On Seth Godin, Bandwidth and My Social Media #Fail


Like hordes of others, I worship at the writing altar of Seth Godin. I scan every single blog post, searching for marketing strategy to help make me a better professional.  Linchpin dominated my last family vacation.  And there’s a probably not a day that goes by that I don’t share one of his thoughts on Twitter.

In spite of that, I feel like I’ve lost out on my very best chance to learn from Godin and his community. Where did I go wrong?

Flashback to around 2 years ago. I was flush with excitement over Tribes, inspired by what it meant for me and for my B2B public relations clients.  Suddenly, Seth announced on his blog that, for 24 hours or so, he would accept applications to join his private community “Triiibes.” If you had bought his book, you were eligible. I was in.

I thought I might faint with joy. I would be an inch closer to the master, and potentially a lot closer to people who were inspired by the same kinds of things that mattered to me. In other words, I thought I was about to meet my, uh, tribe.

I merrily filled out my bio, joined a number of groups and…promptly fell off the radar. Almost every day I thought about spending time on the site, but something would prevent me. A blog comment or a choked RSS feed or a compelling tweet would claim my attention, and I’d decide that Triiibes could wait another day.

A little later, there were compelling Triiibes community projects and even a special event with Godin himself. Each time, I allowed these chances to slip away.

Finally, I just began to ignore the network. Between Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, I have my hands pretty full. When you add in the time I spend on other social sites to support client work, I’m online more than anyone really should be.

But last week, Godin extended a new invitation to widen the Triiibes community. All of sudden, my email in-box was filled with notifications from energetic “freshman” Tribes members. The buried guilt resurfaced.

Truth time.  I’ve finally admitted that I don’t have the time to invest in that community properly. I’m not a “half measures” person, for better or (possibly) worse. If I can’t dive in, then I’m reluctant to start. So, sadly, I’m not starting…at least for now.

I guess I have to accept that it’s not about being effective on 15 networks. After all, do I really need more social icons to list on my blog landing page?

What is it about? For me, it’s focusing on providing great content for ten people and hoping that I can deepen those relationships over time.

Where did I learn that? Why, Seth Godin, of course.

So what about you? Have you ever abandoned a social network? Why?

To reach Elizabeth:

Phone: 212.840.0017
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com
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