Forum advice... first time

Hello.

My wife and I have been running our own business for almost ten years now. We only recently obtained (less than a year ago) an internet presence. So far, it has been a great experience for us by allowing our business to grow beyond the local sector.

We have recently decided it might be useful to offer a forum where small businesses could come and share their advertising experiences and learn and educate as well. Our question is what is the most effective way to promote the existence of our forum?

We are so new to the forum area and want to make sure that we get our best foot forward before we launch... i.e. it saves us from a "how do I fix this mess" kind of post after the fact.

If there is any information you can share it would be greatly appreciated.

Forum is being setup under phpBB. Thanks for all your input!

 

Its a great idea, Marketing for small business is unknown territory for many small business people. An active forum can do wonders for your site, and set it up as an authority in your field. HoweverForums can be a lot of work, you need good content and recurring postings by members to keep it viable, fresh and informative.

I would ditch phpbb and go with Vbulletin (this is a vbulletin site) so it looks more professional. But thats me, I know others will disagree.

 

Carowan,

Thank you. I do not have the luxury of going with vbulletin. I am willing to spend the time it takes to make the forum a possitive experience for our users. I just do not understand the correct method to use to announce its arrival. I can simply put up a page or two discussing it on our website but that will only be of limited reach... I want so much more for the forum. Any suggestions?

Thanks again.

 

Gotcha. You can always transfer to Vbulletin when it gets larger.

I have a forum, and did a "soft launch" with friends/family to get some members and posts up. No one joins a forum with only a few postings/members.

After this, place a descriptive text and link on your homepage for a Hard Launch. Fire off a Press release through PRweb.

Since you already have clients, let them know about your forum.
Sell it as a free tool they can use to grow their business or something along those lines. This is really your strength, as if the use or even visit your forum, they will recall why they used you in the first place.

Forum Raid. If you need posts, you can request a forum raid from some other forum administrators that also need posts. So basically swap posts to get things going.

Alternative member ID's
Some people use this to get the forum rolling. Say you have 5 ID's and basically start threads and answer with your other forum ID's. You can throttle it back when it becomes more popular. not the most honest way, but its done more than you may realize.

Thats about it. Really the main theme is to get it out in the world, keep getting good content and new blood. ITs not easy, but when it works, its worthwhile.

Check out this site for more details on the above.: http://www.theadminzone.com

 

Carowan,

Thank you again. That is the type of info I was looking for... you have been extremely helpful.

We are planning to have three special forums for receiving requests for quotes. These forums will require special access to view the quotes that have been submitted. One for printing, one for graphic design, and one for mailing lists. There will be no fee associated with participation and we will provide the client with ALL the quote responses we recieve through the forum. We will be following up with the client to assess their overall satisfaction and will keep a running total of favorable versus unfavorable client interactions. To many unfavorable client interactions will result in being dropped from the quoting program.

All other forums and categories will be publically accessible. I am planning to accumulate a list of print shops, mailing list providers, and graphic designers to invite them to participate as general members as well as representatives of their area of expertise. I don't know if this has been tried in the past or what but it seems like a great opportunity for everyone to win.

I will use PRWeb as you have suggested and thank you for all your kind input.

What do you think of my quoting system as a whole? Quotes are solicited from website... pages are in development now, and when I recieve them I make a post to the appropriate forum... all registered user of that forum then receive an email indicating a quote is requested. They follow the link and submit a quote response via email or fax... which is provided to the client.

I know this will be a lot of work, but I think it can really be of use to the small business community as a whole.

Comments? Suggestions?

 

Bad idea. He'll probably get harassed like everybody who isn't part of the owner's inner circle (who incidently have access to a secret catagory called the Inner Circle which has many forums).

What he should do is work on getting his name out through promotional tools like myspace, using things like google adwords, and getting some base activity through the use of the best-board.com Forum Incubator program.

 

gprime, My experience with the adminzone has been positive, but I tend to stay away from the political stuff. I will also check out best-board.com, which sounds like it has a lot to offer.

dm_guru, The quoting forum sounds good, but you should allow people to log in as "guest" so they dont have to set up an ID and PW before posting.
Also, people will be able to view others quotes and requests if they are allowed access. Is this something that you want? Or am I misunderstanding

 

While we are all doing a little promotion for forum sites...why not check out www.adminfusion.com while you are at it ...TheAdminZone has its launch team, Best-Board has its forum incubater, AdminFusion has PostFusion. If you're going to exchange posts, PostFusion will automate the entire process for you.

Now...onto the actual topic at hand

First of all, do you have a budget? That's probably the most important question...

If you do have a budget, look into advertising on news and business websites...Furthermore, print out some business cards and leave them laying around where you live. Offline advertising can be great because you can often reach people who didn't even know forums exist. You can also run contests/giveaways and give the winners a special prize - would be good to give them something that they can use to promote their business.

If you don't have a budget look into things such as post exchanges, link exchanges, signature promotion. Do a google search for business forums...register at some of the top forums and post there with a link in your signature. Great way to get people who are actually interested in your subject...

I can go into more detail on either of these when I know whether or not you have a budget, and if so, how much that budget is...

 

Much thanks again Carowan and GTAce!

carowan: Guests will not have the required permissions to view contents of quote forums(3 - graphic design, mailing lists, printing). Furthermore, members of printers group will not have necessary perms to view quotes in other two forums and vice versa.

guests will be allowed to view all regular forum entries: it is still under construction but have a look at forum (dot) ontimemailingservices (dot) com/resources

GTAce: We do not have a budget per se, however, we could offer incentives by lowering advertising costs associated with mailings... ie. perform duties at cost, or perhaps for free under the right circumstances.

As for the business forums, I am already on it! I am producing a press release for distribution via prweb as well...

I look forward to hearing more of everyones input and thanks for your input thus far.