Seth announced recently the formation of “a tribe for marketers, for leaders, for those focused on building communities or creating products or spreading ideas”.

There are those who did not appreciate the idea of putting pre-ordering of his own book as a pre-requisite for membership to this invite-only forum. Putting in a minor roadblock on the way to membership to an “ideas” fight club is a good idea. However, I feel another hurdle which did not subtly market a new book would have held him in greater steed.

I justify the pre-order I made by remembering all his lectures on Youtube I have listened to for free. The online purchase of a book that is yet to be released is just my way of paying back. So in a way, I am paying for all the great Seth stuff I have been going through all this time by pre-ordering a book which is No. 36 on the Amazon.com best seller list! Quite a way to placate my conscience, isn’t it?

Now, about that best seller list! This tribe invite, on a blog which is viewed by thousands of people each day, has generated a lot of publicity for  the book in question. I would love to know how many books were sold on 30 and 31 July, post announcement, compared to the previous week.

Isn’t this what permission marketing is all about? Has he not managed in “turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers” by giving access to an exclusive club? Not only did Seth successfully create a buzz and induce a mad rush to join the tribe, he even managed to gather our mailing addresses. Another Hallmark July Christmas decorations sale in the making?

Now to answer some questions. Do I feel I have been used in a random social experiment by an acknowledged marketing expert? Not yet… Will I gain anything out of this? I sure hope so. Something ought to come out of interactions between like-minded people. At least, boring monologues. I am willing to take my chances on it. What has the Tribe been up to lately? No can do on that question. What happens in the Tribe stays in the Tribe…

Fight club anyone?