By: Matthew Carollo, Manager, Marketing Operations

Have you ever tried to engage and interact with an online community? Are you and your team looking for some practical, actionable advice on how to have a conversation with highly active technology communities?

Technology blogger Allan Maurer recently interviewed Stephen Wellman, Editor-in-Chief at Geeknet Media, and hit on some very interesting points in an article here.

“You have to be authentic, transparent about who you are, honest, genuine”, Wellman said when asked about how a company should interact with the Slashdot audience. This is true with any audience, but is especially true with “Slashdotters”. One of the greatest things about Slashdot is that the community will be totally honest about their opinions on a product, service or solution set. This honesty can be very beneficial to a company who is willing to listen.

“You can’t fake it and you have to be prepared to hear the truth”, Wellman goes on to say. If you want to market to an engaged community, especially one like Slashdot, you cannot try to fake your way into the community, as this will only harm you in the end. If you are prepared to join the conversation and listen to valid criticisms, you will be able to improve your content in a way that resonates well within that community.

Real-time engagement with communities is still a scary thing to some tech marketers, but if you do it right, your business will benefit.

Check out the full article here.

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For more information on how to effectively engage with the Slashdot and Sourceforge communities, please contact your Geeknet Media sales representative today!