It’s not as sexy as Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, and others.

I admit it.

It’s not fun having to remember yet ANOTHER username and password to log in.

I admit it.

But …

Here is what small business owners looking for online conversations with potential customers should remember: Some of the most passionate and active people in thousands of niches are talking about your products in forums. If they aren’t talking about your products in your niche, you need to get in those forums and tell people about your business.

Forums are the Original Gangsters (O.G.) of the Social Media world.

Interestingly, the same rules apply in the forums that apply in the most popular social media platforms of the moment.

1. Participate in conversations.
2. Don’t spam your products and pitch people all the time.
3. Fill out your bio and link to your site/products in your profile page.
4. Participate in conversations. (Did I mention that already?)

For instance, I site that I frequent a lot is the Harmony-Central.com forums for songwriting. I like to discuss songwriting in general and as an added plus, if an article I have written applies to a conversation, I will provide a link to my songwriting blog.

There are often forums for every business niche imaginable. Many trade associations, from construction to computing have forums rolled into their yearly memberships. Many local Chamber of Commerce websites often have forums.

Get Local With Forums

Small business owners should also take a look at local options. A simple search in my town revealed the following local forums:

• Jewish Business Community Forum
• CraigsList (of course)
• Two local forums from newspapers with multiple topics (real estate, entertainment, local politics)
• Local college forums (great place to find entry level workers or interns)
• Local holistic and metaphysical forum (health products and naturepath)
• Hiking forum (health and fitness products)
• Cycling forum (health and fitness products)
• Photography forum (electronics, cameras, photography services)
• Freecycle – Over 5000 local members giving away anything and everything imaginable.

All of these forums are active and wonderful places to initiate and participate in conversations.

Do a search in your town, region, state. You’ll be surprised at what you will find.