Discussion Forum Communities - Approach With Care

Writing by Brick Marketing on Wednesday, 13 of February , 2008 at 9:10 am

Discussion Forums give you the opportunity to place your thoughts and skills in front of a large community of people who are really, really, really dedicated to a niche. In other words, the right active niche forum could turn out to be a very, very good group of targeted prospects for your business. And for every person who is active in the forum, there are probably 10 who just lurk, reading everything, looking for the right people to connect with, never saying a word.

You have a chance to connect with ALL of that forum community. It can be a wonderful opportunity for you.

On the other hand … do you remember when Harrison Ford got tossed into the snake pit in the first “Indiana Jones” movie? He hated snakes, and he was thrown into a hole with hundreds of them. That could easily be you, if you aren’t careful about approaching a new forum.

Don’t believe me? OK. Search Google and find some active forum in your niche. Sign up and jump right in with a new post about the wondrous things you can do for everybody. Then listen to the background “hum” in your new community. Oops! That’s no hum. Those are RATTLES! Can you hear them?

The snakes are there for the same reason you are there: to find prospects and to cultivate customers. If they think you may be a prospect, they’ll be polite and helpful. But they’re still a rattlesnake. None of them wants more competition. If they see you as a competitive threat, they’ll gang up and swarm you, and you will disappear in a hurry.

So approach any discussion forum with care. Practice common-sense reputation management. If you moved into a new community, you wouldn’t stand on your rooftop and start screaming about what a great new neighbor everybody has just gotten. Don’t do it in a forum, either. Never introduce yourself by making a claim. Watch the forum for awhile, get an idea where the snakes are, and start your participation by asking for advice here and there.

Your best plan is to hang around and ask a thoughtful question or two and let the community get to know you. You can usually include a signature file with your post, linking to your website.

While you are there, keep a list of the questions other forum community members ask. What is their biggest problem? Write a report, or record an mp3 file, or a video. Solve some common problem for them. Offer the information for free to all the other community members. This time, you definitely want to include a signature file linking back to your website.

By now, you are an accepted, welcome member of the discussion forum community. You can fully participate in discussions without being flamed … so long as you know your stuff. Anytime you get too big for your britches, the snakes will come after you. So make it a point to always know and be able to prove what you are talking about.

And it never hurts to grow your own big rattle, either.

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Category: Forum Communities, Reputation Management

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