Internet forums, or message boards, are essentially the oldest social networks online. They are places for like-minded people to chat about certain topics, get help, and more. Today it is easy to overlook forums when thinking about social media. Their age plays a part, and the “niche-ness” of them prohibits massive amounts of members. Still, forums have an important place in the online world. They are go-to sources for knowledge about specific topics, and thanks to the crowdsourcing nature of forums, tremendous amounts of information can be provided to users.
So what does this have to do with business? Simple. Chances are there are one or more forums in existence for your particular industry or specialty, and it’s up to you to get active on those forums! Forums tend to like having businesses as active members. As long as the business owner is helpful and fair, members will often push clients to them. You just have to answer questions when you can, “get” a little of the forum culture, and don’t over-promote. Typically a link in your signature (a space after your comment) will do. Over-promotion on Twitter may get people to stop following you; over-promotion on forums can get you banned.
Find any and all forums related to your business, join up, and introduce yourself. Once you’ve set everything up on the forums, figure out what sub-forums (more specific discussions) you need to keep track of. You might get lucky and find that your forums have RSS feeds, but it is more likely that you’ll have to manually check the boards. If you get the conversation aspect of Twitter, you’ll do fine on forums. The cardinal rule you should remember is simply to be helpful. Even if you’re backing someone else’s comment up, you’re being helpful. When people see you helping out, and see that you work in the industry, they’ll begin to think of you as an expert in the field.
Once the forum members think of you as an expert, you should start seeing results of your labor. Unless the industry you are in is very local, or doesn’t make many sales, chances are good that members will start referring work your way. You might want to consider giving forum members some sort of discount when purchasing your services, as an additional incentive.
Additionally, taking part in forums gives you the chance to speak with customers, ease any concerns, and address any public complaints they have. If you are active on the forums you can explain your way out of trouble, while being inactive to mean big trouble for you. Here’s a hypothetical situation: Your company sells chairs, and you’ve recently gotten a huge number of orders from a forum. You run out of stock, and hold customer money for 3 weeks while you get more chairs. A disgruntled forum member starts a thread complaining about not having his chair yet, and other members start to chime in as well. Now, as an active member, you can calm the situation down by assuring people that their chairs are on the way, and they can get their money back if they wish. Thus, the situation dies down, and everyone gets their chairs. If you aren’t active at all, the thread gets nastier and nastier, until all members cancel their orders and completely trash your business. Now you have lost all their business, and people searching for you online may find this nasty thread and take their money elsewhere.
In conclusion, join forums. They may take some time, but are worth the effort, and can’t be overlooked.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn