Listen Before You Join the Conversation

It's been a while since I posted (approximately 3 weeks almost). I was serious when I said I wanted to update this blog once / week, but my laptop decided to crap out. Basically the LCD screen burnt out and while the laptop is still functioning fully, I can't see anything on it. Makes sense considering it's a 6 and a half year old machine. I haven't fixed the issue yet, but I probably will end up getting a new laptop.

Anyway, onto the topic at hand. Forum marketing is often an important, but neglected Social Media strategy considering that a wide variety of them cater to a very specific demographic. Those businesses who do use forums in their marketing efforts tend to not promote properly (aka spamming) and end up killing all of their credibility. You must get a feel of the forum that you're looking to get a presence in before you promote your business.

Let's stat off with selecting the proper forums. Finding forums are easy enough. Google "industry or target market forum" or replace "forum" with "message boards". Simple enough. The ones that rank the highest tend to be the most relevant / popular. When narrowing down which forums you'd like to use for your marketing efforts, make sure you follow the below criteria (in no order of importance):

• Are there new posts DAILY?
• Do they have a large number of members?
• Do forum posts typically get a decent number of responses
• Are you able to drop a link in either the post or your forum signature?
• Is it a competitor site? (make sure the forum is not owned and operated by a competitor)
• Is your target audience there?

Ok so now you have 5 forums that are perfect to market in. Sign up, start a thread saying "my product is the best product EVER", drop a link to your site, and let the millions of dollars poor in right? No. Do NOT now or ever make your first post in a forum website self promotional. You know the saying "you only make one first impression", well it applies to any sort of conversation, including a forum community. Once you are labeled as a spammer you'll always be labeled as such.

Before you start participating or even registering an account, read the forum's terms of service, speficially what IS and IS NOT allowed. Yes most forums tend to let things slide somewhat that go against their TOS, but why risk it? You can't get in trouble from following the rules. Once you have a firm grasp on the site's TOS, monitor conversations. See the tone of each post. Is it professional? casual? humurous? How are people communicating with each other? It's always best to be yourself in a forum, but if people are acting in a professional manner and you drop the F bomb in your first post, users won't take you seriously.

While you're listening, identify the influencers. Influencers are people who post frequently, have been a member for a long time, and get a ton of replies every time they start a new thread. By identifying these individuals, you'll know whose radar you want to be on (positively of course). A forum is a community, and this type of community almost always trusts their leader (aka the influencer). Keep them on your radar and when it comes time to post in the forum make sure you reply to their threads, send them a private message asking more about a particular topic, or do what you can to positively get in their mind set.

So you have the ideal forum website, identified the influencer, now how do you promote your business? Best practices indicate that dropping a link in your signature along with a description of what you're selling is your safest and best bet. It doesn't force your product to the consumer, but let's people in the community know who you are and what you have to offer. Answer topics that you are an expert on to show people that you are knowledge in the industry. If people come to understand you as an expert, it will make that signature link all the more valuable. The question of "do I ever promote my product or service in a forum topic?" I often like to respond with very rarely if at all. I only recommend doing this after you have a ton of posts already and you've built up a sense of trust within the community. Also, I'd only do this if the person has a problem that your product / service has a solution for or if they specifically ask for a product / service that you offer.