Why Your Advertising Posts Will Fail on BiggerPockets and other Social Media

[Joshua Dorkin]

For 7+ years I've seen it . . . over and again people sign up for our site and then post an advertisement in our forums. Sometimes they stop, but many others just post the same ad over and again.

Our moderators then sweep in and delete the posts.

Some users read our terms of use and forum rules, and then upgrade their accounts to PRO. They then go to our Classifieds forum and post their ad properly.

While they are following the rules, the vast majority of these people won't get traction for their ads.

Those of you who are active members of the community or who understand social media know exactly why . . .

You don't walk up to someone at a party and start selling them!

The same applies on a community site like ours or on other forms of social media.

If you want to get people's attention, then you first need to become part of the community. You need to interact with others and become someone that they start to know and trust. Once that happens, when you post an ad, you'll suddenly capture the attention of the community.

If you just advertise without the social component, there is a pretty good chance that your ad will fail . . .

Thoughts?

[Jerry K.]

Back in 1986 when I was a young stockbroker, a couple of the other older brokers - who were the old type salesmen - told me I needed to "network".

The word was new to me so I looked it up (no internet then, had to go to a library) and I came back with a network plan where I would help business owners get new business through channels they weren't using.

These old guys laughed at me and said "networking" meant you went to a cocktail hour with other salesmen from other industries and exchanged client lists so you could call on their clients.

I told them that seemed ridiculous. Why would I give away my client list and subject my clients to sales calls from people in another industry?

My idea was to increase a person's business without asking for anything in return. I kept thinking that if I increased a person's revenue, then I could gain their trust that I had their best interests at heart. I would eventually approach an investment suggestion.

About two months later I led the office in commissions for the month. I had two business owners who opened large accounts with me after some Press Releases I did for them brought in new business. They in turn gave me referrals of other successful business owners.

A few months later I left that business because my office manager wanted me to stay at night and cold call from phone number lists he bought. We had to call on Thursday nights because most people were home watching Cheers.

I couldn't stand being the guy on the phone cold calling you while you tried to watch your favorite show. Short sighted manager idiots!