Everywhere I look online these days I see people being urged to build a ‘platform’. The modern day platform is a digital connection to potential customers, contacts, followers or fans.
A platform then is a tool and a tactic.

There are plenty of consultants willing to help you with the ‘how to’ of building one and whole books devoted to the tactics (the knowing part).

Knowing is a far cry from doing though.

If you are to succeed at building a platform you need to be consistent at ‘the doing’ part. And to be consistent at ‘the doing’ you need to have a reason to build the platform that intersects your needs with those of your audience. Building a ‘platform’ is a far cry from building a tribe. ‘Tribes’ begin with the reason for building (doing) the thing in the first place.

Successful businesses like Airbnb and Zen Habits were born from having a reason to create the platform that served the needs of the audience. The success didn’t simply come from the platform itself.

Go ahead and build your platform so that the people who need you can find you, just remember to work out the reason you’re building it first.

Image by Peter Durand.