A lot has been said about the importance of engaging your community, especially if you are launching or have launched a consumer facing company. After all, your community is what makes or breaks you. Either you launch something that becomes so important to the community that they cannot fathom life with out it (Twitter may fall into this category for some or Facebook may fall into this category for others) or it falls flat on it’s face. Either way, the outcome is based on whether or not you built a strong community following around your product. Take a look at Gary V and WineLibraryTv to catch a glimpse of the importance of engaging your community and really building a relationship with them, he has done a fantastic job.

Here at Mixx (in case you did not already know, that is where I work) we pride ourselves on the fact that we have a very active community and we have engaged with them, one of us probably speaks with the community on a daily basis. It is a great feeling to know that the line of communication is completely open and that they can reach us, and in turn, we can reach them. There have been several occasions that I will get an e-mail thanking me for a quick response to a question someone had or I will read a blog post on how pleased the community is with the fact that they can get a “real” person on the other end of the e-mail, on a weekend no less. All in all, it is a great feeling to know that we have such a passionate community and that we are part of that.

Some of our community members have taken the two way street analogy of engaging the community to a new level. There is a subset of our community that have created their own web site and forum for the members of the community (called the MixxingBowl), and as part of it, they do a weekly podcast. They have been doing it for six months now, and they frequently have members of the Mixx staff on as guests. I was asked to be a guest this past week, and I must say that it was a complete honor to be part of the podcast. This is a great example of how engaging your community (I mean really engaging them) can lead to a complete two way street. Not only are we bringing them into the mix (no pun intended, well OK), but they are reciprocating by incorporating us into what they do.

It is a good feeling when you have reached that level that you have a thriving community around your product and they are passionate about it. That community and passion is something that money cannot buy, it comes by way of transparency, dedication, and an open hand.

Thanks guys, you have really helped us make something special here.

With the proliferation over the last several years of social networks / social media sites / social networking utilities it has become increasingly easier for people to get their message, ideas, agendas out in front of a large audience with little effort. These tools have made it easy to amass a large following, whether they be FRIENDS / Friends or friends, and once you have put in the time to cultivate your following, getting your message out is easy. From friends on Facebook, to followers on Twitter to followers on Mixx, these tools are the platform to get your message out.

There is a fine line that we all must walk when it comes to “pimping” our stuff, if we “pimp” too much, the value of our content is lessened and perhaps our credibility is tarnished. With that being said, there are some that do not even recognize the line exists or do not care about it’s existence. Those are the ones that I feel are gaming the system(s). They have amassed a following and then either flood them with stuff or get them to vote (on social media sites) their stuff up simply because they follow that person and feel that whatever they vote up, the other will return the favor. This sort of scratch my back and I will scratch yours mentality has the potential to create an environment where sub par content is being popularized when in reality it is not worth the popularity it is garnering.

Whether it be a networking utility to socialize an URL of a blog post, or a social network where I am trying to leverage a friend to make a connection or submitting something to a social media site, I go out of my way to make sure that I am not taking advantage of my contacts and only try to share good content. At the end of the day, we all want to feel special in some little way that is why we join these social networks. For me, my reputation on all of these sites is important and I do not want to do anything to harm that, like perhaps game the system. People pick up on that quickly and before you know it, you become a friend’s list of one.