That headline may have tripped off some grammarians’ alarms but if you’re here reading, mission accomplished!

Some thoughtful readings about business relationships and applying social media to care for them gravitated my way this week, inspiring a few thoughts that expand on each.

Identifying And Attracting Your Audience

Perusing a print copy of BtoB’s 2010 Lead Generation Guide surfaced “Social media tips for demand generation” by Marketo’s Maria Pergolino. Maria includes seed nurturing among her methods for developing business leads, noting this is a vital early-stage part of the sales process. Content marketing (or Inbound Marketing as well branded by the HubSpot folks) is then emphasized to which I say “Bravo,” and I’d add a reminder that content offered in various social sharing forms (eBooks, podcasts, communities, etc) succeeds most when it refrains from chest-thumping. Share information prospects need to answer urgent questions even if only mildly associated with your product or service. When you do, as Pergolino notes: expect prospects to return for more content and be more willing to share their own information.

I then started thinking about personalized ways to develop and maintain relationships that now days often begin online before any face-to-face interaction occurs. Valerie Simon from BurrellesLuce shared a nice post recently with suggestions for bridging virtual relationships into real acquaintances. She outlined these with her attendance at today’s PRSA T3 conference for technology communicators in mind. You can draw upon these in nearly any situation. Important here is that you will get the most value using the social media tools that best suit your audience. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore other channels yet emphasizes you don’t have to be all things, and everywhere, for all people. Valerie suggests many good options to consider. Knowing where your audience “participates” and spending a large degree of your time sharing there is the ticket!

Engaging That Audience

Denis Pombriant’s “Membership is not participation” post next caught my attention. Denis aptly reminds us that membership in and of itself does not translate to participation. Commenting and contributing content are typical activities that qualify online community members as participants. Call this giving something of value to the community at large. Denis references crowdsourcing and diversity, to which I’ll add that people most naturally contribute to communities based on their areas of expertise. This alone goes a long way towards generating value out of diversity. From there it’s a shared responsibility between a community’s purveyor (a vendor, organization, business person, fan, thought provoker) and its members to keep conversations worthwhile. Recognize and encourage insightful participants to further enlighten the group and keep at offering your own thoughts too. In an attention-deprived culture large membership numbers are impressive but not the only criteria for defining a community’s or company’s success.