Report by: Ron Fontanilla
What is Unity? In the context of societies and cultures, unity can refer to the state of
people coming together despite their differences to work toward common goals or
values. Social unity fosters a sense of belonging, cooperation, and shared identity.
Achieving social or cultural unity often involves promoting inclusivity, tolerance, and
understanding among diverse groups.
There’s no community without unity.
What is the Unity Principle?
The unity principle is based on the concept that people, by human nature, like to be
included in groups, belong to something and share a common identity with others.
Those who are interested in human psychology will have heard of Maslow's
infamous hierarchy of needs. Abraham Maslow, back in 1943, wrote a paper
examining the concepts and needs that motivated humans in certain ways, aptly
named “A theory of Human Motivation.” In this paper, Maslow created a pyramid of
needs that starts with physiological needs such as food, water, warmth etc, stepping
up to a pinnacle called Self-Actualization whereby the human in question is
satisfying their self-fulfillment.
The unity principle falls into the middle tier known as the Social Needs tier. Here we
focus on the feeling of love and belonging, where humans search out friendship,
family and sexual intimacy.
Picture yourself out for drinks with friends. Someone brings along someone new and
you discover that you went to the same college or university, or you grew up in the
same town, or you support the same football team. This connection, even though
you’ve never met before, creates instant rapport. Should that person then go on to
try and persuade you towards a way of thinking, you’re far more susceptible to
them.
“It’s about the categories that individuals use to define themselves and their groups,
such as race, ethnicity, nationality, and family, as well as political and religious
affiliations.
A key characteristic of these categories is that their members tend to feel at one with,
merged with, the others. They are the categories in which the conduct one member
influences the self-esteem of other members. Simply put, we is the shared me.” Dr
Robert Cialdini
3 Ways to Create Unity
Transparency
“Unity means that we want to say ‘yes’ to people with whom we share an identity
more often than to people who are not part of this group.
To persuade people, you can appeal to a number of common characteristics with
regard to identity.
If an identity like this is genuine and recognizable, you will have a greater chance of
receiving a positive response to proposals or recommendations.”
Dr. Robert Cialdini shared these findings in an interview.
When reading these words from Cialdini, you’ll notice the theme of transparency
appearing. In order to create a genuine sense of unity, you’ll need to be completely
transparent with people you interact with. People join communities based on trust.
Trust is hard to build but one way to do so is to lay your cards on the table and
explain your aims and purpose clearly and transparently. This is also true for the
communication and messages that your company is sharing.
One of the best ways to build transparency is through your digital strategy. Using
your platforms, you want to do two core things; share information openly and
regularly, and enable your followers to have their voice heard.
Say ‘Thank You’ frequently
Now we don’t necessarily mean that you should be writing thank you cards after
every sale (although why not? That’s a nice thing to do!) but this should be seen as
the norm in your language and your actions.
There are multiple ways for you to express gratitude to your community, and
therefore show that you appreciate them. Some forms are as simple as giving them
access to special, community member only areas or discounts. You might consider
running community focused events that are only available to them as a way to thank
them for their custom and support. However you do it, make sure that you do so
publicly and frequently. Simply letting people know that you appreciate and are
grateful for them goes a long way.
Let people have fun
When building a community remember that people just want to have fun most of
the time. If you build a community that is focused purely on sales and products then
you’ll likely have a dead community after a short period of time. Rather build the
community on common feelings and have a sense of humor about it. It might be
that you attempt to create some memes, foster opportunities for people to talk
about anything else not necessarily related to work and encourage people to let off
steam.
If people are put into positions where they feel they can relax, let their guard down
and have some fun then they’re far more likely to remain a part of the community
going forward.
