When it comes to online marketing, forum marketing has been one of the most definitive ways to succeed online. Many people are attracted to it and mainly because it works. The people that actually succeed with this method are willing to spend the time to make it work, plus it's not that hard to do. There are other aspects that draw IM marketers to it, but there's no guarantee of success. The general guidelines you need to follow are easy to learn, but there is still a bottom line with forums and their members. To get the most success, you have to be able to offer something worth their while to read.
Many many will act the way that they normally act when they are in forums. There will be many who will be either introverted or extroverted. So, just act normally, unless you are very aggressive and obnoxious. If you are shy, it is okay to just watch things before you start contributing. This is what is known as lurking and many people do it until they feel comfortable enough to contribute to the forum. It can feel a little daunting to make your first post, and it's a lot like being in a new city or town and going to a new school. Just respond to the other threads that people have created. Forum marketing has rules that you have to follow, but the main one is to give value to the community via your posts. If you do this you will help others. People might not like you for many reasons. One might be because you think that you know everything. But it just depends on your behavior in the forum. Sure, you might know what you are talking about, but you have to be cautious about your reputation. If other members do not feel warm and fuzzy when it comes to you then it will be hard in the long run. If its bad enough, then it won't matter how much of useful source an expert you are because people will basically think negatively of you.
Figure out who has a lot of influence on the forums before you really dig into your own networking efforts. Sometimes there is a group of people that could be at the 'top of the heap' on the forum. The number of active members check this site out in a forum will have some influence on this too. Forums that have a lot of members and a long history will have more people with influence. This is something that isn't constant throughout forums. Sometimes it's the moderators who have the most influence. Usually a senior moderator who's been there forever and many people basically try to win favor and acceptance. Once you've identified them, it's time to start building relationship with these members.
So compare social marketing to forum marketing. And it is a given that forum marketing is like social marketing. Both are original site based on relationship marketing and you can reach your goals if you learn how proper relationship marketing works.