Social Networks: build or join?

Jeremiah Owyang over at the Web Strategy blog has put up a podcast and post discussion here about whether companies should roll their own social networks or exploit an existing application to create a community.

It’s an interesting debate but the conclusion, as you may expect, really comes down to what Chris Heuer of the Conversation Group defines as horses for courses. In other words, it depends…..

The danger is in creating a social network of your own for all the ‘wrong’ reasons but it’s important to remember that those wrong reasons may seem the right reasons to the people making the choices (and paying the money). If there is one guiding principle when it comes to making this choice, I think it has to be: what does your community want? As always, this brings us to the question of listening. Ask them first.