A few years into my job as a fundraiser, one of the things I grew to hate was being sent lists of rich people. What, exactly, was I supposed to do with them? Of course, by definition the people who can give a lot of money are the people who have a lot of money, but that qualifier alone means next to nothing.
As Seth keeps reminding us, our work is to find our tribe, people who share a worldview, and to communicate to them that “people like us do things like this.”
This Wall Street Journal ad nails it for me. While the WSJ no doubt has all the obvious data you’d hope they have – about income levels and geography and demographics and and and – about their readers, the ad boils everything down to:
People who don’t have time to read the Wall Street Journal make time to read the Wall Street Journal.
(will.i.am – producer, entrepreneur, philanthropist)
People like us – busy, successful, top of the heap enough that we now wear multiple hats – believe that the WSJ helps keep us where we are, believe that it is our access to this kind of content allows us to continue to be the thing we are so proud to be.
It’s specific and aspirational for the group that people who identify with that worldview, people for whom that story resonates.
What is your group? What is their worldview? What story do they want to be a part of?
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Really interesting post, thanks! that’s what I’m trying to understand at the moment, how can we engage with our tribes and encourage and empower them to connect with the wider cause?
As I understand it, what makes the tribe a (relevant) tribe is that what brings them together and connects them is the cause itself – or the identity it brings out in them.