While running against time and keeping pace with time, trends and tough competition in the market, companies fight for new customers, users and audience mercilessly and incessantly, 24/7. In that race, they think of all possible ways of winning a market share, namely attracting new consumers and customers to their brands.

It’s interesting to note that only few use the best possible place for finding new consumers – forums. This highly popular form of “online life” at the time of dial-up and the dawn of the Internet has prevailed until the present day. There are forums covering all types of topics which are very popular and of big assistance to users.

According to a 2012 study conducted by Awareness, Inc. (a marketing firm headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts), one-third of marketing companies search social media and forums as platforms of choice for reaching clients and as much as two-thirds of women provide recommendations for a multitude of products on forums.

How to best utilise forums?

Today, virtually everything can be found on Reddit – it has survived as the most popular form of that type of communication and is the unrivalled no. 1 worldwide. Naturally, Reddit cannot always be the source, as sometimes you need something strictly professional, depending on an area you cover.

• Find a forum that suits your needs – bear in mind that in order to collect relevant information, a forum should have at least 1,000 users and 10,000 posts
• Create your account
• Read forum rules carefully – whether and to what extent it is allowed to advertise something, what exactly you may advertise, what advantages as a veteran user you have, etc.
• Create a good user name and avatar – that’s exactly what will make people like your account or dislike it if they find it unappealing. Images of animals, children and other “cute’ motives tend to be more attractive than others. However, if interaction with people is your ultimate goal, then it’s advisable to post your photo so that other users can see who they communicate with and develop certain trust
• Introduce yourself to people on a forum, write a nice profile description – who you are, what you do, what you like
• Post a URL link to the website of your company described in the profile – people also pay attention to it, at least subconsciously
• Don’t get provoked, drama and arguments – always remind yourself why you are and maintain an image of a nice and pleasant person.

Therefore, keep developing a good profile so that forum participants know who you are and be accessible. Make sure you’ve added contact info in order to be available to your client and potential users.

How to place your product?

• Check the most popular recent topics
• Pay attention to a language of users – thus you’ll know how to address users of your product and what target group it is.

What you can learn about clients and a product:

• Age and demographics
• Consumer habits
• Potential issues and challenges.