As a communications professional, I was looking for a way to reach out to other business communicators and colleagues. I was particularly interested in sharing best practices and learning from others. In an effort to help promote quality discussions, I started researching forums and discussion boards.
Many business communicators make the mistake of simply building a blog or Facebook page, expecting the masses to simply just show up at some point and time. This hurried approach to get something "Web 2.0" out there will usually lead to wasted resources and disappointment. Instead, communicators should take the time to determine which technologies make the most sense and then develop the necessary tools to make those technologies successful.
I specifically chose a communications forum over other types of social media, and I would encourage others to look at starting a forum to help promote a business or website. Below are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using a forum over other types of social media:
1. Users generate most of the content. If you're not the kind of person who enjoys writing hundreds of articles or posting thousands of tweets, a forum might be a better choice. Users create and post most of the content.
2. There's a lot of software to help create a forum. There are a number of platforms, many of which are free, that anyone can use to get a forum up and running. You don't need to be a web designer.
3. You can get almost immediate feedback. The community will let you know how they feel about certain topics or issues. If you have a question, just start a new thread and see what others are thinking.
As for disadvantages, you will have to constantly monitor the forum to ensure that quality posts are being generated. While you don't create most of the content, you will be responsible for monitoring and controlling the environment. Also, server fees can be higher for forums because of the amount of bandwidth they can consume.
About this Author
John Carraway is a regular contributor at www.CommDiscussion.com [http://www.CommDiscussion.com], a communications forum and discussion board for business communicators.
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