We always talk about how important community is to our work, so much so, that the word itself is at great risk of being devalued for its hackneyed overuse in our communications. Yet, now more than ever, every nonprofit professional has the ability to connect directly and in real-time to any number of communities with the push of their thumb.

Never has it been so easy to find, create, nurture and connect with so many different people without spending much time and zero dollars. Technology has made it not only possible, it has made it a requirement of any effective marketing strategy.

So, the question is, “Are you thinking about the Jewish community you want to reach every day?” Are you making the commitment to engage them with a planned strategy and frequency that keeps you in their field of vision and yet avoids annoying them with too much information or irrelevant information?

When you check your phone for text messages and tweets, and when you check your Facebook profile or even your email, are you also thinking about how you can add something valuable to the online conversation happening with one of your most important community segments? Do you know what blogs they read? What Facebook causes they subscribe to? What they tweet about? Are you in the conversation?

If you care about Jewish community, you have to join their online social water-cooler gatherings and be part of the conversation. You can’t talk about how important the community is if you are not living it every day.

Gail Hyman is a marketing and communications professional who currently focuses her practice, Gail Hyman Consulting, on assisting Jewish nonprofit organizations increase their ranks of supporters and better leverage their communications in the Web 2.0 environment. Gail is a regular contributor to eJewish Philanthropy.