Is a Forum a Better Fit for Your Business Site?
April 14th, 2010
A couple of buddies and I have a site dedicated to helping other Jeep and 4×4 enthusiasts find parts for their vehicles. It is a niche site, and we have found a lot of like minded folks on forums of Jeep clubs and whatnot. There are probably thousands of Jeep sites, and most of them have forums. I am sure some of these clubs also have Facebook pages, but a forum just works better for these folks. They have a private, password protected place to talk about their exploits. They don’t have to worry about privacy of Facebook someday taking ownership of any pictures they post. They can post their stories, photos, trip plans and questions without worrying that uninvited folks are going to read them. A Forum also fosters a sense of community, a more close knit community than the Facebook experience offers. There need to be rules in a forum, so make sure you lay those down, or read through them if you are visitor, otherwise you may get some arguments among users.
I think that a forum might work better than other forms of social media for a lot of different industries. I have said before, and I am sticking with the idea that social media is not for everyone, or every site. That being said, I think that if your business does not lend itself to Facebook and Twitter, a forum might work well, especially for a niche industry. One of our longstanding clients, Snyder’s Antique Auto has utilized a question and answer type of forum for years. It works well, their customers know they will have an expert answering their question, and the backlog of questions itself often provides the answer a user needed. I have a hard time imagining that the person who answers the questions on the site would have the same amount of interest and success on a Facebook page, especially since many of the customers are in an age bracket that just really has not embraced Facebook yet.
This forum theory was recently a post by Chris Crum over at WebProNews. Chris makes some interesting points about how forums can impact your business.
Obviously, I realize forums are nothing new. Far from it. Another small example of older, simpler technologies sometimes offering a “common sense” option.
