Get Noticed on a Message Board

Robert sent me an interesting message a week ago. He asked, “Is there a formula on how to get noticed on a message board? It seems like message boards are full of a bunch of people that say the same thing. How do I get my message heard?”

I talked to Robert and he said he would consider my ideas successful if I could get a Top Networker Badge on the Huffington Post. Well I got the badge after about 15 posts. Here I’ll show you how to do it.

Why The Huffington Post

I choose the Huffington Post for numerous reasons. The first reason was that it is the biggest blog online, hence it would be the hardest to gain influence on.

I also choose it because:

• It’s a progressive leaning blog (I’m a Progressive)
• To gain a lot of fans you have to believe in the same things as those fans
• They have a rating system that would prove my success

I’m not saying that this only will work for progressives. If you have a conservative mindset you can obviously win over conservatives.

How to Get Noticed on a Message Board

The first thing I did was read the comments people were leaving. Robert was right. Most were identical except for the few comedians and complete nuts.

I looked for a way to stand out and in doing so I discovered that there weren’t many facts being thrown around with believable sources. So I decided I needed a source that was unquestionable.

To cut to the chase, those articles that drew the most attention were on the following specific topics:

• Republicans move to eliminate Medicare
• Sarah Palin or other republican presidential nominees
• Unions
• Unemployment
• Corrupt Corporations

So, I decided to print real numbers in a very specific way and see what happens. I decided I wanted to target a very specific series of problems also being:

• Income Inequality
• Corporate Taxes
• Taxes on the Wealthy
• Republican Beliefs
• A little pro-union stuff

Gathering My Sources

This was actually very easy. I spent a half hour finding some solid proof and a ton of numbers. I figured numbers would stand out because they weren’t often used.

The Federal Reserve Boards Survey of Consumer Finances was a gold mine of data. It also came from the Federal Reserve which is considered to be trustworthy. From it I gathered enough information to win nearly any argument in regards to the first 3 topics above.

I got a list of Republican beliefs from the Freedom Works website. It is aimed to please their base and not at regular people. This was actually the best thing I found!

I didn’t have much success blogging on pro-union issues, but I found it was very easy to win an argument if I used Germany as an example on how a unionized workforce can succeed.

But, I wasn’t here to win arguments, I was here to win supporters and fans!

What Doesn’t Work

Don’t comment as a reply to other posters ever! It is completely pointless. I don’t think I had one successful reply. You also don’t want to:

• Don’t write a giant paragraph
• Don’t address the writer of the article. Always focus on the commenters
• Don’t post a lot
• Don’t post anything without a reliable source attached
• Don’t write short comments

Finally What Does Work

• Use lists of bulleted items when ever possible
• End the comment with a question
• Use analogies
• Always check your spelling
• Tell a story with numbers
• Write extremely short paragraphs
• Divide sentences with a space
• Accent important words with uppercase letters
• Start the comment with a short statement
• Always Provide a Credible Source

Examples of Comments that Worked

I provide the following examples not to get into a political discussion, but instead simply as an example.

For the most part, these 2 comments got me all 150 fans and a networker badge! That means I have many more fans than others on the Huffington Post. I’m not bragging, but instead I’m explaining what it means

Best Comment for Attracting Fans

The article asked the question, “Who would people vote for Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachman?”

I wrote:

If you vote for either you are also voting for all of the following issues.

23 – 30% flat tax
Eliminatio­n of all corporate taxes
Eliminatio­n of taxes on imports
Eliminatio­n of nearly all taxes on the wealthiest 5%
Tort reform that will make it impossible to sue a corporatio­n
Eliminatio­n of net neutrality which will silence the anti-corporate voice
Privatization of social security and Medicare
Elimination of Medicaid and welfare
Privatization of nearly all public servicesAcross the board eliminatio­n of all corporate regulations

Source FreedomWorks.com

Did I miss anything?

(This got me 67 Fans in a few minutes)

Another Popular Comment

The next article I commented on was about Income Inequality in the U.S. The article was true, but lacked any numbers or proof, so I provided them in this comment:

Here are some more numbers you may find interesting (sad):

Top 1% owns 42.7% of the total net worth of the nation
Bottom 80% owns 6.9% of the nations net worth

Average Net Worth of bottom 80% : $48,600
Average Net Worth of top 1%: $23.77 Million

Average Income of the bottom 90%: $31,244
Average Income of the top 10%: $164,647
Average Income of the top 1%: $1,137,684
Average Income of the top .01%: $27,342,212 (875.1 Times More)

Average Tax Rate on bottom 50%: 20%
Average Tax Rate on small business owners: 32%
Average Tax Rate on the top 1%: 18.8%
Average Tax Rate on the top 100 corporations: 9.7%

Source FRB Survey of Consumer Finances

Who Should Pay More Taxes?

Wrapping Up

So, there are some tips on how you can get noticed in a sea of commenters on any message board. Leave any questions and comments below.

Till Next Time

Think Tank