The immune response to self- promotion is very strong in most online communities. To get past it, you need to give real value to the people there. Two of the main ways to do it are effective.
If you are an early-stage startup founder, it is likely that you would have to spend a lot of money to reach your first customers. Online communities related to your offering are an obvious choice.
You wouldn't be the only startup trying to grow-hack its way to success by plugging its offering and content in relevant Facebook groups or subreddits. Online communities have developed a strong immune response to self- promotion.
In most groups, explicit self-promotion is not allowed, and the community would be better off without you.
Even if you get past the first line of defense, promotional content will likely get pushed away by the members of the community, which will result in negative interaction mechanisms.
There is no easy way to solve this problem. Real value to the community is what you need to get the desired effect.
Two different approaches to the problem are used.
1. Become A Valuable Member Of The Community
The approach to becoming a member of the community is straightforward. It is fairly likely that the more active people in the community will remember you if you engage, provide information and opinions, and try to be useful.
They would be more likely to respond positively to your efforts to share your offering if you were seen as an Insider.
This is a very expensive approach and you need to think if it makes sense. It's not worth the time to engage with a community just so that you can post about your project once.
Only if the community is very close to your target market will this approach work. You would be closer to your customers if you engage, which would help you understand them better. You would be updated on the latest trends which would help you refine your marketing strategy.
2. Make Self-Promotion a Second-Order Effect
If you want to become a member of the community, you need to be creative in the way you promote yourself.
Since blatant self-promotion is what causes all of the defenses, your general strategy would be to create publications in which getting people interested in your project is the primary effect of your message.
Sharing information from your website is a common example. The topic of the content needs to provide value to your target audience and the communities in which you want to post it. References to your own project and professional experience can be included in the content, but it shouldn't be the main focus of the post. Readers would become aware of yourself and your offering even if the community doesn't allow you to post a link to your website.
If you want to use online communities to get your product off the ground, don't use the internet to send junk mail. Think of your self- promotion as a second-order effect and engage in a way that creates value for the community.
