When it comes to online marketing, forum marketing has been one of the most definitive ways to succeed online. Anyone that tries it out likes it, simply because it works so well for many. Although there is some time that must be spent doing this marketing method, it's easy to accomplish every single day. Of course, like anything else, there is no guarantee of success when you do this. The general guidelines you need to follow are easy to learn, but there is still a bottom line with forums and their members. When you post something, it must be a viable useful piece of information.
Many many will act the way that they normally act when they are in forums. There will be many who will be either introverted or extroverted. So, unless you are very good at turning people off with your personality, then act the way that you always do. If you are the shy type, you don't have to start contributing right away. This is what is known as lurking and many people do it until they feel comfortable enough to contribute to the forum. Making a first post can seem little scary in the go to my blog beginning. Just post in other threads and add something to the conversation.
Look at the signatures if you want to see if marketing is permitted. Confirm whether or not the signatures have links in them. This is the usual practice by forums if they don't mind members placing their business links in their signatures. After you have been to a couple of forums you will be able to ascertain the forum marketing rules. Also, you can determine what can be done just by looking at the other signatures. For example, they might have links and graphics. This will tell you whether or not marketing is really allowed.
Figure out who has a lot of influence on the forums before you really dig into your own networking efforts. There may be a few contenders for top spot. There is some influence to this based on the sheer number of forum members too. The longer the forums have been around and more members it has, the greater the number of people who influence the forums will be. The influencing figures are different on different forums. Usually a senior moderator who's been there forever and many people basically try to win favor and acceptance. Once you've identified them, it's time to start building relationship with these members.
So, understand that social marketing and forum marketing are somewhat alike. And it is a given that forum marketing is like social marketing. They are both deeply rooted in relationship marketing, which you should thoroughly understand.