I now own the latest Cornershop album, Cornershop and the Double O Groove Of. I wasn’t necessarily planning on buying it until an unexpected intervention.

I’d listened to the album a couple of times on Spotify and thought it really rather lovely. I Tweeted my thoughts on the album and made a mental note to possibly purchase a copy if I saw it for a decent price.

A few hours later, I had a retweet from Tjinder Singh from Cornershop, along with a quick thank you.

We don’t follow each other, so he must have been keeping an eye out for mentions of the band. I’ve never been personally thanked by a relatively well-known musician for complementing their music before, and that kind of tipped me towards buying the album.

As with most things Internet-related, it got me thinking about social media and communities.

One assumption I often come across with managing your online social media areas is that you have to use it to fight PR battles and crises, or to use them to launch whizz-bang promotions that entice new followers.

This isn’t to say this is a wrong attitude – these are both very valid and necessary uses for a brand’s social media.

But a good community manager also knows the value in the little things that show the large swathes of often silent fans they’re appreciated.

All community managers will have a set of vocal fans they’ll often interact with. These are often the brand cheerleaders and can be nurtured.

But it never hurts to say thanks to those who’ll pop onto Facebook and Twitter once to politely say how much they liked something. These are also relationships worth nurturing.

After all, the person who you say thank you to a couple of times or answer a reasonably easy query could be tomorrow’s brand evangelist.

And, yes, the new Cornershop album really is rather good.