Reaching Influencers with Forum Seeding – Real world example: Gunnar OPTIKS on Alienware forums

Posted on June 2, 2011 by teds

Last week I wrote about the importance of engaging on community forums to reach influencers and build up brand conversation. Ideas are good but real world is better and today I stumbled across a seeding program by Gunnar OPTIKS on the Alienware Arena forums that shows exactly why every brand should be looking at forums as a part of their social attack strategy. Let’s take a look…

Gunnar Opticks provides “digital performance eyewear”. Yes, that’s a real category and according to the Gunnar marketing materials, a very important one given how much we stare at our monitors these days. For gamers vision become even more important as eye fatigue can lead to [virtual] death, as well as cause long term “real world” problems. [my disclosure on gunnar optiks at the end of the post]

So what do you do when you’ve got a product that solves a problem people don’t know they have? You could talk up the benefits until you were blue in the face, or you could take the social road and get the top customers of arguably the top mainstream gaming system manufacturer in the world to do the talking for you. But getting people to talk requires them to have your product — and that’s where seeding comes into play.

Gunnar’s seeding program is straight forward – take the top 10 posters on the Alienware Arena forums, send them out a pair of shades and ask for their initial thoughts & a full review in return. Throw it all into its own sub-forum for branding & to keep the conversation visible and in less than a week you’ve got a few hundred comments and thousands of views from the core of your target market.

4 ways to social success with Gunnar’s seeding program

1. Encouraging honest reviews.

In their program overview the request is simple: Post an initial comment, in-depth review and final thoughts. No mention of the tone of the posts, no requirements for a good story, no pulling unknown members who may just be employees. It’s up to the, already respected, user. By not forcing “positive” you actually encourage it – transparency goes a long way to winning people over, add a solid product and you’re in business.

2. Asking for a follow up [keeping the conversation alive]

Gunnar didn’t just want to get a week’s visibility, they want mentions down the road and they want people to know the long term benefit too. So rather than taking a one hit & go approach they’ve asked for 3 phases of comments getting them 3 waves of exposure. On some forums people will put their gear & reviews right into their signature; it’s all about fitting into the individual community to make the most of it.

3. Engaging with the testers & other users

This isn’t set it & forget it. Gunnar’s done the right thing getting the forum staff involved and also bringing their own employees onto the site to answer questions and provide the facts. It’s full transparency since those employees are marked as a part of the company and are sticking towards the facts, offering positive thanks and leaving the opinion to the user. The seeding program shows their commitment to the community, the one to one engagement puts them in the “good brand” category.

4. Backing it up with sponsorship banners [the action opportunity]

You don’t want to stop in front of the finish line, you want to cross it. Gunnar’s program is all about conversation but with people talking, sharing comments, and hyping the product up, it’s essential to have a way for those not in the program, whether it’s other members or casual visitors of the site, to have a way to act. Gunnar chose to sponsor the forum their post is in with a few targeted banners – nothing too strong but an easy click to get members around the community into the area & reading the review.

As the Gunnar example shows, forum seeding is a great way to stir up conversation about a brand people may know about but not have tried or just aren’t talking about. In the world of community, nothing is going to outweigh a trusted member’s opinion on the overall perception of a product and getting involved with a few giveaways is at the same time a great way “in” to a community without having to worry about seeing as spamming or advertising – it’s value for consideration – a win all around.

* Disclosure: I know the team at Gunnar [although finding this example was a pure coincidence thanks to @alienware on twitter] and use a pair of Gunnar 3D glasses and sunglasses in addition to my Oakley shades.

[HOW TO] Promote your business through forums, the original social network.

Posted on May 31, 2011 by teds

In a rush to embrace Facebook, Twitter and the other mega-networks it would seem that the marketing community has put forums, the original social community, on the back burner. Now forums may not have the glamor of the modern social networks, the size of their user base or the sophistication of the business tools available but when it comes to building reputation, securing brand feedback and influencing the influencer, sometimes it’s better to put the big numbers aside and get focused.

As the original social network, forums dominated the web for since the early days and have grown along the way. Often started as a hobby or network between friends, these small sites can reach hundreds of thousands, even millions of users and unlike the big networks, the topics can be very focused from Frequent Fliers to Disneyland Tricks to Headphones. But just as the close-knit community built and user to user focus of forums give them huge reputation power, it makes entering into them tricky to say the least.

Here 4-steps to getting involved and unlocking the potential of forums.

Understand the community, its membership and dynamics.

