Building Online Communities with Jeremiah Owyang

Where does your company fall in the social media spectrum? Jeremiah Owyang, Sr Analyst at Forrester Research, was recently interviewed about building online communities by Shel Israel.

Despite of all of the drama surrounding Shel Israel's interviewing skills I really enjoyed what Jeremiah had to say.

Jeremiah Owyang Interview Take Aways:

• Power has shifted to the participants.
• Conversations = marketplace. Corporations shouldn't miss out because they're scared of giving away control.
• Understand the difference between marketing and community managers.
• Should you build your own social network? Or join others like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.?
• Your brand doesn't have to be the face of your community presence, instead empower your employees or supporters.
• Widgets and social networks aren't going anywhere.
• Don't just hype yourself, show value. What problem did you solve? That sticks more than fluff.