How to get involved in the community without being a putz

...Greg in my comments asked me to expand on #6 in my last post, so rather than just emailing him directly, I thought I'd do a wee follow-up.

The question is: how does a marketer get involved in the community without it being a bullshit* PR move?

Well, there is always a fine tight rope that one walks when they 'get involved' with the community one is promoting to. Truly, I have a tough time walking it myself. However, there are some questions to ask yourself when getting involved:

1. Is my involvement here helping the community or just giving my company visibility?
2. Am I creating a PR campaign around it? ie. do I post a self-congradulatory follow-up anywhere for my 'good work' in the community? (hint: if you do, it's a PR campaign)
3. Do I participate on the periphery or am I actually taking up the cause myself?
4. Is my involvement here taking any risks? Or...even if my company stands to gain nothing from this, would I still be here?
   

So, a some real-life example that is readily apparent to me, I can point to Technorati's involvement in Microformats. I can also look at everyone involved in the organization of Webzine - many online companies: Laughing Squid, Dogster, oh...and Technorati again. How about Barcamp? Yep, Flock, Technorati (again...egad, they are sooo involved), Flickr, Socialtext, etc.

This level involvement takes some real commitment and these companies encourage their community outreach/marketing/pr people to get involved, do work on these endeavours during business hours, use company resources to make it happen and are there 100% of the time, just being part of the community. Get the difference? Not talking with, not interacting with, but being part of the community.

Join an intitiative, start and initiative, band together with other businesses to put together a free or inexpensive conference, gathering or unconference (btw...Les Blogs may cross the line into PR). Work with your competitors to bring the best damn experience you can bring to the community you are asking attention from.

I guess I don't know any other way to describe it other than to say that you should never impose your pitch, your intentions or your big-ass logo on anyone when you are getting involved at this level (of course, schwag is always welcomed...;)...).

If that broad definition doesn't clarify, drop me a line.

*copyright Ben Metcalfe

technorati tags: community, communityoutreach, marketing, onlinemarkreting, newmarketing, cluetrain