[FS Administrator]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for joining and welcome to the forums. I just wanted to respond to your concerns you raise above.

To help ensure discussions are valuable and relevant for everyone, we have developed guidelines for the forums including promotion. These have evolved over a couple of years with lots of input from the community members. As you’ve identified, it can be a tricky balancing act to draw a line on defining self-promotion but it is a role that we take very seriously.

We recognise that developing business contacts is a valuable aspect of the community and provide opportunities for this via the introductory threads, signature links, public profiles, social networking links, groups and free business directory listings. These are free to all members. For those looking for extra promotional exposure there is a low cost directory upgrade option.

As with using any social media for business development, the approach that works well is to get involved, share your expertise and add value to the community – people will then look to you when they need help.

If you have further questions or feedback on the guidelines please let me know as we are here to help the very best we can. We are always looking for ideas to help Australia's micro business owners.

Cheers,
Peter