It's almost impossible to find a niche that doesn't have some relevant forum dedicated to it. If these forums also manage to garner a fair share of traffic, it's a simple matter to capitalize on that traffic in a really big way. The truth is that most people imagine this process taking much longer than it needs to. With all good things, however, time and care are required in order to get a maximum ROI. It's up to you what the best choice might be.
This article discusses forum marketing, which is why you are reading the article in the first place. Don't gravitate towards forums that don't want you to market products. You'll find lots of forums that don't want any marketing or business related activities in them. But, the forum owner is selling ads and will sell you one if you are willing to pay. It will be up to you to find out which forums will let you marketing there. But, it won't be hard to find a good one because the net has loads of them. Anytime you sign up for a new forum, you should look around, and specifically search for a couple different things. Before you decide to join, there are some things to consider. Since your primary purpose is to market your products and services, a few things need to be known. Consider the fact that most forum owners are not very fond of IMers in general. This is something that will probably not occur if the owner is not very fond of IMers like yourself. Simply read the forum rules. These will tell you what you can and can't do quickly and easily. By simply looking at the absence of signatures in forum posts, you will be able to discern if online marketing is possible. Most if not all forums will not allow direct advertising in posts. In essence, they are preventing their forum from looking like a giant billboard in the proverbial Internet sky.
Just be the kind of expert that is laid back and is there to help others. If you frequent the forums a lot, you will come into many people. Some people just can't help but talk down to official statement others. There will always be someone who see the negative side to everything. A lot of people will not acknowledge these people, which will make them go away in time. These are the things that really go on in forums. So you have to determine what is important to you. If you want to successfully market in forums, then you have to adjust if that is necessary.
So compare social marketing to forum marketing. And it's no surprise that forum marketing is a form of social marketing. Both are based on relationship marketing and you can reach your goals if you learn how proper relationship marketing works.