Building a community is great and reaching out to your market is a smart idea, but to really make a difference there has to be an underlying purpose. If you set up all these interaction programs with no goals or objectives, it’s like saying you’re going to market to “people” so they “buy a lot of stuff “.

Not a great plan.

If you have a goal or strategy behind your social media initiatives, it can go that much further. Frank (@comcastcares) at Comcast didn’t set out to chat it up with Comcast subscribers (although it would have been better than staying silent), he went out to change minds about Comcast and their customer service by helping out. Gary Vaynerchuck started his empire around educating people with the goal of (eventually) selling wine. The Best Dressed Man In Social Media aka Scott Monty certainly has a game plan with the Fiesta Movement (it’s not a campaign people, its a movement!) at Ford. And these are just a few examples.

Bottom line: Interaction = good. Interaction with purpose = great.