One guy who did a lot of great pre-Internet thinking about brand communities is Tom O’Guinn (whom I know well). Good guy to get to know:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/13705

Also, I did an interesting post on how companies can stay in touch with their ‘mobile’ brand communities a few weeks ago:
http://propellingbrands.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/changing-how-you-think-about-marketing-to-your-mobile-brand-community/

Important topic, and one that I think is critical when you think about the sociological/cultural anthropological view of your customer.

Adam Needles’s last blog post..Who’s Propelling Ideas … Hayes/Malone on Marketing 3.0

Gennefer hit it right on the head, especially when it comes to reason #1. I find it interesting that even people my own age (twenty-something) don’t see the possible benefit when they are subject to changes made via community sourcing every day.

(1) They are stuck in an old one-way sales paradigm, maintaining the stance that they are the ‘experts’ forcing their message onto users instead of allowing them to help define it

(2) They have concerns about opening the proverbial floodgates with potentially negative information, and don’t know how to effectively engage users to address negative information and/or do not have the infrastructure in place to do so

(3) They think that they will have somehow have to implement every crowd sourced idea or opinion into their initiatives

I think that #3 is one of the main deterrants. Companies are concerned that if they open up a 2-way communication channel that they will have to act on EVERYTHING that comes through. What they fail to realize is that the most important thing is that they LISTEN, and demonstrate that they VALUE their customers and CARE about their opinions. No one expects that all of their feedback or ideas will be implemented, but having a forum to voice them where they can be heard — and acknowledged — is key.

Operating in a vacuum with no connection to the community only shows that companies think they have all the answers. But what appeals to the marketing execs in a conference room is typically NOT what resonates with customers.

So, brands need to step out of their silos and get more involved with their end user. The cost of entry is little to nothing, and the benefits far outweigh any investment of time or money on their part anyway.

Plus, tapping into an open, real world community yields far more actionable results than behind the closed walls of a focus group where participants tend to go along with just about anything as they watch the clock tick by in anticipation of their incentive.

The moral of the story: Tune in, listen, acknowledge and act. If you do that, you’ll cultivate brand ambassadors that will happily spread your message and build a living, breathing brand that represents the people — not to the shareholders.

We are all connected, we all gain by lifting each other up.

When brands really get community sourcing on the social web, their brand ambassadors do the heavy “source” lifting (provide ideas, promote/WOM, help other customers, SEO love, etc.) for them.