An Excellent Example of Building Community with a Blog

If you missed last night’s season premier of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, you missed excellent television.

I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after watching it. Wow.

I’ve been following the build up to the second season premier on the show’s blog — whose author has done an excellent job of linking to the press, interviews and other noteworthy items surrouding the show.

The best post so far, however, came yesterday from Josh Freidman, the writer for the season premier. In it he talked about how a bootlegged Bruce Springsteen song inspired him to write the script as he did, and how he asked Shirley Manson (who is also cast in the new season) to perform the song — which she ends up singing in the opening sequence.

The result is nothing short of spectacular. (You can view the opening sequence to the premier on the Fox Website.)

Although the T:TSCC blog has absolutely nothing to do with B2B marketing, we marketers can all learn something from it.

1. Don’t be afraid to “open the kimono” a bit and let people in on how your company has arrived at certain decisions. I loved reading about how Freidman had a song running in his head for days . . . and how it became the episode’s theme.

2. Let other people in your company have a voice. The T:TSCC blog is written by one person (I think), but letting Freidman tell his story in his own words — and not editing out the “off color” words under the guise of “PR”– was a masterful move.

3. Listen to your community. The comments have mostly raved about the opener – with most everyone saying, “Make the Shirley Manson song available on iTunes, please!” I bet it’s live by the end of the week.

I’ve followed a fair number of “entertainment” type blogs and I have to say, the T:TSCC blog is superb. Excellent writing, excellent topics, and excellent community building. Five stars, guys!