1. Pick a screen name/alias that does not represent the company you are affiliated with at the time. High turnover rates, new ventures and unprecedented opportunities may signify the need to alter your name/alias, which in turn means having to re brand yourself. Pick a name and stick to it, it is not to late.
2. Join dates and post counts DO have an effect on the response rate and quality of your replies. Join up and get active.
3. Introduce yourself to the moderator and owner of the board! It is not only a polite and professional thing to do, even in the online arena, but it can help in times of need.
4. Add an avatar and have a signature. These features are on the board for a reason. Take advantage of their existence to show off your personality, products and/or services.
5. Pick a handful of boards and focus on those rather than doing a shot gun approach. Discover the personality and vibe of each board, and hang out where it works for you. If you aren’t being received, then just move on! There are over 70 adult boards, and one is bound to mirror your personality.
6. Do not use the more popular boards as a ticket system or support forum for your favorite program. Contact your affiliate manager, email, instant message or check if they have a system in place. It is unfair to assume that your program lurks the board daily.
7. Do a little investigation to discover who are the board whores, haters and jokers. That way, you can filter out the people that will not move your venture in the right direction.
8. Give a little bit of yourself away in your posts. Some of my biggest friends or business partners came to gather over a mutual love of music or particular hobby and not because we have the best or the biggest this or that.
9. “None of the big boys read the message boards” is a common saying among webmasters, but after going to trade shows in the past years, I can assure you otherwise. Something to think about...
10. Check people's signature spots (sig spot). Find out who they are and how you can work together. Add them to icq and talk it out. Contacts are powerful in the industry, so use them to your advantage.
