Anytime, anywhere content for the “The 4am Dad tribe” and Starbucks queue

We know digital content can be consumed anytime, anywhere. But what I find exciting is the awesome opportunity this gives brands to show they can empathise with their audience.

I love Seth Godin’s thoughts on “tribes” and people coming together around an interest to form a group (perhaps with no other common traits but that interest). Social media is such a great way of tapping into this and I always try to develop content that’s relevant to a “tribe”. I suppose it’s just a different way of segmenting, but one that adds the dimension of time.

At the moment I’ve re-joined the “Dad’s awake at 4am with a baby” tribe! I recall vividly when I was previously a member, interacting with other people through social to share experiences/ frustrations/ fears in the wee small hours. That was a great insight which resulted in a whole content stream we developed at Sainsbury’s to tap into parents up with their children first thing.

Another “tribe” I joined the other day was in Starbucks, waiting for my coffee to be prepared. From (reluctantly) giving my name to the barista to picking up my flat-white I probably waiting for three minutes. I noticed everyone in the queue was busily tapping away on their phone – a definite tribe had formed. It seemed like a great opportunity for Starbucks to engage this group online, but as closely as I looked there was no call to action in or around the counter to direct us. It felt like a missed opportunity.

Here are #3ThoughtsOn creating content for tribes:

1. Look at everything your target audience does over the course of a week – in real detail (basically an indepth customer journey mapping exercise). Look at where they’ve become, maybe unconsciously, part of a tribe and use these as hooks for your content, like the examples above.

2. Think about where (physical location) your audience is likely to be when consuming your content. Reflect this in what you communicate – are they likely to be on the bus, in the garden, on a horse?!

3. Think about the device or operating system they’re using to consume content. How can you tweak the story you’re telling based on that knowledge?

How else do you create specific content for different tribes? We’ve kicked off a discussion on LinkedIn on this.