Should Brands Take Part in 3rd Party Communities?

If you’ve ever read my post, Build vs. Join – http://tinyurl.com/5qh7lv you’d know that my answer to that question is HELL YEAH! However, my colleague, Doug Wick, brought the question up again today on Yammer. He and I went back and forth a bit on the pros and cons.

Rather than bog down the rest of my colleagues with lots of text, I thought about getting my thoughts down in an Utter-cast. What do you think? Should companies participate in third party communities instead of building their own? Should they only build their own and eschew third party efforts? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts…