---
title: 'Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy'
date: '2009-03-04T09:31:43-08:00'
type: post
word_count: 481
char_count: 3186
tokens: 626
categories:
  - Books
  - DawnFoster
  - geekygirldawn
  - Oregon
  - Portland
tags:
  - 'dawn foster'
  - 'fast wonder'
  - geekygirldawn
  - Shizzow
---

# Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy

[![Dawn Foster](https://i0.wp.com/siliconflorist.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/dawnfoster.jpg?w=925)](http://fastwonderblog.com "Dawn Foster")When it comes to social media and community management, few folks in Portland—arguably few folks in the world—understand it as well as [Dawn Foster](http://fastwonderblog.com "Dawn Foster Fast Wonder It's an anagram get it?"), [@geekygirldawn](http://twitter.com/geekygirldawn "Dawn geekygirldawn Foster on Twitter").

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to meet her, Dawn is a community management powerhouse. She has more than 13 years of experience in technology and software with expertise in open source software, web 2.0, social media, blogging, and community building, working at companies like Intel and [Jive Software](http://jivesoftware.com "Jive Software"). She’s also a co-founder and board member for [Legion of Tech](http://legionoftech.org "Legion of Tech"). Dawn currently consults on social media and community management and serves as the community manager for [Shizzow](http://shizzow.com "Shizzow").

So when I heard she was working on a book that was going to give me access to some of her insights, I got a wee bit giddy.

And now, [it’s available](http://fastwonderblog.com/2009/03/04/companies-and-communities-participating-without-being-sleazy-an-ebook/ "Dawn announces the book").

Entitled ***[Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy](http://fastwonderblog.com/ebooks/ "Companies and Communities Participating without being sleazy")***, the 80-page eBook touches on topics like blogging, Twitter, social networks, and customer-centric corporate communities.

> Companies and Communities is focused on helping your company get real business value out of participating in online communities and social media. This 80 page eBook contains practical advice and suggestions for how companies can engage with online communities and social media sites.

How practical? Well, it’s full of things which we—as individual social media participants—may think are obvious, but are far from it. Especially for corporations. Things like:

> **Not all about you**

> Social media is a conversation, which is by definition two-way. In other words, it is not all about you, your company, your products or your agenda. It involves listening and participating in the broader community of people. Don’t just expect people to help you; jump in and help other people in areas where you have some expertise. If all you do is pimp your products without adding to the broader conversation, people will lose interest in you pretty quickly.

The eBook is delivered in PDF format. It’s available for $19.99. To purchase your copy, visit [Dawn’s Fast Wonder Blog eBook section](http://fastwonderblog.com/ebooks/ "Fast Wonder Blog eBooks"). Or, if you want to test drive it first, there’s an [excerpt available](http://fastwonderblog.com/fastwonderfiles/files/Companies_and_Communities_Excerpt.pdf "Companies and Communities excerpt").

I’m already thumbing through my own copy. Now, I just have to figure out how to get the author to autograph an eBook.