How to use forums (and Facebook groups)

[Andy Black]

Had to bump this. This way too valuable.

Glad you found it valuable.

Curious what your main takeaways were, and what you'll do different.

 

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[David Fitz]

Glad you found it valuable.

Curious what your main takeaways were, and what you'll do different.

Become the XYZ guy in the group. I joined a carpet cleaning group and I see one guy be constantly tagged as the Facebook ads guy. He must be getting a ton of business from that group.

Reuse content. People will ask the same questions so make a thread and then tag people in it and then post that thread on your other social platforms.

Just help people. Don't be spammy. I see it in the groups where guys come in and straight up ask "who needs help with their website" no one replies to them because it's spammy.

 

[Andy Black]

Become the XYZ guy in the group. I joined a carpet cleaning group and I see one guy be constantly tagged as the Facebook ads guy. He must be getting a ton of business from that group.

Reuse content. People will ask the same questions so make a thread and then tag people in it and then post that thread on your other social platforms.

Just help people. Don't be spammy. I see it in the groups where guys come in and straight up ask "who needs help with their website" no one replies to them because it's spammy.

Yes. Great takeaways.

Get bonus points if the group owner tags you when someone struggles with XYZ.

 

[Andy Black]

I signed up to podpage.com a couple of days ago to create a website for a new podcast.

I joined the Facebook group and said hello.

This evening I saw a post by the founder of Podpage. Here's his post and my reply.

Did I say "I'm a Google Ads expert."?
No, I did "show, don't tell."

Am I trying to get him as a client?
No, I just helped him as best I could in one reply.

 

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[Andy Black]

This is relevant to this thread, including @TheKingOfMadrid 's comment quoted:

SOCIAL MEDIA - MARKETING - SIDE HUSTLE - What Are The Services To Advertise Social Media Management?

I'm In Australia so I often use Air Tasker which is our local fiverr but what other options are there for me to advertisement my services for social media management? Cheers Family

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Andy Black]

I signed up to podpage.com a couple of days ago to create a website for a new podcast.

I joined the Facebook group and said hello.

This evening I saw a post by the founder of Podpage. Here's his post and my reply.

Did I say "I'm a Google Ads expert."?
No, I did "show, don't tell."

Am I trying to get him as a client?
No, I just helped him as best I could in one reply.


View attachment 39353

I defend my thinking in this podcast episode.

Curious who you side with.

 

[Swantzify]

How to use forums (and Facebook groups)

I'm going to braindump some of my learnings about using Forums and Facebook groups.

Spammers won't get it, but I'll direct them here and they may slow down long enough to learn something.



For those trying to "validate a need" (I kinda hate that phrase), then forums and Facebook groups are a fantastic resource. Not only do people nicely group themselves for you, but they'll chatter about problems and issues they have. They'll also ask questions and you can respond by answering them.

I've produced a ridiculous amount of evergreen content by chattering away in forums, noticing where I repeat myself, then creating threads to point to in future.

In case you didn't spot the parallel to building a business:

1. I find and engage the market - where they are already.
2. I respond to questions and problems people already have.
3. I immediately help people instead of "building stuff".
4. If I find myself answering the same question over and over again - I go create a solution that I can point people to all the time.
5. Before I create the thread (solution) I already know it will help lots of people - because it's a need that many people have already had.
6. The content (solution) was created out of solving real-world problems, rather than solving problems I think people have.

Added benefits:

1. I immediately start getting known as "The XYZ Guy" - because I help people with XYZ.
2. People already start reaching out to me about XYZ problem.
3. People already start referring me to others who have XYZ problem.

Why create a blog and try and find out what content helps people and resonates with people when you can go help people immediately in a busy forum or Facebook group?

Why stare at a blank page struggling to create a new blog post when you can help people immediately in a forum or Facebook group?

Why try and get your blog ranked when a forum already has a much better SEO juice than you'll likely ever get.

Finally... if your goal is to help people and build relationships (hint: do this and get paid then you're in business), then why the feck don't you do that immediately instead of "building stuff"?

Hi Andy,

Just want to thank you for this very insightful information! I am currently reading Unscripted : The Great Rat Race Escape and it has been motivating me to just move the needle with my business each day and really think about things differently.

