Your Community vs. Your Sponsor. Always choose to be true to your Community

Some words of wisdom from Anthony Bradley of Gartner:

Always choose to be “true to the community” over supporting the interests of a sponsor. Even though money comes from a sponsor. The power comes from the community. Without the community there is no power to attract sponsors. Think of it this way:

• If you lose a sponsor but keep the community, you will get another sponsor.
• If you keep the sponsor but then lose the community, you will lose all sponsors (including the one you tried to keep)

The same philosophy applies to all social media implementations. Being “true to the community” is paramount.