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Leveraging Internet Newsgroups to Increase your Exposure December 26, 1999 Response to our last e-mailing was really good. Some of you called for advise on mailing software, and/or details on getting started while others asked if we would manage the lists. We are pleased to help you grow your business on the Web in any way we can. For our second newsletter, we'll present yet another "Internet Media" type, Newsgroups, or USENET. USENET is a collection of discussion groups that users may participate in order to exchange ideas and comments on a particular topic. They are analogous to bulletin boards, where each board has a different main topic. You can read or create postings for any board. Postings are public; that is, anyone can see them. At last count, there were over 45,000 independent newsgroups. That's a lot of discussion topics - and a lot of people who share your interests. If you spend some time looking for a group that shares your interests, the rewards can be great. Participants of these groups have a wealth of knowledge. Ask them a question, and get answers in return. Perhaps, too, there will be a question or topic posted for which you have expert advise? Therein lies your opportunity to help others, while gaining exposure in your field. Read. Answer questions. Participate. If you continually participate in one or two good groups, your name will become more known, and you can only improve your business. Here's an example: I occasionally read a group called "comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html" (yes, the names get quite long, but there IS a method to their naming madness), a group primarily interested in the language of Web Pages, HTML. I may find a business owner who is trying to publish their own Web Site. Could this person eventually turn into a client? Only if I open a dialog with them. I can answer their questions, and offer my services. If my advise helps, perhaps they might want to open a private e-mail dialog - and I've got a qualified potential client. How do you find these groups? You only need two things: 1) A News Server and 2) "News Reader" software. Both of these should be readily available - for no additional charge. Ask your ISP (Internet Service Provider) the name of their News Server. It will look like a usual Web Site address, but often with a "news" in front instead of a "www". Your ISP will often support a particular News Reader software package, and offer to help you get started. If you use Netscape Communicator, you already have one piece of software that will get you into the News Groups. Another free News Reader (my personal favorite) is "Free Agent", readily available at www.forteinc.com. Once armed with these tools, you will need to do download the list of newsgroup names from the server. Like the HTML group in the example above, each group name hints at the main topic, so once you have the list of names, you can browse through looking for interesting topics. Free Agent lets you search the list of names by word - when I wanted to find an HTML group, I simply searched for the word "html" and Free Agent sifted through the vast number of groups for me. When you find a group you would like to read, you will need to either "subscribe" to the list, or simply download a few sample messages. Take a look at a few things: How many messages were posted to this group in one day? How many were just advertisements, and how many were truly related to the topic at hand? Some list only get a few postings a week, others are quite active, with hundreds of postings a day. You should be able to judge quickly the quality and quantity of the postings to the list. Find a list that you will be able to contribute to and that your business may benefit from. Once you decide to participate, DO NOT JUST POST ADVERTISEMENTS. Like SPAM (mass, unsolicited, e-mail), bulk advertising in newsgroups is generally frowned upon, and can have negative effects on your business and image. In addition, each group can have it's own "rules of etiquette", so it's best to just "listen" for a while to get the idea of what is acceptable behavior before actually posting a note. You need to be courteous to others like yourself who consider unsolicited advertising unwanted. A few more things to be aware of: Since these groups are PUBLIC, anyone can read your postings. That includes people who you may not want to read your notes. Make sure your postings are suitable for everyone. Also, there are folks out there who read the newsgroups only to collect e-mail addresses. Once you post, consider your e-mail address in the public domain, and expect some unwanted e-mail. Unfortunately, this is an unwanted side effect of communicating with e-mail. Last thing: When you DO decide to post, whatever you do, end your message with your Web Address and any other contact information you may wish to provide. Remember, the idea behind promoting yourself on USENET is to get yourself recognized for your areas of expertise. Once you've gone through all the trouble to find a newsgroup, listen in, write meaningful responses and post to a newsgroup, you should make your assets known. After all, that's what we're here for in the first place. Sewell Computer |
