One thing I would like to point out is that it can be easily misconstrued that when participating on forums the objective relative to forum marketing is essentially self promotion.
While on the surface this may seem to be what the main motive is, I also want to point out that the real goal as far as I am concerned is to build relationships where all those involved succeed in their objectives.
Relationships are not all about me, relationships are not a one way street. When I am referring to relationships from a marketing or business perspective I am merely referring to the functional aspects of relationships.
In this case, functionally speaking, relationships are of mutual benefit. In online communities, be it on forums or social communities all of us are seeking something.
Your purpose from a business perspective is to provide solutions to problems be it through a product or service.
People go on forums and they ask questions and if you’re deeply interested in the topic and if you run a blog or web site about that topic with wonderful resources that can be helpful to them and in addition provide valuable information that will help them to resolve and understand their problems, then you are doing them a service.
Then they will essentially benefit from their relationship with you. But the underlying factor is relationships.
To me, in my humble judgment, I am not separate from my business, in actual fact I am the driving force behind it.
The way I behave and the actions I take will be a direct representation of what someone can expect when they do business with me.
In general people who talk about themselves a lot or are constantly promoting something they are associated with, are really just interested in what they can get out of a relationship as opposed to engaging and participating in the relationship to make sure that the other person is taken care of.
In conclusion its all about caring and doing your best to make sure you take care of people.
People come first, products, services and so on are secondary.
This blog is not about me formulating opinions its more about understanding the actions taken so that we can all see the significance of those actions and as a result of which be more effective with our time.
If you are not effective with your time then you will not be effective with other peoples time. As mentioned we cannot turn back the clock, so we need to understand who we are and what we are doing.
Best Wishes
Paul
