I received an interesting e-mail the other day from a lady named Carrie. She asked…
I want to create a vBulletin forum. I already have a pretty active Facebook fan page, so I’m thinking of using that audience to announce and promote a new forum. Should I stick to my fan page, switch to a forum or use both?
First of all, let’s start by looking at the advantages of owning a FB fan page:
1) They are convenient. Millions of people already have FB accounts, so joining is easy. All people have to do is “Like” your page to begin chatting away.
2) It’s free (unlike vBulletin, for example)
3) The learning curve for managing a fan page is not steep
4) Fan pages have a separate discussion area
Now, let’s look at the disadvantages…
1) Since it’s hosted on Facebook’s servers, you don’t really own the content on your fan page like you would with a self-hosted forum.
2) There are posting limitations (People can’t upload file attachments, send private messages, and take advantage of other common forum features.)
3) You can’t create categories and post organization is limited, so the older posts get buried very quickly.
Since both fan pages and forums options have their advantages and disadvantages, it really boils down to your commitment and goals.
Running a forum is a lot of work. First of all, monitoring automated and manual spam can turn into a full-time job. Second, you have to make sure content is posted in the right category, handle any problems users may have with their accounts, and you have to keep the software up-to-date.
On The Other Hand…
There are a lot more monetization options with a self-hosted forum, so it may be worth the extra work if you are looking for additional ways to monetize your growing community.
There are also SEO benefits. Seventy-five percent of my daily forum traffic comes from the search engines. That’s because every new thread is like a web page in the search engine’s eyes.
So at this moment, Website Babble has over 15,000 “pages.” And since content is created quite regularly, the posts/pages are indexed and ranked by the search engines very quickly.
And if you have an SEO-friendly forum script, that may help even more. I use the VBSEO plug-in for my vBulletin forum and it optimizes each thread so it’s more search-engine friendly.
So Carrie, there’s nothing wrong with having both. I certainly wouldn’t abandon your active fan page, however. You also cannot assume that all those fans are just going to transfer over to you forum. Many people will prefer to stick with your fan page because of the convenience of already having a FaceBook account.
Do you have any other methods of promoting this forum? A static website/blog? I learned the hard way that it takes a LOT of traffic to generate steady activity to a forum, so make sure you’re prepared to promote it heavily.
2) Examine your goals. What are you trying to accomplish with a forum that your fan page cannot? If having more monetization options and control of the content is something that’s important, then a forum may be the way to go.
3) Don’t underestimate the amount of work that goes into running a forum and determine if it’s worth your extra time.
What do you guys think of using a fan page to launch a forum? Also, are any of you using your fan page in place of a forum because of the convenience and ease of managing it? Any ideas for Carrie?
It does not show up under “Use Facebook as page” so it does not have a newsfeed. U got website, got blog, forum and even fan pages. i encourage you to run both to get win win situation since both of it able to bring other advantages.
I prefer teh fan page, more hot and clean to blog! I am considering using Infinit to integrate a proper forum, and will definitely put a link to the it from the C2 page. FB fan page rocks for my niche. Take the case of a fan page for instance, facebook can delete it anytime , and you may have invested all you days and nights in that!!
when you click “Use Facebook as page” for your fan page, then click the Facebook logo you see a news feed. This news feed shows news from everyone the fan page has liked.
A “Application Profile page” can not like other fan pages. It does not show up under “Use Facebook as page” so it does not have a newsfeed.
If you ‘think’ (Application Profile page) have newsfeeds, please show me how to view them, and let me know what content would show up in them.
to conduct a fan pages is easy , but to conduct a high traffic forum is troublesome.
You cannot made it by per person, so why not you hire someone to help you to help you maintain it.
U got website, got blog, forum and even fan pages.
Even a full time maybe troublesome to managed those everyday.
The other day Glenn Beck with his fantastic loved ones left for find a good Alfred Hitchcock video (A Thirty-nine Tips) in Bryant Car park, an out of doors car park throughout New York City powering the New York City library. Sounds like an exciting nighttime, nevertheless in line with Beck, that it was your “hostile circumstances.”As Beck relayed around the Glenn Beck Method, an individual expelled vino on his or her better half Tanya along with drenched your ex, yet another dude shouted during his girlfriend along with child on the grounds that this individual detested conservatives, as well as others took pictures of those. “These citizens were the most hateful folks I’ve ever seen,In . claims Beck. He or she furthermore mentioned this he or she is guaranteed however have already been lynched when a string ended up being supplied and therefore his own basic safety aspect claimed the circumstance may very well include boomed to epic proportions had Beck brilliant spouse and children not really stayed so civil.May seem totally lousy. So just why don’t Beck and his awesome spouse and children just depart?
