Forums Are Dead ? Do Forums Still Help In Marketing Your Business ?
It’s social media era and tools like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus are hot in the market. And “getting networked” is one of the most important factor towards marketing your business online.
In fact, having a huge network around your business shows the real strength.
As of today more than 600 million people are using Facebook which is one of the largest social network and almost you could find any one inside Facebook. Interestingly, people are classified/categorized there and you could utilize it as a best marketing tool than anything – by means of demographic targeting.
- When the marketing trend goes like this, as an Internet Marketer – i am getting a question in mind: do forums are dead ? and is it worth still today to use forums as a marketing tool/platform ?
In this article, i will discuss this topic shortly and in the end, i want to conclude the effectiveness of forums in today’s business trend.
Right Forum – Targeted Visitors.
Being part of right forum (related to your business) still adds value to your business, not only today and also, for the long term.
Forums are completely different from a social network site.
Because, forums are market specific or niche defined and hence you could find 100% targeted people. Plus, you could find the real expertise there because forums are active with hot discussions happening related to the market or topic.
Hence it benefits your business a lot from driving targeted visitors and in getting touch with like minded EXPERTS.
More important, you could solve your own problems on a forum as well you could give your solution – in order to prove that you are an expert in the industry.
This makes sense and i would say, participating in forums related to your business definitely has the “value add”.
Big Boards is a directory of great forums in the Internet which helps you to quickly search/find related forums, have a look.
For What You Are Using Forums ? The Purpose.
Being part of a forum is great and when you participate without any purpose – its useless. Forums are beneficial to you own business ONLY when you participate with a purpose or goal. It is not just you get into a forum and add your reply to all of the threads. That’s not a better strategy, instead define the purpose.
Fix your goals and decide, why you want to participate in a forum ? For example, to sell a product or find new customers to your business etc.
This way, you could better utilize forums by participating on relevant topics which benefits your business. Simply, define the purpose of participation and get involved in relevant conversion ONLY….
If you are able to meet your purpose then definitely, Forums are Not Dead !
Facebook’s Recent Partnership With StackOverFlow – An Example.
The recent partnership between Facebook and Stackoverflow forum is a great example of utilizing forums. As a social network site, Facebook partners with SO to facilitate their developers with a developer forum. Facebook were not able to fully support the developers with their social interface and hence this move benefits them a lot.
Because SO has the support/design for developer community in mind and there are millions of developers already using it, it is a developer platform. This is one of the best strategy taken by Facebook towards enhancing their developer network.
This is a good example which shows that “Forums are not dead”, it really benefits a community of people or business who are serious.
The official site says:
Facebook and Stack Exchange are now working together to support the Facebook developer community.
This collaboratively edited question and answer site is where Facebook engineers participate along with the best Facebook developers in the world. If you have a technical question about Facebook, this is the best place to ask – and you can also log in using Facebook.
The Conclusion…
Forums are one of the best marketing tool for your online business and they still adds value to your marketing effort.
Though social network tools are more or less similar to forums – it lacks the bonding of an expert community.
I would say, social tools are more personal tool and forums are more of specific tool which has the real benefits to every business marketer.
Finally, it all depends on how well you are utilizing the forums effectively for the benefit of your business – one of my article on forum marketing tips may help you further. Also, check this forum marketing mistakes neatly published by about.com long back.
Do you still use forums to promote your business ?
image: fred
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2 Comments on "Forums Are Dead ? Do Forums Still Help In Marketing Your Business ?"
The most important part of getting involved in affiliate marketing is to have a mentor. There is no need to go it alone and try to create everything for yourself, from scratch.
Choosing the right person to follow is not always an easy thing. You must find someone who has a major reputation. Someone who will not do anything to ruin what they’ve built up already. There are too many minor players around that you cannot be sure that they will stay the distance and be there to help you tomorrow as well as today.
Good luck with your efforts.
Always ensure that you select the right product to promote as an affiliate. Go with the ones that are already selling, don’t be the only one promoting a product, unless it’s new and you know you can rely on the vendor.
Good luck with your efforts.