Event Recap: Community Building

Last month, I attended an event at the Tower Club sponsored by Erickson Barnett on building online communities with a few of my colleagues. With a focus on social media, and bridging old fashioned marketing with that of the new age, the event offered up tips for building communities, including how to get started, potential pitfalls, useful tools, what works, etc. Four panelists (TANDBERG - Margie Agin, Director Online Marketing; iBelong - Bob Smith, Chairman; Clearspring - Justin Thorp, Developer Community Manager; and SourceFire - Michele Perry, CMO) shared their advice on building communities, and the theme that resonated with me the most was this...

If you are going to see a community (coordinated, blended effort to include presence on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, etc.) really work, you have to make sure you (your company) is ready. You must be ready to commit, ready to evolve in this new direction, ready to support the probable new leads, interest, and/or inquiries that will come with establishing an online community. There is much coordination involved - between pinning down dependable thought leaders, monitoring feeds for mentions and places for needed replies/comments, responding to inquiries (a big one!, tracking lead generation as a result, or whatever the drivers are for the community's purpose). In summary - building an online community will bring tremendous value if you have the commitment and passion needed to support one.

-Danica Low