeannette Maw. She has really done this right from the beginning. I don’t think it was ever about numbers or money for her, but about really interacting with and supporting a group of people on their journey. I want to do more…
amen! thank you for stating the facts so clearly and giving really great guidelines that line up with my values. it’s a list i’ll be coming back to, to keep me on track as i begin planning my launches. thanks for sharing this thoughtful and useful post. in my interview with kelly, i was struck by how powerful the internet can be to create real, authentic and respectful relationships. the points you share are great guideposts to help you do this!
So very glad you are here! I love your bio… a hodge podge of things that you are clearly passionate about! It might interest you to know that, while I’m not a doula, I was the administrative manager for DONA International for a long time! Love my doulas…
oh that’s so great! i love working with healer types myself. i think of artist and activists and writers as healer types too…they just each use different tools:-)
Hi Kelly
I’ll be reading the posts you mention & link to, because I somehow missed them. Even without having read them yet, this is an excellent list, and thank you for writing it.
One of the reasons I stopped using Centerpointe’s Holosync product was because of the relentless sales pitching. Not clever: how to lose customers, bit of a shot-in–the-foot there.
Josie
Josie´s last blog ..Pilgrim: A journey to an experience of wholeness