The first part of getting involved in any niche community is of course knowing the niche. I’m not talking about product expertise here but rather community – does the forum allow businesses to post? Does it have certain requirements for disclosing information? When can links be used? Is it owned by a company or a few friends? Does it have rivals? Who uses the site? Novices in the space or the top players or both?

Make a plan to integrate, not just advertise

In the past most companies considered a social strategy to mean placing ads on a site where customers could interact with each other; not exactly engaging and thankfully we’ve learned a lot since then but old habits die hard. While it’s easy to write a check and treat it as another opportunity for direct marketing, that’s not utilizing the opportunity and not likely to succeed.

This doesn’t mean going in and selling but educating, answering and simply participating is a huge win and done right, generally welcomed. Stick to the facts like when a product hits, how it works, what support is available [social support goes great with forums if you have the CSR staff]. Leave opinion, debate and subjective analysis to other members or at best referring to a previous post that gives it. By showing that you’re more than an ad you can demonstrate domain expertise and the experience your company offers.

United Airlines may not get a good rep in every post but having a representative on FlyerTalk.com, the world’s largest frequent flier site, to share company updates and respond to comments insures the FT users know the airline is, at least, listening. That’s a critical first step for driving business.

Leverage sponsorship to show your commitment to the community

Since most forums are self funding or even unprofitable businesses and hobbies, brands, especially larger ones, that come on board aren’t just buying advertising, they’re helping to keep the lights on.

Whether it’s on the site, at events or even at your own trade or press events, reminding your industry of the commitment your company is making to the community and the ability for users to share with in it is a strong message that you can leverage as your sponsorship continues on over time. No matter how much people may dislike ads, or even question your brand, if done right your sponsorship becomes a symbiotic relationship.

When I founded Scubaboard.com in 2000 we had no idea it would grow to become the largest site [and community] in the dive industry. As we grow, so did costs, and our early advertisers stood up not for the exposure value but to drive something they saw potential in. Many years later, the owners of the site still call on them for events and posts: they are a part of the community.

Devise ways to put your product in front of the user honestly

Of course the goal of your involvement is to drive your business. Whether it’s gathering feedback, market research or seeding a new item, forums are an ideal place to learn and influence but it’s got to be done right.

When it comes to topical communities like forums, the single most effective way I’ve ever found to build positive influence [in more than 11 years of experience] is getting product in the hands of users through challenges or, for a more general product, open sampling.

It’s a simple concept – you invite users of the community to try the product by chiming in with a few details. After a couple days or weeks of collecting submissions your team, along with a representative from the forum, selects a number of “testers” spanning different interests, experience levels and statuses within the community. Each gets the product, theirs to keep, in exchange for an honest review on the forum [with disclosure of the freebie of course]. Keep it easy, transparent [that means allowing a review good or bad and promoting this heavily] and large enough to be seen.

A couple weeks after launch you’ll find that not only did you get a pile of reviews but chatter about your brand is up all over the forum, after all, you’re the guys who believe enough in your product to give it to people to test.

Just like on the major networks, the big leap in truly leveraging forums comes when you stop seeing it as a silo and start seeing it as a part of your communication strategy.

Integrating a community into your business process is like having your own open focus group of target customers 24x7x365. Input and commentary, whether it’s positive or negative, flows freely for those willing to take it and use it. The more you give, the more you get seen, known and trusted.

So if you’ve integrated your business with a community brought product in and are looking to what comes next, start thinking about how the community can exist within your business…

Run new products by the community for first stage testing?
Invite members to special events at trade or consumer events?
Seed every launch out as a source for kick off marketing buzz?
Bring commentary on products & your company into team meetings, reports, and the flow of business…. It’s not good until the community says it is.

It’s time for community forums to grow up

Posted on February 12, 2011 by teds

It’s been almost eleven years since I started my first forum, ScubaBoard (if the name didn’t give it away it’s community for scuba divers now owned by Pete aka NetDoc). At that time forums were the hot, yet scary new thing in a field we now call social. Most businesses didn’t get it, but users, including those outside of the really early BBS types were ready to embrace communication with similar minded individuals.

Fast forward a few years and having a forum equated to a community. People posted, people sent messages, it was all about the niche and communities like ScubaBoard grew to become the largest their industries. Then, just when it seemed like forums were maturing to become the mainstream idea, a little site called Friendster popped up followed by MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and all the other broad networking sited that have stollen the spotlight.

