Are forums dead? Hell No! This has been the question many formers and web managers have been asking lately. Forums are not dead. It is just that some web managers and administrators lack the skills to run a successful forum. Running a successful forum is completely different from running a blog or an information website. Although the two are closely related.
Forums tend to be more demanding compared to blogs and websites. This is simply because a forum is a community that is formed around a common interest. While a website can be an information platform that simply shared some details or random content in a specific niche. Therefore, why is running a forum tougher?
What Makes Running a Forum harder than running a website?
Unlike a website of blog, the idea behind a forum is building a community. Building a community entails building relationships between the members. This makes the forum a little more complicated to implement compared to a mere blog website. However, if you follow a clear path in the development of a forum, you will be able to build a successful forum.
Many forum managers are usually discouraged on the formative years of developing their forums. When they don’t see the numbers rising very first, many will give up and abandon the project altogether. It is important to note that the growth projection of a forum is slower compared to that of a blog. Therefore, it requires much patience and perseverance before it grows into a community that runs on its own.
So, what are the tips that can help you grow your forum?
Here are 10 tips That Will Help You Build a Successful Forum
Here we will discuss the top 10 tips that you can easily implement on your forum. Whether you are starting a new community from scratch or you wish to boost the activity in your existing forum, these tips will be very useful. This article will give you practical ideas that you can implement to improve your forum or website.
1. It Is a Process
Building a community is a process that should be followed step by step. There are no shortcuts in building a community. You have to first develop the idea. Then ensure you get to people who are truly interested in that particular idea.
Once you have a considerable number of members, you can now start conversations around specific topics. Most important is to remember that with the forum, you should always start small. You better have 50 members who are active with quality discussions than having thousands of dormant members.
2. Keep Members Engaged
The success of a community and for this case a forum is dependent on how engaged the embers are to the goals or niche of the forum. It is the duty of the forum owner and the team of moderators to come up with engaging activities and discussions that will not only keep the members active but also keep them coming back for more.
3. Forster a Relationships Between Members
Just like an offline community, for an online community to thrive, there should exist some good relationships between the members. Therefore, the forum owner and the moderators should develop an environment that enables members to discuss things amongst themselves. These relationships will in turn enhance activity in the forum as the members will be talking and exchanging ideas and resources amongst themselves.
4. Promote Your Forum
An online community is just a website like any other. Its infrastructure and SEO methodology is similar. Therefore, if you wish to have your website featuring on top of the Search Engines Results Pages (SERP), you must actively promote your website. To do this, you can utilize social media pages and other SEO strategies to ensure your website is adequately promoted on all platforms.
Here, the secret is to ensure you spread the news to other forums or social media platforms that your target members frequent. Also, as the forum manager, you should be active in other related forums and social media platforms so that the members can look at you as an authority in that particular field.
5. Appreciate Your Members
Just like in the real world, we all love to be appreciated in one way or another. To help boost the activity and engagement in your website or forum, you must reward your members. This will keep them coming and they will be motivated to contribute to ongoing discussions.
But be careful not to overdo this. Rewards should be given to deserving members and activities. Because if you do this wrongly, your forum activity will drop when the members don’t get rewards. Therefore, this should be done sparingly with a clear strategy in mind.
6. Avoid Excessive Advertisement
Well, websites and online forums should make money in order to sustain themselves. Forum owners will sometimes flood their forums with advertisements that make it very hard for the members to engage or even access the good stuff in your forum. It is important to limit the advertisement to give a good user experience.
7. Encourage Conversations
Forums thrive when there is constant conversations. The forum owners and moderators must come up with ideas, and discussion prompts that trigger conversations in the forum. Some forums will have a blogging section that will have regular articles that trigger the members to read and discuss the content. This is a good way for keeping the conversation going on in the forum. Always keep the content fresh and consistent to give the members new things to discuss.
8. Respond to All Feedback and Recommendations
Feedback and recommendations are an important part of a forum. This allows the members to share what they think will improve the community. As a community manager, the forum owner should ensure that there is a section where the members can give their feedback and share their ideas. Additionally, the forum owner and the moderators should ensure they respond to the concerns immediately.
9. Develop the Rules and Regulations
Every community, both online and offline requires a set of rules and regulations to thrive. These are like the laws that govern the engagement and conduct in the forum. Therefore, it is important to set these rules and regulations very early on to ensure the conduct of members in the group is well moderated. To add to this, moderators should be available to ensure the rules are adhered to.
10. Recruit and Train Moderators
Last but not least, a bunch of rules without people to ensure they are implemented is useless. Therefore, depending on the number of members in a group, moderators should be recruited to keep the discussions on target and controlled. It Is recommended to have at least one moderator for every 500 embers. But once the activity in the various forums increases, this may call for more moderators.
