Online Forums are good places to interact and Forum participation. If done right, your participation becomes a natural marketing tool and can be very effective branding as well.
The Benefits of Forums Participation are essentially the following:
A Platform for Viral Marketing.
The power of the Word of mouth of forum is both lateral and simultaneous when leveraged using the forum approach. This takes the form of viral marketing which very quickly and effectively spreads the word for you and your product offerings.
That is, if you are good, or for that matter, bad, you will be renown or notorious in no time at all! And of course, the good or the bad you have done would be circulating virally within as well as outside of the forum. Afterall, cyberspace sees no boundaries. Thinking positive, try imagining the amount of traffic you drive to your site.
Check Demand with Test Marketing.
So you have a great idea, product or service. But you are not sure whether they will sell. Tactfully bring up the topic of your offerings at your niche forum and trigger discussion. Let others give their opinion.
This platform serves as a quick test and you are then able to get an overall perspective of how well your idea or product is accepted, assuming of course that the forumers are representative of your intended niche segments.
To enhance this process and your statistics, search out a minimum of 10 niche active forums and float your product ideas. You might even get improvement suggestions that catapult your sales.
Connect, Network and Build Industry Relationships.
Be in the know, be seen, be heard, be felt! Essentially, you need to be seen as being on your toes when you network with other forumers within the industry. This is all about branding and positioning yourself in the forums as an authority or expert in a certain area.
In fact, if done correctly, branding you or your product offerings could even take you offline from your online activities and help you connect and grow with real industry experts. It takes some effort as in all relationship building activities, but this does have long term benefits for your business and cannot be ignored.
Create Direct Sales Opportunities.
Note that the operative word here are ?Create ... Opportunities?. Never should you directly sell your products at the forums and this is a taboo in most forums. Have respect for the forum master, your fellow forumers who are there to interact. If you wish to sell, create a subtle link at your signature or sign off.
Sales is a by-product of your forum participation activities which should Not be your priority. Referrals, Self-Branding, future long term traffic flow are your key objectives.
Stay tuned for the next session at Project Traffic!
