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Community. It’s kind of a vague term, but it’s the buzz word being thrown around in the industry these days, something every company needs to be successful in the changing business frontier. It’s the next “big thing” like Facebook, SEO, web sites, fax machines, and the telegraph were before it. But community goes beyond all that, we think, to a higher plane of understanding and collaboration. At Newscom we want you to join us as we take the next step up.

The way I see it, the genesis for the “community” movement started with a bunch of social media marketers realizing that if people feel connected and involved with the company and one another they’ll become more loyal customers, share their excitement with the company with their friends and family (free marketing), and be excited about receiving discounts and other offers.

I think community goes even beyond that. We’ve got a product you need and we work with you (“you” being both the customers and the providers) to find the best way to get the product in the right hands. Whether that means we do more discounts, or website users give us more feedback on features they need to make it work better for them, or we have a grand ol’ time on Facebook posting random stock photography pictures and laughing while we take a break from a busy work day.

While we’re still working on defining exactly what a “Newscom community” will look like (we’ve got loads of ideas, believe me), we think it’s a good idea to get you, the loyal reader and fan, to start thinking of what you would like to see. So think hard: how can  you get Newscom to help you? Not sure you should think about it? Here are three reasons you should.

1. Newscom is uniquely positioned in the photo licensing marketplace. We work with both photo buyers and photo sellers, so we’re at the forefront in paving a way to make the industry work for both sides. It could probably serve your best interests well to be part of the community helping to define both roles.
2. We have 60 million images on our site. Between our Facebook page and blog, we work hard to highlight parts of the collection that are great, but may not be easily searchable (not every stunning sunset photo will show up if you search for “breathtaking nature shots”). If you apply the community concept to our database, suddenly Newscom’s 60 million images become much more searchable and easy to find because they’ve got a whole community of people highlighting the content they need and how to find more of it.
3. Your voice is heard and you’re in the know. If you haven’t shared a feature idea or talked with us about a bug issue yet, then you should try. We work really hard to fix our problems and when you’re part of the community, you know when problems are fixed, when new features are released, and what you need to let us know about so we can get it fixed. It’s also a good place to find out about deals, promotions, and new products we have that we think will help you.

There are thousands more reasons to join up with the Newscom community, but those three are at the top and cover a lot of ground. Tell us in the comments what you’d like to see from Newscom’s community. Join up with us on Facebook to stay up to date on the latest Newscom happenings.

And, if you have more time to kill, you can read these other blog posts:

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