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On the first day you set foot on the Internet, I am sure that you realized that you are not alone. You register for ICQ and Windows Live Messenger to connect with others, you joined forums for discussions and you set up a blog to get your message across to others.
You cannot get away from conversations and discussions on the Internet. Even in the comment section of a blog or a social media content, you can find people discussing. These are some major places that you will need some conversation skills to blend yourself in.
- Forums
- Blogs
- Chat Groups
- Social Media
- Comments
The 10 Useful Conversation Tips
Ask relevant questions
This is more than important in a conversation. People are discussing about a car’s performance and you jumped in with this question, "Why Google demoted my Page Rank?". What you will get in return is a cold shoulder or even a more cruel answer like "**** off! What has Page Rank got to do with cars?"
I know irrelevant questions make you stand out but how many will pay you attention for a long time? Choose the right medium for your topic. For example, choose Sphinn, StumbleUpon and Digital Point as your conversation medium online if you are interested in blogging.
Provide detailed answers
Don’t be lazy to type a few more words. Typing a few more lines will not only prove that you know your stuffs but also, people will pay attention to your reply because of the WOW factor with such a long reply.
Reply like you are typing a blog post 
. Over at Digital Point, you get rep points from other members for providing quality replies or if they find your replies helpful.
Listen to what others are saying
There’s always something to say in a discussion but as a discussion goes on and on, many things might have already been mentioned. Repeating it won’t get you the answer again.
I know some forum threads have up to 100 replies for a topic and some blog posts have over 100 comments but taking your time to scan through them rather than posting replies that looks like nothing but rubbish to others.
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Add value to the conversation
Add a piece of information, add a useful and relevant question that keeps the topic alive or even a disagreement which is supported with a source. Too many comments and replies nowadays are not adding value and worse, they degrades the value of a post.
Replies like "Nice one" and "I second you" won’t get you anything. Even though in forums you will get post counts, people will not see the number as valuable since a search on your replies will know that you post rubbish!
Avoid one-liners
I am not saying that one line replies are bad or don’t have value but with the number of spam increasing everyday, people is starting to have this thought "Spammers don’t read and just want to spam because they want attention, thus, they are the one posting one-liners."
Sometimes, we have to follow the norm of this society. People see others who wear torn and dirty clothes, sitting by the roadside as beggars. If you are not one but if you are wearing a torn clothes and siting by the roadside, people will think that you are a beggar!
Be creative and unique
Find your style. It can be a word that is being repeatedly used in your replies. It can be a sense of humor. It can also be a style in using word formatting such as colors. Getting yourself a style and be unique can bring your replies attention since plain text and replies will not make you different from others!
Offer free information
Are you a blogging tutor? Stop promoting your guides or courses in discussions. Try giving your readers personalized tips on how to improve blogs of others free of charge. I am sure that you realized that most successful blogs out there are successful because they provide guides and information, free of charge!
Going extra mile in gathering the information via Google and include it into your replies will certainly make it more useful than the replies of others.
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Be open to comments and criticism
Everyone will have their own errors and not everyone is always correct. When you have said something wrong or got the idea of something wrong, it is normal to get scolded, laughed and given sarcastic comments on the Internet.
The best way is to ignore or to apologize. I am not saying that you must be a coward to survive but if you don’t have firm facts and good interpersonal skills, you won’t get people supporting you and worse, people might see you as a trouble-maker.
Get Your Facts Right
To avoid the consequences of getting scolded or other bad experiences in a discussion, the best to do when you are on the side of providing information is to gather enough pieces of data and collaborate it with other pieces before you spit in out in the discussion place.
Sites like Wikipedia, blogs and also opinions from experts in related issues proved to be important in confirming the accuracy of your information provided. Getting the facts right also will not spoil your reputation as a false information provider. Having a clean record on the Internet is really important.
Photo by Payton Chung
Give more than you take
At times, we see discussion places like forums and chat rooms as places to scrape traffic. We tend to self-promote, sell our products or even bait other users to click on affiliate links (which I always do ).
The advice I am giving here is that, "Don’t just provide a link and always think about what have you contributed before taking benefits from others." I know some people out there will click on links easily but to get the best result in your effort to optimize community marketing is to give more than you take!
Your Feedback On Online Conversations
Do you have any advices for any other readers in participation of conversations? What do you think is the most important thing in participation of a conversation? What I think is that it is just like our daily conversation but the difference is, the whole thing is on the Internet.
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