Have you been voted off your ISLAND?

The Tribe has Spoken

What is your tribe saying?

BIG QUESTION: What if you were a part of a larger online community where you had such a high level of accountability to your fans, friends and followers that they could, essentially, vote you out of their group if you weren’t meeting their standards or if you did something to compromise their trust?

Pause. Now ponder that question for a minute while I explain the references in this post and the nature of my question.

SURVIVOR THE TV Show!

I love it when TV shows and pop culture lingo find their way into our everyday lives. The title of this post is a direct reference to the popularized show, Survivor, in which the small group of island inhabitants get to vote their least favorite castaway off the island at the end of the show. To speak thoroughly on the topic, this person may or may not be a weak player or have done anything wrong (other than posing a threat to other people trying to win the show).

Maybe some of you are still fans of this show and have watched it since it began back in 2000. I don’t even know what season they’re on now as I haven’t watched it since some former Navy Seal named Rudy was on the show. However, it’s a pretty good “reality” show and has stood the test of time as far as how long these types of shows tend to last. More importantly, I thought that the show’s premise was a good backdrop for some discussion about online accountability to our people.

So to finish painting this picture for you in order to draw a comparison to what we do as artists, the end of each show goes like this.

Each tribe member casts their vote for the person they want to send home. The losing tribe member (the one with the most votes) then gets his or her torch extinguished and they must leave the island right away.  Immediately preceding the loser walking into the darkness of the jungle and into oblivion, the show host says something like “the tribe has spoken” and then it cues to some dramatic music, of course.

So there’s a REVIEW. Now back to THE QUESTION at hand.

What if life online was like Survivor? What if our online tribes had this kind of power? Better yet, what if we empowered them to be able to help us stay the course and stay true to our work? Or what if we allowed them to hold us to the standards we professed to live by?

You might think this type of scenario seems a bit extreme–that you and your work could or should be under such scrutiny. But remember that me even posing this concept puts my neck on the proverbial chopping block, too.

I beg the point that the pursuit of developing a community like this very well should be the heartbeat of every good marketer?

So what might a “Survivor” model blog or an online community look like, you say?

Let’s play this out in a realistic scenario. It would be a place where the following things could be true:

1. We tell the truth to our readers as we see it flowing from our own life experience.
2. People have the freedom to respectfully share their opinions about us and our work.
3. We tell people what we’re about and live transparently.
4. If we do something that we said we weren’t going to do then our tribe has the right to call us out on it and raise an issue.
5. Our loyal constituents can interact with us on a personal level and may even help shape some of our content by expressing their preferences.
6. People in our communities feel like they are a part of a special team of insiders who get access to content and art that makes their world better.
7. There are rewards to be had for making it through different challenges, sharing stories & ideas and reaching milestones.
8. It is a place where we can champion our fellow tribe member’s projects and applaud collective success.
9. Community members could even filter out other members who may not be living up to the right tribal standards of conduct and call those individuals to give account for their actions or to exit the island (metaphorically speaking, of course).
10. Adventures can be expected as the social landscape changes for the community site and we discover new places & interests and experience things together.
11. Members start to form their own tribes (spin-offs) as they are inspired by us and by one another to pursue their passions with excellence.

Does this sound like a place you’d like to be or something you’d like to build? This is the sort of community model that I desire to be a part of.

I think you should consider what your ideal community would look like. Every community might look a little different but to each one the artist has a big responsibility. So here’s a few ending thoughts and questions.

• What is your ideal design for your community?
• What kind of people would you like to join your online tribe?
• What would an action list look like that could help you build this?

Answer these three questions and you might be ready to make some new changes. I’m ready. Will you join me?

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear any thoughts you might have. Let the community voice be heard….drew

Advertisement