For this past month, I have challenged myself to brainstorm and research products ideas outside of my originally intended business model before the book. I also created a website and one of my challenges this month was to "start blogging on my website". So far, I have come up with numerous "ideas" for blog posts, published 1 blog post, and created a draft for another.

The idea with the blog post for me was to begin to "build an audience" without really knowing what that meant for me and exactly which audience I want to start talking to quite yet. To put it frankly, I haven't been super focused in one direction this month as most of my focus has just been learning and research (trying to figure out what to do).

After reading your initial post, and continuing to read through this thread, I now have a better idea of how to focus my time more efficiently based on the products "ideas" I currently have. So, once again, thanks for that!

Interestingly enough, my questions have been answered, and the main point of this response was just to say thanks and tell a bit of a story.

 

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[Nhervel 1]

Je me suis inscrit sur podpage.com il y a quelques jours pour créer un site Web pour un nouveau podcast.

J'ai rejoint le groupe Facebook et dit bonjour.

Ce soir j'ai vu un post du fondateur de Podpage. Voici son message et ma réponse.

Ai-je dit "Je suis un expert Google Ads" ?
Non, j'ai fait "montre, ne dis pas".

Est-ce que j'essaie de l'avoir comme client ?
Non, je l'ai juste aidé du mieux que j'ai pu en une seule réponse.


View attachment 39353

Bonsoir mon cher
Merci déjà pour le partage car ça m'a beaucoup édifié
Maintenant, j'aimerais savoir jusqu'où le gratuit s'arrête pour laisser place au fait de vendre ses services

Quel est vôtre timing!?
Je veux dire, comment est-ce que vous savez que devez proposer l'offre de vente à votre prospect
Merci

 

[Andy Black]

Bonsoir mon cher
Merci déjà pour le partage car ça m'a beaucoup édifié
Maintenant, j'aimerais savoir jusqu'où le gratuit s'arrête pour laisser place au fait de vendre ses services

Quel est vôtre timing!?
Je veux dire, comment est-ce que vous savez que devez proposer l'offre de vente à votre prospect
Merci

I give a bit of advice for free, and sometimes hop on a call to help them for free.

I don't try and "close" the sale. I just bid them a cheerful good luck and goodbye. If they want to work with me then they have to bring it up.

 

[Nhervel 1]

Je donne un peu de conseils gratuitement, et saute parfois sur un appel pour les aider gratuitement.

Je n'essaie pas de "clôturer" la vente. Je leur ai simplement souhaité bonne chance et au revoir. S'ils veulent travailler avec moi, ils doivent en parler.

D'accord je vois
C'est eux même qui viennent vers toi pour savoir plus et si possible te payer ton service sur une longue durée

Merci du feedback
Je prends toujours plaisir à te lire

 

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[Paul David]

Become the XYZ guy in the group. I joined a carpet cleaning group and I see one guy be constantly tagged as the Facebook ads guy. He must be getting a ton of business from that group.

Reuse content. People will ask the same questions so make a thread and then tag people in it and then post that thread on your other social platforms.

Just help people. Don't be spammy. I see it in the groups where guys come in and straight up ask "who needs help with their website" no one replies to them because it's spammy.

Which group and what is the guys name?

 

[David Fitz]

Which group and what is the guys name?

Truck Mount Forums and the guy is from India I think. Don't know the name off but it's like Rupishna or something like that.

 

[Andy Black]

I discussed this in a recent call for @Fox 's Legend program that I've also added to my own paid membership:

1) WHEN YOU'RE STARTING OUT:

Join communities of PEERS and make friends, build relationships, and create win-wins.

Do NOT go in trying to find clients. If your target market is electricians do NOT join as a web designer / digital marketer to get clients. You're a wolf in sheep's clothing and not a genuine community member.

For me that was communities like thefastlaneforum, Facebook groups for Irish business owners, people using New Zenler (course software I use), etc.

2) WHEN YOU'RE ESTABLISHED:

When people start seeing you as a helpful and valued community member, AND as an expert at XYZ then you will start to:

Get INVITED into groups of electricians - BY THE GROUP OWNER.

