Attract, Acquire and Retain..

The standard the model of Web site development and marketing has been some variant of attract, acquire and retain.

For marketers sites such as Ning and Google's new Friend Connect could prove to be a very powerful tool to allow organizations to create a community in a way that doesn't hit customers over the head with a brand message. I see very relevant applications for building community among customers, customer service and capturing information from customers as insight into product development, custom focus groups and message and ad testing.

An excellent breakdown of Friend Connect can be found here.

As discussed previously this functionality could easily serve as a spoke in the hub and spoke model and be one channel for allowing customers to interact in the way that they want. YOu have to be open to some candid commentary though.