People like us do things like this
Marketing as we should know it
How might we get more people interested in software development in Nigeria?
In June 2016, I attended my first ForLoop developer meetup in Abuja, Nigeria. ForLoop is a community of passionate software developers and enthusiasts across Africa. The attending.io invite link crossed my twitter timeline after being retweeted by a friend who is also a software developer. The event appealed to me, I went and I had a good time.
The next one I attended, I invited two other friends. I did this because, I felt they would be the kind of people who would like to attend an event like ForLoop.
ForLoop started as a small community of software developers and then progressed to others who aspired to learn about software development. The meetups expanded from just Lagos, to Abuja and different cities across Nigeria, and now other cities in Africa. Each member of the forloop community consciously puts an effort to grow the community.
ForLoop started with the aim of building a vibrant community of software developers who help each achieve goals faster. The meetup events focuses on educating people about web technologies, developer tools, software development, and its career path. Many Nigerian developers flock to the events because its activities is a reflection of a Nigerian developer. Made by Nigerian Developers for Nigerian developers.
Much more than visible benefits or personal gain
Much more than any individual ambition, we humans are driven to be members of one or more tribes, communities, or groups brought together by a unifying story. We crave to be part of tribes that serve as a reflection of who we are, where individuals come together and find something that unites them which is far greater than their individual competence.
Look around you, humans everywhere are organized in communities, whether it be schools, countries, companies, religion, product enthusiasts, etc. This is how we are wired. Homo Sapiens were able to thrive and defeat other homo species and wild animals, because of our ability to come together, form a tribe and conquer complex challenges together. The advantage homo sapiens have is our ability to come up with abstract concepts called stories, and you cannot build a tribe or community without a story.
By still observing how far the human race have come, I can say the most important factor that brought us here is our ability to tell stories. Story telling unites us, and enables us to cooperate. Those who believe in a common story can successfully come together and align themselves towards their shared mission. Hence, story forms mission, mission forms the community and its culture.
In January, I did a product challenge writing about the #1 product of the day on product hunt. One of the key takeaways from these products was how they were able to form a community of users helping and interacting with themselves even before the product was launched on ProductHunt.
The best marketing is about forming a community of people or tribe around what is to be marketed. Furthermore, constantly preaching the stories revolving around why people like us do things like this.
So if you got a product idea/campaign/movement to start, ask yourself who are the people you wish to serve, and how do they behave, what do they look like, what are the things they like, etc. Look for them, appeal to their needs, and design your product in such a way that it would be easy for those who relate to your message find themselves and recognize. Remember, it’s okay to say, “this product is not for everyone”.
This is my take from Seth Godin’s short article on what marketing should be about.
