If you run your own business and are marketing your products to your customers, you’re probably already running a small Internet marketing campaign.
You’ve probably also heard of the term “SEO” or search engine optimization. SEO helps your product name or website appear within the topmost Yahoo or Google search results each time someone types in a topic (i.e., keyword or phrase) relevant to your product. SEO is primarily achieved through mentioning your product’s name and relevant keywords together, within blog articles and referrals across different websites.
But there’s an aspect of SEO that many small to medium business owners tend to overlook: forum marketing.
What is forum marketing?
On the Internet (or more specifically, the Web), a forum is a site that hosts virtual “bulletin boards” or written discussions between people from all over the world. Each discussion is usually about one particular subtopic, which is in line with the general theme or main topic that a particular site wants to be about. The site acts like a virtual forum for people to exchange information with one another, firsthand.
For instance, if a website is about DIY car repairs and maintenance, then the site would be hosting several ongoing discussions about any particular issue that may fall under such a general topic. One particular discussion (or “thread” as they’re called) might be about repairing dents, while yet another discussion might be about where to buy cheaper yet reliable tools. Each thread can have as many participants as possible, depending on how interesting and urgent the topic might be to the population of site users.
It’ really a virtual community, regulated by the hosting site. A lot of times the site will require users to open up a membership account (“register”) with them—which is often free, much like Web-based email services are free—so that each user can upload a profile photo, name, and contact information which will be visible each time he or she posts something in any one of the threads (instead of leaving completely anonymous messages).
A lot of these virtual forums attract real experts, who are glad to talk shop with other people and share what they know. Over time, these experts naturally build up a good reputation on the site, so much so that other forum participants seek them out for advice. And their trust is often great enough for such experts to actually start selling their products to the participants.
In other words, forum marketing is the virtual version of “working a room” or schmoozing at neighborhood parties.
What forum marketing requires
As a business owner, you’re also a natural expert on the product you’re selling and on how it can be useful to others. By joining a forum related to your area of expertise, you can create a significant online fandom—people who believe in you and your products, who will buy what you’re selling, and recommend them to others.
This has a direct impact on your overall SEO. Keywords and brand names mentioned in online forums are visible to Web search engines, and help raise your overall online presence.
But incorporating forum marketing into your SEO means you have the means, the time, and the patience to “chat” with people on such forums, and slickly introduce them to whatever you’re selling. It most likely means you need to have mobile Internet connections, so you’re online wherever you go.
It can be tedious work. You’ll meet all sorts of people online, with all sorts of questions. Some of them may even come to you with complaints. You will have to address them all, professionally and sincerely.
Above all, forum marketing is not a new iteration of what is spam: simply copying and posting generic ad letter-text into threads. Never paste spam into a forum! It means that you’re not sincere enough to address your potential customers individually, and they’ll know it.
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