How to Use Newspaper Online Forums for Viral Marketing

As a "blended" social/entrepreneurial phenomenon, viral marketing can be injected in unprecedented ways into various obscure venues like newspaper forums. The online forums or "chat boards" of a local newspaper serve to allow commentary on printed stories. But these boards get used for much more than that; often they become sounding boards for some of a community's louder voices to challenge each other on the events of the day. Getting viral marketing into these sites involves understanding how a message, any message, gets presented online.

Instructions

1. Join up. You generally cannot post on the newspaper's forum without being a member; it just includes giving some basic information and providing a "screen name." Users of these forums enjoy the ability to transmit their messages to the world with anonymity: real names are seldom used. Beware a "conflict of interest," newspaper employees and others are barred from joining the forums, and some reporters have been fired for posting anonymously on their employer's site.

2. Get involved in ongoing discussion threads. Start posting you ideas on the forum, responding to other posts or starting your own talking points, getting yourself noticed as a user.

3. Develop "name recognition" on the forum by regular posting, so that other users can see you as a participant in the many conversations enjoyed through the online site.

4. Introduce your message naturally. Make your viral marketing campaign a part of an issue affecting the community. Include references to your selected message in posts responding to comments on relevant local issues. Blending commentary with a viral marketing message is crucial to your role in promoting your ideas.

5. Get other posters involved in your threads. Appeal to popular sentiments or questions about ongoing local issues. Keep posting and working on facilitating the online discussion around your message and related points.

Tips & Warnings

• Use opposition to your advantage. A conflict over anything on a discussion board usually gets the attention of other posters (not unlike a fight in a schoolyard). Respond to opposition views well, and your thread, and your message, will prosper.

• Practice subtlety and respect for others. It's easy to use blunt tactics on these boards when opposing other posters, but for best results, treat the exercise like a debate. Respond pointedly and factually, without acrimony or clouded judgment, and the collective posting community will reward you with enhanced credibility.