Developing a strong user community and engaging them effectively is an essential art which needs to be refined by all those companies who wish to stay ahead in the game. There is just no better way to leverage the ‘Wisdom of Crowd’, than to engage the minds of your loyal user base and the emerging WEB 2.0 tools have made the job easier.

OuterJoin has honed the art of developing and nurturing the community, by providing it with necessary technologies, tools, resources and attention, to ensure that the members get actively engaged in the community. You need to dedicate someone to nurture the community. You have to establish some ground rules but you need to stay flexible; have to listen and learn. Staying engaged and seeking feedback at all times is important. Events or contests can help energize a community, if needed. Critical mass and active participation are an absolute requirement.

A strong community can help in the viral spread of the buzz at no cost to you. If you can identify some evangelists or champions and encourage them to play even bigger role, you can turbo charge your growth. The ability to harness the power of community for feedback and viral marketing is a potent weapon in the emerging social marketing.