Get INVITED in as the resident expert in XYZ - BY THE GROUP OWNER.

Get INVITED in to do regular workshops for members - BY THE GROUP OWNER.

How do you get invited by the group owner?

"Be so good they can't ignore you."

(Steve Martin)

...

Examples for me:

Getting invited by the owner of a Facebook group of 3k Irish business owners to do monthly Google Ads workshops.

Getting invited into groups of B&B owners, Personal Trainers, Permanent Makeup Artists, etc ... by the group owners.


----

YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE

Just use your personal profile. Make it a genuine profile, where you're mostly talking personal stuff like everyone else. In your bio (and maybe your banner) give a nod to what you do.

Occasionally post business type of stuff, but just sprinkle it in.

Don't be like those outbound guys who have a banner stating how they're a high-ticket closer, a business coach for agency owners, a dadpreneur, or any of that cr@p. No-one wants to connect with them.

Let your talking in the Facebook group "show don't tell" that you're helpful, supportive, a good guy/gal to know and interact with, and competent at XYZ. This is what makes you referrable, and what will get people to check out your profile and follow their nose to your website.

Here's what my personal profile looks like. I'm happy to leave breadcrumbs for the interested.

 

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[mikecarlooch]

This REALLY helped me...!

Great stuff!

 

[Andy Black]

This REALLY helped me...!

Great stuff!

Which part helped Mike? What were your key takeaways, and what did you do different?

 

[EarlOfChina]

I am finding this thread EXTREMELY valuable.

I am just wondering - does anyone know a way to easily find *questions* being asked within large facebook groups? Is there some kind of advance search or something?

 

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[mikecarlooch]

Which part helper Mike? What were your key takeaways, and what did you do different?

I've never thought about posting in a validation type of way like you described in the main thread.

I even say in my threads to go and find people that are asking questions about your video content before you go and actually make it.

I didn't even think of it to be the same exact thing for forum threads..

Answer questions.. if it's repeated.. make a forum thread because you've already validated a need..!

 

[Andy Black]

I am finding this thread EXTREMELY valuable.

I am just wondering - does anyone know a way to easily find *questions* being asked within large facebook groups? Is there some kind of advance search or something?

I've not tried. Maybe you can search for "how do I", "why does", etc?

 

[Andy Black]

@fastlane_dad @NeoDialectic ... thought you might be interested in this.

Replied to someone in the forum just now HERE.

Posted to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

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[NeoDialectic]

@fastlane_dad @NeoDialectic ... thought you might be interested in this.

Replied to someone in the forum just now HERE.

Posted to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Love it. By my count, you got 20 positive engagements (by either helping them or making them think about the topic) from people that you wouldn't have otherwise by doing nothing more than copy-pasting onto other platforms. Considering you are a good-advice-machine-gun, that adds up quickly.

Also, I'm glad you tagged me as I've never saw this thread before but I completely agree with it! In my Idea thread, I talked about using forums as a powerful discovery tool

3. Literally google the questions and read a good amount of results. Each problem that you encounter, add it to a Problems List and then see if there is a solution that is specifically marketed for this problem on Amazon. If the group itself is super niche, this may actually be enough! However this is usually not enough as most issues in the big groups have been addressed in the marketplace. You can also type that same question with the word "forum" afterward to see what people on forums have been complaining about as well. This can sometimes be gold for finding budding problems that the market hasn't caught up with yet.

One of our successful products in the past was inspired by a homemade solution that was popular on forums but unnoticed by brands in the field. I would have ran into it during my research phase for a solution, but in this particular case it wasn't from that. We just naturally encountered it on the forums that we were a part of for personal reasons. Most people don't want to make something themselves. So we provided the solution in retail form. Win/win

 

[Andy Black]

Love it. By my count, you got 20 positive engagements (by either helping them or making them think about the topic) from people that you wouldn't have otherwise by doing nothing more than copy-pasting onto other platforms.

I know from experience lots of people lurk. They watch or read and never Like or comment, and then reach out seemingly "out of the blue".

Here's the LinkedIn stats for that post:

• 1,454 impressions isn't a vanity metric... that's 1,454 people who saw it in their feed.
• Some might think 1,454 is very small. It's not! I picked up a €3k/mth client recently by just posting a few short videos.
• I could now package that text post as a carousel and it might do much better (I may test that).

