Anyone who follows me knows that I believe in being real. I do not promote automated conversations, tweeting, or auto direct messages etc.
Those that hang with me know I believe in the power of community. The power of helping individuals achieve success. As a team we can achieve more than we can as individuals.
With the focus on influence scores, blog ranking and the need to make money to pay the bills, it's easy to get caught up in the numbers. Just as I wrote the other day, we can easily get lost in the number of Google+ circles, plusses, follows and likes.
We talk about the power of people yet we focus on ourselves.
I have a story to share with you about what one may consider a social media “tool”. To me it is much more. It challenged me from day one to put my action where my mouth is in regard to helping others.
Triberr is:
Triberr provides a platform for bloggers to join as a group (a tribe). Within the tribe the bloggers content can be automatically or manually tweeted by tribe members. Triberr will time the tweets throughout the day so as not to over consume your Twitter timeline.
Triberr is founded by Dan Cristo and Dino Dogan who have a heart to help “the little guy”. They want to help new bloggers get over the biggest hurdle, which is getting their content read! You can learn more about Triberr here or here on their blog.
My Triberr story
I received an invitation from Michael Brennar a few months back asking me to join his tribe. Trusting Michael, I immediately checked it out and joined his tribe.
Woah! Within minutes my tweet stream was sending auto tweets. And of course, Murphy's Law, the first post caused an uproar with my followers because of a controversial title.
Being the type-A person that I am I immediately jumped on the Triberr blog to learn more. I was in somewhat panic mode and thought oh no, what have I done!?
I chimed into an ongoing blog discussion about how to pick the right tribe mates. I of course vented by stating that it was important to select tribe members based on beliefs. My thinking was that the beliefs should be the same as mine.
Dino Dogan, one of the founders of Triberr immediately replied and challenged my thinking. We bantered back & forth a bit. I put the tribe on manual so that I could control what was sent to my stream.
I then went on my way, back to my busy self centered social life. I put my tribe on manual from there out and was very selective about what posts I tweeted. However, Dino's words stuck with me.
A couple weeks passed. I then started to see other members of Triberr such as Janet Callaway, Ruhani Rabin, Saul Fleischman , Michael Q Todd, Peg Fitzpatrick and more really engage in the platform.
A Twitter DM That Hit Home
Around the same time I also recvd a DM from Dino stating this…
“Happiness is like a butterfly, which when pursued is just beyond your grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you.”
Wow! Those words hit home. I was having a terrible day & it was exactly what I needed.
I drove to the gym and sat in my car for a few minutes to pray before heading inside. Within seconds a beautiful butterfly landed on my windshield. You can see a photo of the butterfly and read the full story here.
At that moment I knew God was trying to open my eyes to look past myself, look past the numbers. Look past what people might think of me if I sent a link to a blog post not written by a social rock star. I was seeking happiness in the wrong places. Happiness was right in front of me.
It was also at this moment Dino taught me there were hidden gems within my Twitter DM box. I have always complained about the spam auto DMs and have never paid much attention to DMs in general.
However, because of Dino's special butterfly DM, I started to dig thru the DMs. I found humble questions from my following who needed help. Requests to tweet an important blog post.
Remembering my blogging roots.
I thought back to the days I started. I can remember people like Mari Smith, Ken Banks of Social Net Daily, Guy Kawasaki, PR Daily, Michael Brenner & Brian Rice of B2C Community and the million others who helped put my blog on the map at least as a small dot! They included me in their circles, their tweets when I didn't even have a personal blog yet.
I appreciate the people who syndicate my content. People such as Robin Carey of Social Media Today and Brian Solis who linked to my content in his own posts that then got published on sites as credible as Fast Company. Technorati who invited me to blog in addition to numerous other news syndication sites and traditional media.
The fact is none of this would have ever happened had people not believed in me! Had people not supported and helped me. Had people not taken time to simply READ MY CONTENT!
I was not 100% practicing what I preach!
Wow! My eyes were open. I was talkin' the talk but not really walkin' the walk. Yes, I have focused on giving via content, tweet chats and more. However, I wasn't focused on the people trying to make their way onto the social map as much as I could be.
My Triberr adventures kick into high gear!
So as you can guess the story goes on in that I further engaged in Triberr.
I started to focus on putting action where my social mouth was. I was pleasantly surprised by the results. The more that I helped others with no expectation of return the more I received in ways that numbers simply cant count. I received messages from people thanking me for “changing their lives.” I even received one email stating I helped put food on their table for their family thanks to the the extra blog traffic and the leads the person had received! Love it!
I have met many awesome peeps along the way. I have discovered blogs and peeps I would never know otherwise. I was inspired by women of strength who hold on to every last moment as a beloved spouse suffers with Cancer. I have been delighted by givers such as Christian Hollingsworth who thinks of others long before himself. I met FunGeezer who adds a breath of fresh air to those who need to learn social media but just can't understand us crazy fast talkin' tweeters.
Having discovered these amazing people is a gift to me. They have touched my heart. They remind me why I am in business to begin with. They ARE the people we all talk about in our blog posts on connecting and relationships.
Just as anything in life, it takes time to invest in people. As I review my Triberr stream of blog posts and approve for tweeting only the posts which I think my audience will like I remember my tribe members are doing the same.
I consider it a blessing not an expectation if they so choose to tweet my content!
Yes, the numbers are rockin' too!
My blog traffic has hit record numbers continuously. Engagement is out the roof. Opt-ins to our email list is higher than ever. People are joining our other social platforms on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.
Triberr has extended my reach from 53k Twitter followers to over 5 million when you combine the folks that are sharing my posts with their following.
