Last night went to the SF Big event at the Hotel Nikko...it was a great turn-out and our CEO, Rob Crumpler was part of a really interesting and engaging panel all about the influencers. In our little BuzzBubble, we know that social media is here to stay and that working with it – not against it – is key to not only success, but survival. But it’s always validating to spend time with large groups of online marketers and observe their thinking on the trials and tribulations of marketing in this new world.

Rob was sitting between two interesting "community builder" companies (Pete Chen of Community Connect and Peter Friedman from LiveWorld) and his view really stood out in the crowd. As the ever astute Julia Briggs, BuzzLogic Manager of Account Services pointed out "Here these guys are talking about building the base before you can even think of leveraging it....all the while, those communities already exist." Her point is a good one. These communities may not exist in the form of explicit social connections, but outside the walls of structured communities lies a sprawling landscape of people actively engaging, connecting and consuming niche content (think wine, sports, trading stocks, gadgets) and guess what? This engagement is actually influencing their purchasing decisions. So why are we talking about building new passion groups, instead of the obvious? Find out who's already talking about subjects that matter to you and then engage those people in a meaningful, authentic way. Instead of trying to throw sneakers at a demographic group you THINK is likely to buy, why not target the group you KNOW is passionate because they are already having discussions about precisely that topic? Food for thought this holiday season…