How To Use A Forum To Get Business Without Asking For It

For those of you that have read my featured blog titled "Influencing Powerful Social Media Users To Generate Massive Traffic..." that teaches how to leverage the clout of influencers within the social media community, I wanted to share with you some insights from one of the newest StatUpBiz members, Amanda Vare, who posted some comments on that blog post that in my opinion highlight how to engage an audience and get the most positive feedback from a forum.

I've added a link above to the original article for those of you wanting to read it.

Without further ado, here's Amanda....

Hi Frank,I think you are right on the mark with this post!I'd love to share a story with you that supports everything you've written here - and I'll try to keep it as brief as possible :)

I accidentally "tapped into" what you speak of above...

Early in the year, when I was just a newbie to the internet world (that is forums, etc) and starting to build up GritFX, I was also watching American Idol and so I decided I wanted to do some designs for David Cook fans. This was because I felt he was the only contest to go through the show that I thought was good - no wonder he won!I did three designs, and then one day while browsing the Idol forums I came across a forum that was discussing "Idol tour shirts" and there on the screen were a couple of the GritFX designs.

So I moved from forum "lurker" to a forum participant and offered to do personalization on the shirts free of charge, and then donate some money to Adam Cook (David's brother who has brain cancer).

From there things snowballed - and the stages I went through were just as Frank describes. I put out the first offer... and didn't push the issue. Then people who supported my offer and liked the designs started posting their own forum threads... before I knew it GritFX had 20+ David Cook inspired designs!

The social networks that I participate in (there are now more than one!) have been awesome at helping me spread the word... well they are called "Word Nerds" *grin*.

This exposure has seen the range of COOK designs become some of our best sellers to date - and we have donated $880 (US) to Adam to date.I've also made loads of friends all over the world, and I continue to participate in the social forums - I'm actually a volunteer on the Digital Design team for the Word Nerds - which is so much fun!

Last comment... once again I think Frank is correct, if you maintain your relationships and you don't over-do the "pitching" of your company, these people are the most valuable people you could know online.

To prove the point, GritFX just launched our Christmas Themed Cook designs, and within days of letting some of my new online friends know about them, we had sales :)

That was a little longer than I wanted...
Kind regards,Amanda

Now for me I wanted to know more about how she stumbled upon this "accidental business" so I asked her for more and she responded:

Hi again...So I didn't write too much... you actually want to know more!

Thanks for the add Julio and the comment you left on my profile page - I promise to check out your stuff soon.****OK - back to the topic of the forum...When I say "accidentally tapped into", what I mean is that I never intentionally went online seeking a social network to help business. I didn't even realise what I was doing... I'm a designer by education/trade and not a marketer.

However, having since sunk my teeth into the virtual world, I've read a number of blog posts that discuss the "topic" as if it could be studied/learned - I was just acting on instinct :)

Which supports Julio's comment that "the same principles that are successful in your daily life apply to the digital world of social networks".

*****So how did I find this group of people?

I wasn't very educated about the internet back then (irony is I've designed websites since the internet became popular!)First off, I did a blog on Squidoo (GritFX didn't have a blogspot yet) and I discussed why I felt David Cook should win. With this I added the GritFX Cook designs - the first of which was "Cook Has all the Ingredients".

I also contacted a media writer that was a David supporter and ask him for his feedback on the design. He loved it so much that he shared our link with his online readers.

That was all I could think of doing at that point. My blog post was sincere and I was a genuine supporter of David (who was the best performer - but also spoke so beautifully... something lost in todays reality shows - in my opinion).

From there, I was contacted by a "Word Nerd" who invited me to come join the forums (we are still friends today). I only lurked... still too shy to jump in and leave comments - you can see that's a thing of the past!

Then doing a basic Google search, I found the forum that had our shirts...Telling myself to get over the fear of partcipating in forums, I left my first comment - which was the offer to personalize the shirts.

Why did I do that - I READ THE FORUM! and it was apparent that this group of people wanted tour shirts, but the key thing I noticed was that they also had a huge desire to include their fan number (ie, word nerd number... I'm #3004).

So that's how it all started.*****

I never pushed the issue, and I began to leave comments in other forum topics - which I enjoyed anyway :)People eventually emailed me and when I felt comfortable posting more information, I did so - and like Franks original post mentioned... I would only do this from time to time and not for every update.

*****What else can I tell you...
2 Designs were penned by Cathy Wood - who is the founder of the foundation we donate through - Fans Support Adam Cook.*****

That's probably enough for now - let me know if you'd like to know more.
Regards,Amanda

The key point here folks is this: I never intentionally went online seeking a social network to help business. and because she was only helping and taking an interest in people, they wanted to do business with her.Raise your hands if you get it by adding a comment here or on the original blog article.

Sincerely,
Frank Tocco--Marketing Mentor
Get Paid To Generate Responsive Leads--Free Videos
Free Website Traffic Tips
Social Media Networking Tips