If you DON'T build it...

Why invest in a community around your products? The Creating Positive Context blog makes this point:

Also, customers can access new knowledge about the behaviour of companies and can more readily question and challenge this behaviour. Similarly, they can more easily consult and collaborate with other customers. In doing so, they place higher value on peer-group reviews and dialogue than the one-way marketing messages sent out by firms.

For the Geterati who believe in community building what is being said is this: If you don't build the community around your product where customers/prospects can interact with others, your customers/prospects will go somewhere else to interact. This means YOU don't get the benefit of learning what your customers and prospects want and need--and what they need to know.