Lesson 3 of 7
Communities without getting banned
How to be welcome in groups where customers ask for advice
The idea
A stranger walks into a book club and hands out flyers. They're asked to leave. A regular member hears someone needs an accountant and says “I'm one, happy to help”. That's welcome. Online communities work the same way.
Reddit
Groups by topic and city, strict rules, a long memory
LinkedIn and Facebook groups
Work and local groups. Moderators decide
Forums, Slack and Discord
Smaller and closer, often the most loyal
Help first
Step 1
Read
The rules and the top threads, for a week
Step 2
Help
Useful answers with no links, for weeks
Step 3
Mention
What you do, only when it answers the question
Step 4
Say it's yours
Every time you mention it
Gets you banned
- A link in your first post
- The same answer pasted into many threads
- Hiding that it's your business
Earns trust
- Answers that help even without your product
- Each community's own rules, followed
- “Full disclosure: I make this”
Reddit looks at how old an account is, and how many upvotes it has earned, before it trusts it. The studio warms Reddit and Quora accounts more slowly than other networks, and reads each community's rules first.
Sort it
1 of 6
Welcome or removed?
“Answering a pricing question with a real price range, and no link”
Today, with AI
Community threads are now read far beyond their members: Google and AI assistants quote them. A helpful answer keeps working for years.
Communities are also flooded with AI-written replies, so many have tightened their rules and remove bland answers faster.
What AI does well
Finding threads where your customers ask for advice, drafting a helpful answer in the community's tone, and checking it against the rules.
Where it goes wrong
Its answers sound like everyone else's, and it can't feel a community's mood. Moderators spot it.
What stays yours
Your account, your honesty about who you are, and the replies after the first answer.
Check yourself
Do it in the studio
Checklist
0 of 5
Before your first answer
- 01
Find three communities where your customers ask for advice: a subreddit, a LinkedIn or Facebook group, a forum.
free - 02
On Reddit, the studio's Social media → Reddit page lists communities on its Communities tab. Its Settings take your account's age and followers, so it warms at the right pace.
free - 03
Tick the checklist above before your first answer.
free - 04
Approve the drafted answers in To approve, and add your own words where only you know the answer.
free
Done when You've given ten helpful answers in one community before mentioning what you do.
Go deeper
University courses on the same topic, if you want to go further.
Northwestern Medill
Social Networks (MS Integrated Marketing Communications)How networks of people form, and how ideas move through them
Harvard Business School Online
Digital Marketing Strategy and AI, Module 5: Engaging CustomersBuilding a community, and keeping customers involved