Because of the extended reach and readership we have secured numerous clients including several quite large ones on deck. The expanded business has enabled us to scale our back office development and grow exponentially quicker than we ever thought possible by this time as a startup business. Who woulda thunk!?
The Social Nuts Tribe & more…
I started my own tribe that is rockin! Yes, we have some social power houses in our tribe such as SocialNetDaily, Jeff Bullas, Mark Schaefer, Jamie Crager, Jessica Northey , Francisco Rasales, Jason Yormark, Kyle Lacy and more. However, we have some newbies. We have people with few followers but rockin' content. People like Kathi Kruse who is seriously rockin' the auto industry with amazing social content. Or how about Allison Aldridge Saur who I also worked with for 7.5 years at Sun Microsystems & is now following her dreams in helping eliminate the digital divide for native american tribes.
Quality of content is the entry requirement, not number of followers. I even invited Eric Wittlake who caused the first rumble in my Triberr tweet stream. He was one of the first I invited as he taught me so much. I love that fact that he challenges my thinking. I like that he has the guts to say what he feels and believes even if it does go against the norm. It reminds me of Dan Perez who does the same. Dan and I met during a banter on a tweet chat and grew our relationship from agreeing to both agree and disagree. Yes, he is also a member of our crazy social nuts tribe!
I also started a tribe for power women as well as one to support our #GetRealChat community. Each tribe will have a different focus and set of objectives. I'm also working with Dino and we are discussing some awesome ideas for partnerships.
Say what you want about Triberr, I am standing by them!
Their intentions are good. They have a vision to help the little guy. Yes the big guy benefits too but will benefit more if there is a genuine focus on others.
You Don't have to auto tweet. I have my tribes set on manual. This means that the tweet will not be sent until I manually approve the tweet. I review the blog posts and tweet good, quality content only.
I have been invited to numerous tribes. I joined only a few. I left a few that were focused only on numbers.
Will you see some potential good content from newbie bloggers coming from my stream? Absolutely! And for those nay Sayers that want to judge me for such go ahead. You were once a newbie. Unfolllow me if you so choose. Look past yourself and do some digging to your own objectives.
Open your mind and realize your audience may appreciate reading content from someone other than your social rockin' self and all your rockin friends. I have been amazed by how my following has enjoyed my shared content from a few peeps almost brand new on the social block.
Benefits of Triberr
1. Enables you to put action where your social mouth is. Simply stated time to practice what you preach my friends.
2. Offers a solid community built on trust. People are trusting what you write is credible, accurate and ethical. The coupon, super sales pushers won't last long in a standard tribe focused on quality content.
3. Extend blog readership. Keep on creating good content and you'll be amazed what the numbers will do. Focus on the people and the numbers will come.
4. Opens your mind.
5. Takes your content up a level. It will challenge even the best of writers and bloggers to write your best stuff!
6. Variety of content and a new potential source of inspiration for your audience.
7. Makes it easier to share some of your favorite content.
8. Pay it forward. Remember the people who helped you get on the map. Here is your chance to pay it forward in a big way.
Success tips
1. Know the tool. Take the time to read the blogs, and learn from others. Don't just sign up and go auto tweeting from day one.
2. Don't get number hungry. Focus on the numbers and you lose the point. Stay focused on the people.
3. Start with manual tweeting. Don't go auto tweeting the first day. Take the time to get use to the content coming from the folks within your tribe.
4. Take your time. Don't feel pressured to tweet all content. Review what you need to review the best you can with your day job.
5. Listen for queues from your audience as you begin to tweet content. Watch the comments, number of retweets. You'll get a feel for how they are liking a specific author or topic of content.
6. Focus on variety, not robots. Join other tribes that are not like you when invited. I have joined one tribe in particular with a focus on “giving.” It has some newbie bloggers that are developing good content. I am blessed to be part of their communities.
7. The highest number of twitter followers don't always get the most clicks! Some of the peeps in my tribes with 1500 followers get exponentially more clicks than some with 25k!
8. Invest in people. At the end of the day, you can never go wrong by investing in people.
9. Further foster the growth of your community by leveraging other social network platforms that make sense for your members. For example, I have a Facebook group for the Social Nuts tribe. We actively engage in conversation, work out any issues tha may arise with content, team members etc. It's important to let the team also manage themselves. Don't be a dictator. Be there to lead but let them storm, norm, form and perform somewhat on their own. I wrote a post about this recently.
10. Stand your ground. Stay true to what you believe in. If you join Triberr and it works for you, then don't let the nay sayers make you drop out. On the flip side if you join and it just isn't working, don't be afraid to leave. However, do it nicely. Remember relationships are more much like bridges in that they are very easy to break but not so easily rebuilt after being broken.
Risks
1. Know the tool. Don't go into Triberr blindly. As with anything that you authorize with your Twitter or other social network accounts, know what you are signing up for. Don't sign up, never read or learn about it and then be upset when it starts auto tweeting content.
2. Things may get crazy. When you first join it may seem a bit over whelming. There is a lot to Triberr. However, it is worth the investment!
3. Yes it will take time. As stated earlier, investing in people takes time. Some of the best time you can spend though, guaranteed!
I will be writing more about Triberr in upcoming posts including tips, experiences and interviews with Tribe members. I am interested in stories of changed lives, inspiration. If you have such please let me know and we can discuss.
Your Triberr Story?
What is your Triberr story? How has it helped you and your brand? What tips can you share others? If this is the first you have heard of Triberr I am interested to know your thoughts? Do you think it is something you would like to learn more about?
