IMHO, community is so important in Social Media because the two are one and the same. I agree with Beth, that there are different viewpoints on how Social Media should be “used”. I personally feel that you don’t “use” SM, but rather participate, engage, and communicate with people. Not audiences or targets, but people.

In a time when everything is digital, impersonal, and instant, it’s not surprising that the electronic realm has evolved into creating social spaces for communities to grow. Humans are social animals by nature, and the internet and New Media tools give us the ability to reach out and find those whose interests most closely mirror and resemble our own.

Which gives rise to the differences in thought and philosophies of SM: different folks with different ideas will tend to congregate with others who agree. This is great in the fact that it allows us to get our Maslow’s sense of belonging, but the danger lies in the possibility of being completely sheltered from other schools of thought, leading to intellectual and personal stagnation.

Communities are so important in SM because SM has grown to facilitate community building and engagement. People didn’t start using Twitter to follow what their favorite brands are up to; people’s favorite brands are signing up to follow what people are up to (the good ones, anyhow. The bad ones just fill timelines with spammy updates).

Thanks for the great comment Mike – as always!

Presentation is key to community as well, and I think we saw that yesterday.

I think we can relate this back to PR and branding – you have to understand your client, their viewpoints and what is important to them. You are representing them.

As communications/marketing/PR professionals our first reaction is to become defensive and try to shut people down in an effort to protect our organizations. But there is much more at play in these situations (on- or off-line) and as professionals engaged in social media, we need to understand that so we know how to best handle it.

First and foremost, Rebecca and most SEOs are not in my community…they have their own established community. Second, the two communities (SEO & Marketing/PR/SM) don’t necessarily agree on what social media (tools vs. concept) is and how it should be implemented or used.

That clarified, of course Rebecca wouldn’t have agreed with what I was talking about on the panel…we have two completely different philosophies and I was an outsider in *their* community (this was a conference geared towards SEOs). But, that said, I don’t appreciate slanderous comments or being misquoted (which have still not been corrected, BTW). Who would?

Of course, I don’t agree with the light Rebecca presented me in, but then again from where I sit, she doesn’t understand the value of social media, PR or marketing…and most likely, we’ll never agree. From that perspective, sometimes it’s just best to let it go versus trying to have a debate over philosophies & experience.

So what’s the moral of the story here?

There is a possibility that multiple communities exist for an organization, they have different agendas, their philosophies on what’s right/wrong might not line-up, and everyone has an opinion.

As a PR professional it’s really important to understand and be involved with each community so that you have a sense of what’s important to them, how they think, etc. Otherwise when there is a situation, you won’t have all the details/insights needed to diffuse it in the best way possible.

Thanks Lauren!

Beth Harte
Community Manager, MarketingProfs
@bethharte