Forum Feats

Forum Feats

Forums don’t have the clout that they used to have. After all, before there was such a
thing as MySpace (the first big social media site that slowly died over time) there was
the Internet forum, or in archaic terms, the “chat room” or the bulletin board system.
These applications were the predecessors of social networking and helped bring people
of highly varied niche interests together long before there was a universal network that
connected everybody together.
Well, guess what? They haven’t gone out of style. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are
actually so big that many people avoid them, figuring that aside from friends and family,
it is too difficult to find people that actually share their most important interests.
However, web forums still have the capacity to bring niche audiences together,
especially if you create forums that cater to keyword interests, and visit other forums to
post as a guest (or even a part time moderator). When you join a forum, you discuss all
of the niches that really matter to people, the type of topics that bring you devoted
followers, not just casual surfers. Forums also give you:
$Special tools like polls;
$Easy cross platform logging in abilities thanks to Facebook and Twitter
integration;
$A chance to find your target market and interact with them;
$A chance to build community trust; and
$A signature, which is basically a link back to your company, and an opportunity to
make a statement about your credentials and your company’s values.
When focusing your efforts on forums, try doing some keyword research to target the
best audience to work with, and don’t forget to actually add the phrase 'forums' to your search so you can filter out all the social network pages and content mills.
Last but not least, remember that all social networking, regardless of which site you use,
is useful to you as the medium is a form of free advertising. The only rules of thumb are:
(A)You cannot be lazy about it, you have to update consistently
(B)You cannot blatantly promote, try to be creative and sociable above all else
(C)You cannot be boring.  Even if you’re just giving free stuff away, try to be fun and
interesting
Social networking sites have two great traffic advantages; first, they create quality links
for your site. In fact, with the latest search algorithm updates, social media pages
actually showed an increase in traffic, whereas content mills and even article directories
showed significant decreases. Second, social networks create a great quantity of links eading back to your site, the more that your content or links are shared amongst the
community.
The biggest mistake new business owners make is clear; they do nothing with their
page rather than going out and recruiting people by befriending them, sharing with them
and (gasp) yes, even promoting their business. It’s the cyber equivalent of hosting an
event. So by all means, invite people, mingle and have fun with the latest trend in free
online marketing.
What about email marketing? Some say email marketing may be a thing of the past,
especially since instant messaging and social networking sites are stealing the thunder.
Gee, I wonder…have you received any SPAM email offers lately? Of course! The
medium is not dead. However, you must take an assertive and smart approach to email
marketing if you want to generate serious traffic.