Forums tend to be more demanding compared to blogs and websites. This is simply because a forum is a community that is formed around a common interest. While a website can be an information platform that simply shared some details or random content in a specific niche. Therefore, why is running a forum tougher?
What Makes Running a Forum harder than running a website?
Unlike a website of blog, the idea behind a forum is building a community. Building a community entails building relationships between the members. This makes the forum a little more complicated to implement compared to a mere blog website. However, if you follow a clear path in the development of a forum, you will be able to build a successful forum.
Many forum managers are usually discouraged on the formative years of developing their forums. When they don’t see the numbers rising very first, many will give up and abandon the project altogether. It is important to note that the growth projection of a forum is slower compared to that of a blog. Therefore, it requires much patience and perseverance before it grows into a community that runs on its own.
So, what are the tips that can help you grow your forum?
Here are 10 tips That Will Help You Build a Successful Forum
Here we will discuss the top 10 tips that you can easily implement on your forum. Whether you are starting a new community from scratch or you wish to boost the activity in your existing forum, these tips will be very useful. This article will give you practical ideas that you can implement to improve your forum or website.
1. It Is a Process
Building a community is a process that should be followed step by step. There are no shortcuts in building a community. You have to first develop the idea. Then ensure you get to people who are truly interested in that particular idea.
Once you have a considerable number of members, you can now start conversations around specific topics. Most important is to remember that with the forum, you should always start small. You better have 50 members who are active with quality discussions than having thousands of dormant members.
2. Keep Members Engaged
The success of a community and for this case a forum is dependent on how engaged the embers are to the goals or niche of the forum. It is the duty of the forum owner and the team of moderators to come up with engaging activities and discussions that will not only keep the members active but also keep them coming back for more.
3. Forster a Relationships Between Members
Just like an offline community, for an online community to thrive, there should exist some good relationships between the members. Therefore, the forum owner and the moderators should develop an environment that enables members to discuss things amongst themselves. These relationships will in turn enhance activity in the forum as the members will be talking and exchanging ideas and resources amongst themselves.
4. Promote Your Forum
An online community is just a website like any other. Its infrastructure and SEO methodology is similar. Therefore, if you wish to have your website featuring on top of the Search Engines Results Pages (SERP), you must actively promote your website. To do this, you can utilize social media pages and other SEO strategies to ensure your website is adequately promoted on all platforms.
Here, the secret is to ensure you spread the news to other forums or social media platforms that your target members frequent. Also, as the forum manager, you should be active in other related forums and social media platforms so that the members can look at you as an authority in that particular field.
5. Appreciate Your Members
Just like in the real world, we all love to be appreciated in one way or another. To help boost the activity and engagement in your website or forum, you must reward your members. This will keep them coming and they will be motivated to contribute to ongoing discussions.
But be careful not to overdo this. Rewards should be given to deserving members and activities. Because if you do this wrongly, your forum activity will drop when the members don’t get rewards. Therefore, this should be done sparingly with a clear strategy in mind.
6. Avoid Excessive Advertisement
Well, websites and online forums should make money in order to sustain themselves. Forum owners will sometimes flood their forums with advertisements that make it very hard for the members to engage or even access the good stuff in your forum. It is important to limit the advertisement to give a good user experience.
7. Encourage Conversations
Forums thrive when there is constant conversations. The forum owners and moderators must come up with ideas, and discussion prompts that trigger conversations in the forum. Some forums will have a blogging section that will have regular articles that trigger the members to read and discuss the content. This is a good way for keeping the conversation going on in the forum. Always keep the content fresh and consistent to give the members new things to discuss.
8. Respond to All Feedback and Recommendations
Feedback and recommendations are an important part of a forum. This allows the members to share what they think will improve the community. As a community manager, the forum owner should ensure that there is a section where the members can give their feedback and share their ideas. Additionally, the forum owner and the moderators should ensure they respond to the concerns immediately.
9. Develop the Rules and Regulations
Every community, both online and offline requires a set of rules and regulations to thrive. These are like the laws that govern the engagement and conduct in the forum. Therefore, it is important to set these rules and regulations very early on to ensure the conduct of members in the group is well moderated. To add to this, moderators should be available to ensure the rules are adhered to.
10. Recruit and Train Moderators
Last but not least, a bunch of rules without people to ensure they are implemented is useless. Therefore, depending on the number of members in a group, moderators should be recruited to keep the discussions on target and controlled. It Is recommended to have at least one moderator for every 500 embers. But once the activity in the various forums increases, this may call for more moderators.
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