Why are forums important? Forums are where your potential customers are asking questions and getting answers from other people like them. Businesses do not use forums largely unless they are company run but forums can be your best friend – you can comment on posts and ask questions in order to get a better perspective on what is going on in your industry. Industry insight is crucial to success, and while there are countless companies that you can pay to give you industry insight that is quantifiable. But if you are cold calling customers regularly, industry insight can be more valuable if you are seeing directly what people are saying. Forums provide that direct insight – forums allow people to express opinion and insight, which helps you in selling. Are customers upset over new laws? How can your company help them? Is there new equipment out that people want more information on? Give them that insight and talk to them about how issues are getting fixed or not and what can be done to help people in the industry.
But forums can be tricky too. When posting on forums, you must be careful of not posting advertisements or sounding like you are selling. When signing up for a forum, many companies will not only include in the Agreement Terms that most people just click agree to, that you cannot advertise without paying upfront or advertise at all. This is to protect the community from being sold to so they can be as honest as possible as well as not leave the community due to unwarranted advertisements. When signing up for a forum, some companies may ask a bit about your company and if the description sounds like you are trying to sell to posters, then they will not even let you on the forum. Be aware of this and try to use the forum not as a selling outlet but more as an industry insight.
Participating on forums should be kept more to commenting on how to fix something, asking questions and gaining answers in order to better understand the industries you sell in. Just be careful and be aware of what you are posting on the forums.
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