A number of brand social networks have emerged over the past six months, many of them with the goal of invoking some type of action and many of them failing. What is missing? Activity.

A mentor early in my career often said, "activity begets activity." Activity is what is missing from many of these brand social networks and from the overall social media presence including the brand pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter. In order to motivate and activate your tribe it is necessary for you as a company or organization to play an active role in the community.

Possibilities to engage your tribe can be found in many of the daily planned events for the organization. Share the successes of the overall organization and ask your supporters to take similar action and then share their own success. Provide video, photo and written content developed by the company and give the community ideas for sharing it. Look for roles for your tribe to play in whatever you do as a company or organization not only in online activity but offline. There will not always be a way to integrate your community, but many times there are and they are simply not being considered.

Planning a press conference to launch a new program or product? Invite the community to attend or look for a way for them to participate. Your leadership is speaking on a panel? Build time into the itinerary to meet with local active online supporters or reserve seats for them at the event. Simply including your tribe in the routine activity of the organization can result in activity by your tribe on your behalf.