26 Feb 09 Loving and Belonging

I might be grandstanding on the shoulders of giants here, but it seems to me that there may be one very important thing missing from Kevin Kelly’s very good observation that things in the digital world attain value from being better than free.

Kevin’s list looks something like this – value is created with

1. Immediacy

2. Personalisation

3. Interpretation

4. Authenticity

5. Accessibility

6. Embodiment

7. Patronage

8. Findability

Seth Godin, also noticed that this was a profound observation and went on to recently make some profound observations of his own about how managing a tribe is much better than marketing a brand.

From this, it seems apparent that there is some “Better than Free” value to be had in “Belonging”. I think it is some sort of altruistic fulfilment we get from belonging to a tribe, contributing to a tribe, and then having that contribution valued, or recognised in some way. For some people this will be ego stroking, for others it will be the joy of giving.

As Denis Leary said,
“Folks, Id like to sing a song about the American Dream

About me, about you
About the way our American hearts beat way down in the bottom of our chests
About that special feeling we get in the cockles of our hearts
Maybe below the cockles,
Maybe in the sub cockle area,

Maybe in the liver, maybe in the kidneys,
Maybe even in the colon, we don’t know”

The truth is, we don’t know where we get that feeling, but I’m lead to believe that we all get it from time to time, and it may even be called love – but, at risk of sounding like a boardroom marketer pushing some jargon, I’ll cover all my bases by calling it Altruistic Fulfilment under the broad heading of “Belonging”.

If there is one missing from Kevin’s list, I’m guessing we are likely to discover more as the web unfolds,

Another two valuable things under this heading could also be Significance/Influence which are obviously very valuable things.