The value of participating in social media forums and groups

Biznik, Facebook, and Linkedin have a features called Groups. Linkedin and Biznik also have a Q and A forum. These features are very useful for becoming more visible in your social media communities and even leading to business, but there is one thing you need to do: participate.

Participation doesn’t have to take up a lot of time, provided you are focused about it. I usually will check out the Q and A forums first and skim a couple pages of them and see if there are questions I want to answer. I usually at least answer two questions. I do this every couple of days for the different sites I visit, which usually suffices for keeping me visible and engaged with the people I’m having an online discussion with.

I also check up on groups every couple days, unless I’m posting something to the group, at which point I’ll check when I post my discussion and determine if I want to contribute a comment to a discussion on the group. Again, I’m doing this to say visible and engaged in the group.

Can this activity lead to business? Sometimes it can. As people get to know you and also as they read what you’ve written, it can provide an opportunity for you to make online connections that can turn into offline conversations. Again, it’s ultimately up to you to follow-up with people you interact with online, but I’ve found that by choosing to follow-up with people has opened up opportunities I would otherwise miss out on. And participating in forums and groups has connected me to those people, so I think its worth investing a bit of time into the online groups and forums you join.

What about you? what has your experience with Q and A forums and groups been like and how has it helped your business?