Online Forums

Online forums or message boards were one of the first social networking platforms. They usually exist to provide an outlet for online discussion between users with common interests e.g. online forums for parents, for motorbikers or for fans of a particular band. Users register with the forum to join in with discussions and share thoughts on related topics.

Online forums are a great way to form good relationships with customers and establish yourself as a “voice of authority” within your marketplace. They also provide a stream of traffic to your website and repeat visits as users participate in conversations.

However, there are some drawbacks to online forums that you should consider before you start one:

Although the content can grow very quickly, a message board also needs continuing participation from users to ensure that it keeps fresh and active.

Online forums can take quite a long time to grow and become active so you need to look at it as a long term project and be prepared to put a lot of work in particularly at the beginning to ensure your message board’s success.

Online forums can take up a lot of server space so you will need to consider this and perhaps place limits on the use avatars and signature files.

You willl need to appoint moderators to keep the conversations moving and to keep away spammers.  You will often find a couple of volunteers within the community but may need to consider hiring a couple also.

Keep planning ahead and stimulating interest as it is better to have no forum than one which is hardly used and looks dead to potential users.

Make sure you have considered any legal issues which may arise e.g. responsibilty for the content of posts and take advice accordingly.

Here are some sites for messageboard and online forum resources:

• http://www.vbulletin.com
• http://www.phpbb.com
• http://getvanilla.com
• http://www.proboards.com/
• http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/forum/
• http://www.ezboard.com
• http://www.ivillage.com/messageboards
• http://www.boards2go.com

photo credit: Daniel Voyager

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