[...] Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Do companies Cultivate, Harness, Build, Engage, Lead, Visit, Watch, or Join Communities? (tags: web 2.0 social+media) [...]

Of course a company has something of value to offer a community. It’s somewhat assume that offering is a product or service. Somehow, I’ll bet we can find some examples of some companies that failed to follow this rule.

Oh, and just my preference, I like ‘Moisten’…yeah!…Companies must ‘Moisten’ communities. Although the Chinese in me almost picked ‘Stir-fry’.

And yet I can’t help feeling your discussion is getting hung up on a scroll through the various candidate verbs – should we Cultivate, Harness, Build, Engage, Lead, Visit, Watch, Join, Ignore, Paint, Stir-fry, Underwrite, Tickle, Corrugate, Moisten…?

Bleh.

You’re right to credit Tara, I think. Her point comes closer: “companies must be part of…”, but I think there’s a very significant earlier step to consider.

If companies want to participate, and be granted an opportunity to lead, the very first thing they have to do is figure out whether they genuinely have something of value to offer to the community in which they are interested.

It almost distils down to fairly straightforward economic terms. Let’s assume that a certain company (X) is interested in participating in a community (Y).

X sees some value in engaging with Y; something tangible and of benefit to X.

X is, therefore, morally obligated to offer Y some value.

If X has nothing of enduring value to provide, it should leave Y the hell alone, and enjoy observing from the sidelines.

JMHO, YMMV, etc.