if you want to get people to move by leveraging the unparalleled influence of culture, it’s not enough to just preach the gospel to the congregation; you must also understand how they make meaning.

in a decentralized network, where people can connect with other people who share the same beliefs and see the world similarly, the central role of the network is the construction and exchange of cultural characteristics that flow across the network ties that bind the nodes.

Together, these elements—a community’s social facts—inform how members of that community see the world and how they show up in the world.

Audiences buy products because of their function. Congregations buy products as evidence of their beliefs.

Community members use their lexicon, much like artifacts and behaviors, to signify their cultural subscriptions and exercise the beliefs and ideologies associated with it.

When the brand belief is aligned with our belief, we not only gravitate toward it but also find community among people who behave similarly. When the brand’s beliefs are at odds with our beliefs, however, we tend to reject it.

The congruence between our identity and worldview acts as a union card for the tribes to which we subscribe, and membership in the union is governed by the cultural characteristics of the collective—artifacts, behaviors, and language.

Removed from its faith affiliation, a congregation is essentially a group of people who share the same worldview, which influences their shared way of life, outward expression, commerce, and collective consumption—dare I say—in a religious fashion.

look for subreddits that are associated with the community you’re studying. If it’s vegans, then you’ll find many different subreddits that fit the bill, like “Vegan,” “PlantBasedDiet,” “VeganFitness,” and “VeganFoodPorn.” Click into each of these subreddits and immerse yourself in the back-and-forth that takes place among the community members. Ta