Who do you follow? After only reading the first half of Seth Godin’s Tribes, a better question might be who do you lead?

Perhaps you’re immersed in a cause you really believe in, advocating daily about something that is really important to you or better yet leading a tribe. Seth Godin seems to hit the nail on the head with his book, Tribes.

If you’ve already read Tribes, I welcome you to add to this list. If you haven’t, I hope these three points made by Godin encourages you to go out and buy it!

Loaded with many great case studies and points, I would like to point out three things that Godin talks about in Tribes that I think are worth sharing with each of you (again, I’m only halfway through):

1 - Be a leader not a manager – “My thesaurus says the best synonym for leadership is management. Maybe that word used to fit, but no longer. Movements have leaders and movements make things happen.
Leaders have followers. Managers have employees.
Managers make widgets. Leaders make change.”

2 – People don’t care about your product or service; they care about how you make them feel - “Too many organizations care about numbers, not fans. They care about hits or turnstile clicks or media mentions. What they’re missing is the depth of commitment and interconnection that true fans deliver. Instead of always being on the hunt for one more set of eyeballs, true leaders have figured out that the real win is in turning a casual fan into a true one.”

3 – The social media tools we’re using today won’t matter if we don’t adopt the right social media mentality - “Blogs and Twitter and all manner of other tools will come and go, possibly by the time you read this. The tactics are irrelevant, and the technology will always be changing. The essential lesson is that every day it gets easier to tighten the relationship you have with the people who choose to follow you.”

I’m looking forward to reading the rest of Tribes tonight…then on to Meatball Sundae (also by Godin) and Now is gone by Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis – both of whom I have a ton of respect for within this space.

If you’ve read Tribes, I’d be curious to hear what you took away from the book. If not, I’d still like to hear your thoughts on these three points…do you agree these are very strong points to make about social media, business or life for that matter?