But while Facebook and YouTube may have the eye of the world, the reign of forums has not ended or even slowed. As the owner of ScubaBoard has shared with me over the years; much as people enjoy talking to their entire social circle, the major networks have done little to really support niche discussions and topic communities like diving are very much driven by independent sites. Still, it’s rare for a forum to make the cover of the WSJ and if you take the 1/9/90 social engagement rules, forums are the wrong side of the metrics.

Forums have not evolved. They’ve remained about the same concept, post and reply, member, and almost all about content creators and readers with little done to encourage the vital 9%… the responders.

The future of forums is of course in integrating and growing up.

What applies to Facebook holds just as much weight in a dive community, gaming community or baking community…. People want to connect with their friends. colleagues and contacts first, the larger audience second. People want less sites, less logins, not more and Facebook connect, LinkedIn logins and similar tools offer access to hundreds of millions, even a big forum is usually just a few hundred thousand with a small fraction remaining active. People want to be able to engage without having to write a novel, or even write at all.

By focusing on the micro interactions; liking a post, posting a simple picture or short update and bringing that content out from the forum and into the mainstream sites, the opportunity is there for an entire world of thousands and thousands of sites to grow into what forums should have been all along, true social communities.

Its time for forums to evolve not just because the world has changed but because if they don’t, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, or some other currently undeveloped network is going to find a way to take the niche user and move them right on over to the mainstream.

So for all my contacts still running those amazing communities you’ve been cultivating over the past decade or more, I challenge you to think about these 3 goals:

- How do you use integrations with major social to expand to a new world of member and truly grow

- How can you reduce the threshold of membership to allow individuals beyond advocates and content creators to be able and willing to participate

- And how do you push your content out to be seen by the majority of the world may never see your site but are connected to those who use it or the topic its on

What if forums could be real time. What if they could be personalized…?

Posted on March 19, 2009 by teds

I’ve always been a believer in forums in fact I’d credit forums with making the internet what it is today. From the early BBS sites to the first threaded discussions, forums are the original community and remain an internet staple connecting millions of people across tens of thousands of topics. But while social media progresses towards a truly real-time environment, forums continue to trot along much like they always did. Sure there’s been advances… quicker posting, embedded photos and video media, more robust profiles, status updates, user derived groups, and other tools but ultimately forums remain about finding the right category and diving in. That’s not enough.

From where I sit everything in “new” social media is applicable to forums… it just hasn’t been prompted. What forums need is the same centralization other sites have been built around, what forums need is a feed to connect a user to their contributions, to their buddies and to the information that makes sense to them.

Whatever forum technology you have now or are thinking about bringing in down the road be sure it offers a portal, a way to collapse information and to get users from point A to the point B they want without surfing through dozens of sub-categories and hundreds of links. I’ve recently come up with my own interface for the vBulletin forum system which provides an a feed with elements including posts, profile updates, social group requests and much more. While it’s too early to talk about the impact it had, the initial comments from the sites using it and their users has been positive. I suspect those that really embrace taking their forum from a list of categories to a feed will see more activity and more visits as their users are able to sort through the noise quicker.

Growing your community – Features that set you apart part II

Posted on November 2, 2008 by teds

Last week I talked about the importance of developing new and unique features to make your forum community stand out above the crowd in order to win & retain visitors. But the story doesn’t end with adding features, there’s a lot on off the shelf forum software to customize and customize it you must. In the second part of this series I explain a few of the prime areas to change because at the end of the day to win the user over your site needs to get them back.

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Why the airlines need to create and listen to communities [and so do you]

Posted on August 12, 2008 by teds

There’s no two ways about it, with the value of the dollar and the cost of fuel (even after its recent 20% fall) the airline industry is not having an easy time staying out of the red but maybe if one of them tried listening to their customers and responding they’d be able to make some actual money and gain an edge over the competition. When it comes to advocates, airlines have spent decades building relationships and have some of the loyal customers almost any business many of whom are clamoring to give input and share their concerns. Yet instead of listening and growing relationships, the airlines turn their backs and continue to invest in acquisition as if there’s an endless number of customers – and unfortunately it’s not just airlines doing this.

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Forums & the forgotten visitors… messaging to a new user

Posted on June 23, 2008 by teds

My experience online practically started with online forums and the communities around them so I find myself constantly drawn back to them and now to discussing them. Since most forums use one of a dozen or so general software packages, it continues to puzzle and downright baffle me how none of these companies has really seemed to do a good job of introducing a marketing strategy out of the box. What do I mean? Well just pick a forum, any forum, yours, one you use, the first one you find in Google, and then dig in to a subcategory or thread and what do you see? You see the content and nothing else.

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