Great communities inspire great conversations. Online communities are no different.

Fred Wilson once said in his blog, “modern [online] community building isn’t easy, but if there is one thing the Internet has taught me over the past 15 years, large engaged communities are incredibly powerful things, both commercially and socially. Building them is important and ultimately very valuable work.”

One of the definitions of the word “community” is “body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a large society.”

The Internet allows people with common interests, be it Mac enthusiasts or IT people, come together even if they are “scattered through a large society.” People always want to belong to some kind of community where they can share their thoughts, opinions and interests with others.

Every business has the opportunity to take advantage of this phenomenon and unite their customers and fans in an online community with a common interest – their brand.

Many brands build online communities hoping that it would be an easier way to talk to their customers. They keep creating and pushing content out to their fans, failing to realize that many of them join an online community not because they want to listen to brands, but rather talk and share their experiences with each other.

Online communities can generate valuable content for your brand if you would just let your fans talk. Their opinions might not always be positive, but the fact that your fans talk about you already means they are interested in your business. And even negative feedback can be turned into a learning experience. Just make sure to address those comments in a timely manner (watch for a blog post on crisis management soon).

Sephora’s “Beauty Talk” online community on the website had exactly that result: “we realized that…clients were not only trying to talk with us – they were trying to talk with each other. And they were actually engaging in ways we had no idea they would,” said the VP of interactive media at Sephora.

A strong online community, where people have the freedom to express their opinions and know they are being heard, nurtures community leaders that can become brand advocates both online and offline.

Facebook is a great platform for your business to start building online communities. It is important to give your customers a voice, even though it might be uncomfortable at first. Ask questions, encourage conversations, monitor and listen. Your fans have a lot to say about your brand, don’t limit their ability to interact with each other and with you.

Just about every business owner in the universe right now knows that using social media to attract and communicate with customers is essential. For proof, see this and this.

But for businesses that have yet to establish an active presence on social media (and there are still many), coming up with worthwhile content for all those blog plosts, tweets, status updates, videos, podcasts and so forth amounts to a pretty daunting task.

Quality and quantity are key in an effective social media strategy. The messages must be useful and engaging, or people won’t make the jump from following you online to becoming paying customers. The messages must be frequent and consistent, or people won’t keep coming back.

I won’t lie. It’s a lot of work.

So how do you inject value into that stream of content gushing from your keyboard?

The mistake so many businesses make is to hire an intern or appoint an already overworked employee to feed out one-sided sales information. Think of a car dealership that opens a Twitter account and begins tweeting the make, model and price of every car on the lot. Or a restaurant that does nothing but regurgitate its lunch specials day after day.

Worst of all are the businesses that do nothing but repeat the same old, tired call for you to come in and buy stuff. The only thing those businesses are likely to get their customers to do is unfriend them.

It’s social media — not commercial media. People do not want to be told what to do.

So how on earth does a company owner turn the content grind into gold?

The process of creating worthwhile content has two main parts.

1. Listen. Before you can get people talking about your brand, you’ve got to tune into the larger conversation. Plug keywords related to your vertical market into Twitter search and see what’s being said in real-time. Place an ear to the blogosphere through Technorati and Google’s blog search. See if anyone’s built a social network related to your field on Ning. Find experts in your industry on LinkedIn. Just plain Google the hell out of everything.

Whether you deal in semiconductors or hairbrushes, people are talking about your area of expertise online. But before you begin even thinking of talking up your brand, figure out how you can add to the conversation without coming on like that guy — i.e., the one who has nothing of value to add other than “hey, look at me!”

And that brings us to…

2. Create Value. Now, the fun part! Once you’ve gotten a feel for how discussion of your product or vertical is carried out online by experts and amateurs alike, it’s time for you to start throwing in your two cents.

Realize that the real power of social media is in allowing you to tell your own story to the world however you want through your own channel.

If you’re a business owner, then you’re an expert in something. You have information and insights that people can benefit from.

Say you’re a restaurant owner looking to promote your business through a blog. Rather than using that blog as an extended advertising platform or personal diary, cram it with your thoughts on things like food preparation, culinary trends, running a business, managing a waitstaff, dealing with difficult customers, the art of pairing wines with dishes, your thoughts on decor, how sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon affect business … there’s really no shortage of interesting things to talk about. Share your specialized knowledge.

If you’re not much of a writer but still want to produce the content yourself, set up a cheap video camera and record yourself dispensing wisdom. Gary Vaynerchuk used video blogging to turn his site, Winelibrary.com (which was actually an offshoot of his family’s liquor store) into a lucrative online retailer.

Your homework: Come up with 25 ideas for blog posts related to your field of interest to your audience.

Why do this? Because “brand” is no longer just a logo, a company and a product. The rise of social media has deepened and diversified what it means to be a brand. A brand is a story. It has a voice and personality. And now you can create your own channel for sharing that story, that voice, and interacting with other stories and voices online.

If you create worthwhile content, people will consume it and share it with their friends.

Then the next time they or someone they know needs a semiconductor or a hairbrush, guess whose name comes up in conversation?