Bad Chief, Bad Tribe. How To Get More Shares On Triberr.

How can my content be shared more on Triberr?

I get asked that question every day several times a day. The short answer is “write good content that people will want to share.” But of course nothing is ever as easy as that. So I want to present some ideas on how you can get your content viewed by more people using Triberr as a tool.

First, Let Me Explain What Triberr Is.

Triberr is a content community that uses the paradigm of Tribes to connect content creators with similar interests. Those tribe members then distribute each other’s content to a broader audience. Triberr is a startup and my role is to help evolve the underlying technology.

If you are a blogger, podcaster or YouTuber who produces great content, you may still be struggling to find an audience. And once you do, building that audience is a slow process. But what if you could tap into a similar content creator’s audience, vastly increasing your reach?

That’s where Triberr comes in. Triberr allows you as a content creator to join or create a Tribe. Each of the content creators in a tribe then has access to the content being produced by their Tribe Mates and can share that content to their respective audiences. The reach of a Tribe is fundamentally a combination of the reach of the individual Tribe members. However, it’s never that simple because those content creators may have overlap in their audiences. Since this is not about the math, I’ll leave it at that and move on. The important principle is this…

If each Tribe Member brings their super fan bubble, their Tribe Mates can benefit from it.

Sounds Easy Right?

Well, not so much and here’s why. What happens next is important and not at all a function of Triberr. Many Triberr Members create their Tribes and then expect the Triberr ecosystem to simply start churning out shares. But Triberr, like other ecosystems, is only a tool. Any tool is only as effective as the person using it.

Let’s move beyond Tribe creation and Tribe Mate acquisition. Let’s assume you have a group of like minded content creators. Now what?

Well, this is where it gets hard. Or easy, depending on your perspective.

You need to build relationships that make people become your evangelists and produce content that makes people want to share. That means interacting with your Tribe on an ongoing basis and producing content on a reasonably consistent schedule. That seems like a lot, but there’s one quality that makes it easy: the Tribal Chief.

The Tribal Chief is, simply, the individual who created the Tribe, but more importantly is the person who must keep the Tribe active and stimulated.

My simple rule for Triberr is: bad Chief, bad Tribe.

If you are in a Tribe and your Chief isn’t periodically maintaining the Tribe, then you may find that you’re not getting the results you’re looking for.

So What Makes A Good Chief?

Let’s look at Lindsey Anderson. To me, she is the boilerplate of what a good Chief should be.

She manages a Tribe that I am a member of. Inside of Triberr, each Tribe has a discussion area where members of that Tribe can communicate privately with each other. Lindsey is consistently in that forum poking the members to create content, review content, participate and ultimately share. If a member fails to share, she boots that member. And that’s exactly what she should do. If a Tribe has lots of members, but no one shares, what’s the value?

One thing to note here is that a lot of people get hung up on the number of members in a Tribe and conclude that more members means more shares. This is not true. There is no “right” number of members. There are Tribes with a handful of people with a lot of interaction, and that results in an increasing audience for those content creators. There are other Tribes with a massive number of members that only produce cricket sounds.

But where Lindsey shines as a Chief is in how she doesn’t use Triberr. She will use Twitter and Facebook to reach out to Tribe Members to talk with them, engage with them and ultimately build a stronger bond with them. This makes those Members hyper aware of their Triberr relationship and entices them to participate in the community.

But what about Tribes where there is a weak Chief? You should reach out to that Chief and encourage them to lead. If they just want to sit back, do nothing and have their content shared, then that Tribe may decay and give you no value.

What Should You Do Next?

If you are not on Triberr and you are a content creator, give it a shot. It’s easy and free to sign up. If you have questions, leave them below in the comments.

If you are already a Triberr member, here are some things for you to consider.

Prune your Tribes. Having or being in lots of Tribes doesn’t mean anything. It just means more to manage. Consider dropping out of Tribes where there is no real value. Yes your reach potential may drop, but a Tribe with a high potential and no activity doesn’t do you any good.

Reach out to Tribe Mates. There could be a lot of reasons your content is not being shared. One may be that other Members don’t know you are in a Tribe with them. Connect with them on Facebook or Twitter and start building a relationship with them. As an incentive to them, share their content or comment on it so that they see you engaging with them. Relationship building is an essential component of the Triberr experience.

Reach out to your Chief. Remember what I said: bad Chief bad Tribe. If you try to talk to your Chief and they never respond, then you have to seriously think about the value of that Tribe. Many Tribes are legacy Tribes that have been abandoned. If you aren’t getting value, leave the Tribe and find a better one.

Build a better Tribe. If you see bits and pieces from other Tribes that work well but think that you can do better, start your own Tribe. Then be very judicious about who you invite in. At that point, you can’t complain about anyone else because you are the Chief and making the Tribe a success is your responsibility.

Ultimately you have to resign yourself to the fact that Triberr is not a magical unicorn. It will not generate shares for you with zero effort on your part. Remember, it’s not Triberr doing the sharing, it’s other people. That’s where you have to start.

Let me know what you think about my ideas. If you are a Tribal Chief and have your own thoughts, please share them in the comments.

And please don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter and subscribe to our podcast below.

See you next time.

I am Ralph M. Rivera.