Joined
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70 Posts
Here are five simple dos and don’ts for smooth and transparent trading within our community.
1. Engage with the users. If the forum is dedicated to your products, keep in regular contact – users like to know that you’re there and taking an interest in their feedback. Posting a couple of times a week in reply to people’s comments will show them you value them as customers – and make them more likely to remain or become fans! Users especially love to see pre-production samples or prototypes too, and will tell friends to come and check out forums where these are posted – which builds your following even more and give you a bigger audience to advertise to.
2. Don’t overwhelm the forum with overtly commercial posts. If you’re a retailer, let people know about special offers, upcoming releases or re-releases or special sales, but don’t make dozens of posts of a straight “come buy stuff from me” nature when there’s nothing else to say – users will feel you’re just trying to exploit them and clutter up the forum with uninteresting posts. Posting monthly new arrivals or new products is a great way to get round this.
3. Make sure you use pictures – a picture really is worth a thousand words, especially on the net where people are skimming forums.
4. Take criticism constructively. One of the most difficult things for few to deal with in an online social environment is the ability for people to post direct and public feedback when it’s not necessarily positive. Obviously, anything that’s openly offensive, or the work of a troll can, should and will be deleted immediately, but if you do get genuine comments or feedback that has criticism, then engaging with the poster and addressing their concerns will work far better than ignoring or deleting them. Posters like to feel that sellers are listening to them and trying to give them what they want. And doing that means they’re more likely to buy it too!
5. Special promotions work great – once you have a decent sized community following you on a forum, coming up with a special offer or item to commemorate or recognize the community, especially if their feedback has been helpful to you and it’s in recognition of that, is a great idea. Similarly, a special sale or event that’s only open to board members can work very well, especially around holiday time.
Talk to one of the moderators if you have questions and we’ll be happy to help you.
1. Engage with the users. If the forum is dedicated to your products, keep in regular contact – users like to know that you’re there and taking an interest in their feedback. Posting a couple of times a week in reply to people’s comments will show them you value them as customers – and make them more likely to remain or become fans! Users especially love to see pre-production samples or prototypes too, and will tell friends to come and check out forums where these are posted – which builds your following even more and give you a bigger audience to advertise to.
2. Don’t overwhelm the forum with overtly commercial posts. If you’re a retailer, let people know about special offers, upcoming releases or re-releases or special sales, but don’t make dozens of posts of a straight “come buy stuff from me” nature when there’s nothing else to say – users will feel you’re just trying to exploit them and clutter up the forum with uninteresting posts. Posting monthly new arrivals or new products is a great way to get round this.
3. Make sure you use pictures – a picture really is worth a thousand words, especially on the net where people are skimming forums.
4. Take criticism constructively. One of the most difficult things for few to deal with in an online social environment is the ability for people to post direct and public feedback when it’s not necessarily positive. Obviously, anything that’s openly offensive, or the work of a troll can, should and will be deleted immediately, but if you do get genuine comments or feedback that has criticism, then engaging with the poster and addressing their concerns will work far better than ignoring or deleting them. Posters like to feel that sellers are listening to them and trying to give them what they want. And doing that means they’re more likely to buy it too!
5. Special promotions work great – once you have a decent sized community following you on a forum, coming up with a special offer or item to commemorate or recognize the community, especially if their feedback has been helpful to you and it’s in recognition of that, is a great idea. Similarly, a special sale or event that’s only open to board members can work very well, especially around holiday time.
Talk to one of the moderators if you have questions and we’ll be happy to help you.
