Interesting development on the Wine pairing+Twitter idea:

Though I got little traction with my original idea (ok, NO traction would be more accurate…), several wine critics, wine-tasting blogs and wine pairing services saw my post and have since then gotten in touch with me and I actually found a community of people who enjoy wine as much as I do.

They now follow me on Twitter and Vice-versa, when appropriate. It’s pretty impressive to see some of the wine-pairing apps for mobile devices – many of which allow you to consult a history of recommended pairings… interesting, no? I even have a quick-click pairing service on my Google home page!

And that’s where the magic starts. The important word in this is not COMMUNITY, but rather the word FOUND. Building a community is what you do perpetually, once you hace found peers. Contribute and keep putting yourself out there.

THE BUSINESS SIDE

The same logic goes for any business-type of community – it should not be about making money or meeting prospects, but building relationships. You can’t monetize a community. (well – you might be able to burn those bridges ONCE, after which you will be shunned from that community and their friends/communities).

A community lets you know what’s going on and if you tell people what you do, and what you are looking for – they will look out for you and help you get to the right people or the right place at the right time. Like a friend.

THAT is the value of a community for businesses. You can only get if you give.

Ed. note: The “2 easy steps” are in this post, I just didn’t enumerate them :-)