I used Typefully to create a Twitter thread out of the post (for free).

Here's the stats on Twitter:

Considering you are a good-advice-machine-gun, that adds up quickly.

Ha... a "good-advice-machine-gun". I'll take that.

Yes, it adds up quickly, especially since I post daily in the forum and could distribute that to other platforms very easily.

forums as a powerful discovery tool

They're amazing for discovering what people want and have problems with. They're also amazing for helping people there and then, building a bit of authority/positioning, and building relationships.

We just naturally encountered it on the forums that we were a part of for personal reasons.

^^^ THIS! I keep telling people to go into forums as a PEER. Don't go into to generate leads or sales.

Win/win

... the essence of business!

 

[NeoDialectic]

^^^ THIS! I keep telling people to go into forums as a PEER. Don't go into to generate leads or sales.

In my experience, the core users of any forum usually have a very keen nose for people that join to generate leads or get sales. That applies regardless of whether it's this forum or a car fanatic forum. They generally don't take too kindly to it.

 

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[Andy Black]

In my experience, the core users of any forum usually have a very keen nose for people that join to generate leads or get sales. That applies regardless of whether it's this forum or a car fanatic forum. They generally don't take too kindly to it.

Indeed!


This is what's worked for me over the years:

1) WHEN YOU'RE STARTING OUT:

Join communities of PEERS and make friends, build relationships, and create win-wins.

Do NOT go in trying to find clients. If your target market is electricians do NOT join as a web designer / digital marketer to get clients. You're a wolf in sheep's clothing and not a genuine community member.

For me that was communities like thefastlaneforum, Facebook groups for Irish business owners, people using New Zenler (course software I use), etc.

2) WHEN YOU'RE ESTABLISHED:

When people start seeing you as a helpful and valued community member, AND as an expert at XYZ then you will start to:

Get INVITED into groups of electricians - BY THE GROUP OWNER.

Get INVITED in as the resident expert in XYZ - BY THE GROUP OWNER.

Get INVITED in to do regular workshops for members - BY THE GROUP OWNER.

How do you get invited by the group owner?

"Be so good they can't ignore you."

(Steve Martin)

...

Examples for me:

Getting invited by the owner of a Facebook group of 3k Irish business owners to do monthly Google Ads workshops.

Getting invited into groups of B&B owners, Personal Trainers, Permanent Makeup Artists, etc ... by the group owners.

 

[Andy Black]

This post and the preceeding conversation seems relevant.

 

[David Fitz]

Facebook groups work for getting clients but it is a long term game plan.

I've been active in a few cleaning business groups since the start of December.

All I do is ever answer people's questions. I don't post any marketing tips or the spam the groups. I simply wait for people to ask about a question about their website, SEO or Google ads. Then I reply with some advice.

I signed up a client this week who came from a Facebook group. I've also got a call this week from a guy who was in another Facebook group.

 

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[Andy Black]

Facebook groups work for getting clients but it is a long term game plan.

I've been active in a few cleaning business groups since the start of December.

All I do is ever answer people's questions. I don't post any marketing tips or the spam the groups. I simply wait for people to ask about a question about their website, SEO or Google ads. Then I reply with some advice.

I signed up a client this week who came from a Facebook group. I've also got a call this week from a guy who was in another Facebook group.

Good for you!

Do you engage in other threads too?

Do you now get tagged when people ask about websites, SEO, or Google Ads?

 

[David Fitz]

Good for you!

Do you engage in other threads too?

Do you now get tagged when people ask about websites, SEO, or Google Ads?

I engage if it's about thing's I know but mainly try to keep it to the marketing side.

I get tagged sometimes. I still think I'm getting my name out there so in another few months it could get better.

 

[Andy Black]

I engage if it's about thing's I know but mainly try to keep it to the marketing side.

I get tagged sometimes. I still think I'm getting my name out there so in another few months it could get better.

Get in there. Being known for websites, SEO, and Google Ads is only a small part of what people refer you for. The rest is that you're friendly, helpful, have manners, turn up on time, etc.

 

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