I couldn't agree with you more. Brands should be more focused on participating elsewhere - you know, all those 100s of other community sites - then building a destination community. Plain and simple. - Jennifer Van Grove from FriendFeed MT Plugin

tell that to edelman marketing - Peter Dawson

I can't count the number of people I've told "go to where the community is". Unless you're astoundingly compelling, it's the only hope for social network engagement. - Stephen Collins from twhirl

First mistake, leave it to the marketing department to do this. Obviously, don't bother to hire a social media expert. Some dude in marketing who was on twitter once will do. There are plenty of quality folks out there (uh, like me) who are looking for social media positions within corporations. Our living resumes are already out there in our blogs, podcasts and discussions on twitter/friendfeed. Don't try this at home corporate America, get someone who knows what's going on. - David Jacobs from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Perhaps a better headline would be "Badly Implemented Corporate Social Networks without clear objectives are A Waste of Money". Launching yourself into a $1m project without a pilot, proper ROI assessment or a profile of the likely participants: well it's just stupid. Go hire an expert and get them to justify the investment. Start small too. (Agree entirely with Jennifer Van Grove - go to your customers rather than wait for them. It's the most exciting thing about social media!). - David Sim from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Agree with David Sim: there are many focused social networks that work. Implementation is key and *start small.* Reminds me of the early days of folks just throwing up web sites... - Barbara K. Baker

"Go hire an expert" - you mean the social media consltant's ? that ones that outnumber the users on twitter ?http://friendfeed.com/e... - Peter Dawson