The Power of Forums
May 22nd, 2008 by Mark Hanson
I am often asked how to engage with forum users and the power of them. As with all media (new and old) certain forums are more influential than others based on their subject matter, usefulness and the strength of bond between users - just like any community, geographic or otherwise.
In my day job I am often using our software to run social media audits in order to present a picture of influence amongst audiences that a brand may be trying to reach. It’s interesting that whether the topic be ‘green motoring’ or ‘gap year travel’, the algorithms are bringing the same forums regardless of their perceived niche.
Sites like Moneysavingexpert and Moneysupermarket are associated with financial services whilst DigitalSpy was originally launched for discussion about cable TV. However, their forums are coming up as highly influential in so many areas way, way outside of these initial subjects.
Why? Well just like any community - your street, your football club, trade union, church, if you have lots of people that meet regularly, help each other out all the time and start to really trust each other then they will tell their friends who will tell their friends and the community will start to grow. Then there will be people in the church or football team who travel a lot, know about marketing or who study politics or indeed anything that you might want advice on. Then niche discussions start and the community gets ever more useful.
Check out the general discussions area of DigitalSpy, look at how many people have viewed each topic, how many people have posted on each topic and how many topics those people have posted on. Then look at this post about Madeleine McCann. Over 2 million views - that’s more than the readership of some national newspapers!
So it’s no surprise that so many organisations are asking their PR advisers how they can engage here. It can be done badly or done well.
Rather than me telling you how to do it, I thought you might want to watch/listen to the forum editor of MoneySupermarket.
Tags: , digital spy, forum engagement, forums, moneysupermarket
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 am
I’ve no doubt that forums are one of the most potent social media formats around.
We’ve seen them again and again at iCrossing in our social media research as key social spaces around all sorts of topics.
I’ve seen Moneysavingexpert’s forum community in particular as the power / momentum behind some really major business and news agenda issues, such as the questions over council tax banding and the legality of bank charges.
As to people talking about things outside of the forum’s focus of interest, that’s something we’ve seen again and again.
To the most regular users of forums these places are where they hang out online. And if they decide to use them to talk about “off topic” subjects, then that’s what they’ll do.
I’ve seen people discussing marital problems in their car enthusiast forums and others asking fellow members for advice on their child’s health in a dog-owners’ forum (someone did suggest they talk to a doctor not a vet).
A common interest - saving money, a type of car, an interest in a TV programe - can bring people together, but that won’t necessarily define what they are going to talk about all the time.
But I’d urge researchers to look beyond just the large and most obviously influential communties. The networks of niche communities and other social media / websites such as blogs and groups in social networks may not be as obvious but their influence in aggregate, and the way content and conversations flow between them are very important indeed.
If you start focussing on just a top five or ten forums you fall into the trap of channel thinking - and the web is all about networks.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:13 am
I kinda sorta agree with Antony, though I’d argue that if your software keeps coming up with forums as particularly influential then a re-tweaking might be in order. The forums themselves aren’t influential, it’s the people posting content within those forums that lend it some credibility.
I actually see forums as being outdated modes of organising communication between individuals. After all, it was only very recently that threaded comments were introduced into forums.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I’m not sure I agree with Jag that forums are outdated modes of organising communication between individuals. Personally, I think we’re still in the early days of the ‘forum phenomena’. While some people may have been populating forums for a number of years, I think that they are a new discovery for many and they will become much bigger over the next few years.
On our forum at moneysupermarket.com, I’d say we get new members coming on saying things like ‘this is my first time posting’ or ‘I’m so glad I discovered this thread’, most days. And certainly the way our memebership is increasing, I think a lot of people are discovering online forums for the first time: there are still many more people who don’t use them, than the number that do.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Consumers are turning to forums to gauge opinion and seek assurance that their feelings are in line with the thinking of others. In addition and to demonstrate how important they have become, banks, credit card providers and prepaid card providers are turning to forums to get insights on consumer opinion and behaviour around their brands. They take them so seriously that in a number of cases providers get involved in the debate themselves in an effort to be seen to be proactive in dealing with the subject at hand.
Marketing Week recently reviewed moneysupermarket.com. Amongst its findings was the fact that “The site also encourages user collaboration by providing discussion forums and highlighting the most active in the “Forum spotlight” and “Hot topics” features”.
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=60897&d=259&h=263
As growth of this medium continues, their value will continue to grow - potentially they could be seen as a customer service environment in their own right and be adopted in this way. egg tried this in their early days but it became an open forum for complaint and abuse, so they closed them down. Run properly and governed fairly, they could add value in this way to the providers - particularly sites like ours who offer independence in their governance.