A successful social media campaign has a lot of similar characteristics to socializing with friends or colleagues.  You need to be a trusted part of the group before people are going to take your advice.

So riddle me this, why do online marketers hop into existing conversations unannounced expecting any body to listen?  Would you walk into a financial planning party where you knew not a single person and expect them to take your advice on mutual funds?  Of course not, but if you had attended these parties regularly, got to know most of the attendees and built repor by helping people without personal gain, you would eventually have their attention when you decided to show them what you have to offer.

The exact same thing exists when trying to use social media marketing, especially when you have minimal brand presence and want to sway communities of individuals to listen to what you have to say and subscribe to what you have to offer.

Now, this is obviously not a fly by night operation, but if you are serious about building the power of your brand or service, you need to be prepared to get down and dirty in the trenches.  You need to build trust one on one with the people who would eventually utilize your offerings.  If you can harness the power of a an entire community, your earnings potential could sky rocket.

How to Get Started?

There are thousands of communities online, try to find a community that is very directly related to your product, service or brand.

Once you’ve found the forum you feel is appropriate, you need to assimilate.  Read the forum rules VERY thoroughly.  You will never be accepted into the group if you are constantly breaking rules.  Study the rules until you are certain you are clear of what you can and can’t do.

DO NOT place your web site in your signature right off the bat and don’t choose your company name as your user name.  People will catch on to this and you may get flamed before you even begin.

Start out by offering an introduction thread if the forum offers introduction threads.  Make sure to leave out your business and try to just talk about your personal interests and hobbies.

Over the next couple weeks, everyday you should try to chime in and help a few people with their questions.  Start out by answering four or five threads a day so you don’t come across as the overly ambitious guy that brings up threads that are really old.  Try to stick to the more recent threads, as a lot of individuals tend to get irritated when you bring up conversations that have been dead for awhile.

Assimilation

The full assimilation period could take a month, or it could take a few depending on how active the forum is.  You are going to want to do everything in your power to be liked and to genuinely help people.

Introducing Your ‘Offering’

Once you are part of the group, if a question pops up that is somehow related to what you can offer, provide a very helpful response but also gently introduce your product.  Since you are now part of the group and have always provided genuine help, chances are the forum users will be much more receptive to your offering.

At this point, it would be acceptable to place your URL in your signature.  Continue to help people with their questions, and start becoming an authority in the community.  As more and more community members take advantage of your services, word of mouth will travel and if you are lucky you may even get some testimonials on the community.

Is this a quick way to get big? Nope, this is a long term strategy designed to build brand recognition within the already existing communities online.  Keep in mind this doesn’t only apply to forums.  You can apply the same technique within Facebook groups, on Twitter or on any other online platform where people get together to discuss their hobbies and passions.

If you need a hand finding a related forum, I highly recommend checking out one of the following forum search engines:

http://boardreader.com/
http://omgili.com/
http://www.boardtracker.com/