My nephew Chad just wrote me an email about a project he's working on and he made an interesting remark:
"Church members in smaller services sing louder per person than larger ones because they sense a greater responsibility to make a joyful noise. That isn't as much a measure on anyone's faith as it is a reflection of an individual's own self-awareness."
One of the questions we are often asked when we go out and tell our story and share our beliefs on the power of igniting movements is this: How can you justify such enormous time and effort on what seems like relatively small numbers of people ("loving" and supporting thousands of engaged loud and proud advocates vs. "reaching" hundreds of thousands or millions in a given demographic segment through traditional media.)
I'm still chewin' on Chad's comment, which was totally unrelated to building communities or igniting movements, but it got me thinking.
According to Beeline's research, Fiskateers with over 5000+ engaged, loud and proud scrapbookers is large. (Beeline Labs' Chart from The Tribalization of Businesses 2008 is above.)
Here's my question: Do we feel a sense of size when are part of something we are passionate about? Is bigger â€" better? Or is it possible, just as it is in the corporate world, to become too large of a passion driven community that in fact members actually lose a sense of ownership and "voice"?
Francois sparked an interesting discussion about another issue of scale (marketing dollars allocated) on this post a while back.
<--www.brainsonfire.com/blog-->Brains on Fire is the Identity Company dedicated to helping organizations discover and sustain excitement about who they are and why they exist. We believe that great brand identities are rooted in purpose, not just profit. That they focus on relationships, not transactions. And they live through movements, not campaigns.