The notion of creating community around your clients and prospects is a marketing principle near and dear to me. I caught up with one of the great community builders, Guy Kawasaki, on a recent Duct Tape Marketing Podcast

Many people know who Guy Kawasaki is – Mac evangelist, founder of Garage Technology Ventures, author of The Art of the Start but, you may now know that Guy has blog now too. Guy discussed one of his recent blog posts, the Art of Creating Community. You will find him to be one of the most genuine and humble folks around. He’s the real deal when it comes to helping small businesses find a strategic direction.

The Art of Creating Community:

1. Create something worth building a community around.
2. Identify and recruit your thunderlizards—immediately!
3. Assign one person the task of building a community.
4. Give people something concrete to chew on.
5. Create an open system.
6. Welcome criticism.
7. Foster discourse.
8. Publicize the existence of the community.