Over an eight week period, they posted over 200 entries in over 150 different forums (all in English). For the first five weeks the technique they used was broadcast, i.e., they simply offered information without engaging other users, no questions, no responses, nothing but product message. After the fifth week, they began engaging other users. They created threads with questions, always employing a conversational tone, and stripped the brand messages in some of their posts, using them only in responses to other users where appropriate.

The results are what we have been talking about all along: engagement works. The first weeks of product broadcasting rendered a very low view rate (5,000 views) and there were no comments left on any of the forum entries. When they switched to engagement, the view rate shot up almost three times. Commenting was responsible for 10 percent of the view rate.