“I use a to certainly look at a show and revel in a motion picture in the park along with my loved ones,” he said.Positive, that might be the reason. Or maybe the Becks stayed at have fun with your film due to the fact it’s unlikely that any of that really occured.
Beck was missing a great deal to say about these kinds of bad occurrences until Gawker put up photographs involving Glenn and the relatives during Bryant Playground — plus stated that she obtained as a famous Hunt cover. Beck suggests these were producing exciting regarding him. Seemingly no-one creates enjoyment involving Beck’s blankie, because then Beck thought i would sexy lash out on her radio stations method with some imitation account (filled with blocked backside cry) with regards to the shocking day he / she with his fantastic family obtained. Have a look at the particular shots and find out the best way anxious Beck and his awesome spouse and children were being of the “rabid mob” in private.Of course, if your images never influence you actually that is quite a few goofball dude whom hate that will he’s not one of the “cool kids” consequently your dog comprises some sort of lame-o report to obtain them struggling with the key, there is certainly more …Ladies known as Lindsay lohan Piscitell, who had previously been seated guiding the Becks during Bryant Store (along with whoever close friend would be the an individual that purportedly “intentionally knocked wine” about Beck’s better half), contributed your ex version associated with situations with The big apple mag. Your lover states that this Becks ended up kept only and therefore his physique pads have been presenting the moviegoers a tough time as well as throwing how much close to. Concerning that will wines episode?
Mostly people convert members to facebook fans and less hear about convert facebook fans to forum members because it is impossible to convert all of it.
You may link it together but do not do as what a forum do which once people post a new thread in forum and it will automatic post out in fb as a title ! I understand it is fast notification to your members but if too much it become more like a spam wall to them.
i encourage you to run both to get win win situation since both of it able to bring other advantages.
I think FB is one great for This topic,,,
Its usefull to promote our website
Hello, FanPage and Forums are more or less all the same. We can convert the friends to the authentic traffic for our niche website. I personally like the both for driving the traffic to my website. By the way, thanks for this discussion. I liked it.!!
well facebook has the discussion forum option but the problem ios that it doesnt look great and inefficincy to optimise it…..forums are the way to go to create a controversial topic and attract users attention and thereby traffic 🙂 moreover i cant add shoutbox on facebok fan page like in my forum although some apps like clobby chat are available but they suck big time compared to the shout boxes so thats one of the reason i chhose a forum 🙂 now talking about which forum….since i m too new to blogging and webmastering and stuff and being a 17 yr old doesnt leave me with money, i cant opt for vbulletin (don;t feel like using cracked scripts :lol:), so i have phpbb3 which is pretty descent too but yeah vbulletin truly rocks…. 🙂
I would think that more than anything, a forum requires lot of attention, work and hence time. That is if you have enough traffic coming to it which in any case is the objective. I keep thinking that when on a blog there are so many readers and comments, the time that it would take to reply to all the comments is huge; imagine what would be the time requirements to manage a forum – both in terms of replies if required to be given by the moderator and more importantly for just supervision and moderation.
I think a forum is the next level of business and unless you have a dedicated team, a forum may not the right strategy.
Disadvantage:You can of course monetise your forum,but not ur fanpage
Yes. I am using both of them to promote for our blogs.
Facebook is one of the best way to promote your business ..
We are also looking for new ways to increase like on our fan page
We would appreciate if you like our fan page http://www.facebook.com/EbAzkTechnologies
I prefer teh fan page, more hot and clean to blog!
Regards!
Forums are incredibly amazing for creating a community but can be an absolute nightmare when it comes to managing them. I used to be a moderator on a couple forums back in the day and it’s a job in itself; you literally don’t have time for much else at that point so I would say to avoid them unless that’s your entire business model at this time.
just about any post in a forum with a tag is viewed as spam by user. dont know about this.
I like to think from the user perspective.
When i’m looking to network with people and see what people are saying about a certain topic, I look to facebook. When I’m looking for more technical information I tend to browse the forums for user input.
It is really hard to compare the two next to one another.
It’s like choosing between a blog and twitter. Both have their place.
Hello Lisa,
I go for fan pages,it always work right for me. Forums can be best, but requires more work and time to manage.
I feel one should establish a website with solid content.
Facebook has its good points, but the limitations and lack of control of the site leads me to believe it is not really a good option for a forum.
Ownership of the forum is a pretty big deal if you plan on putting alot of work into it.
I’ve had a fan page for a while, I did try and run a forum but it died as nobody wanted to join it. I think you need a very active blog to pull a forum off. 🙂
I am one of those people who think that you must never invest all of your time in something that does not and will never belong to you. Take the case of a fan page for instance, facebook can delete it anytime , and you may have invested all you days and nights in that!! However, it is also true that forums involve a lot of hard work as well. In the end it all depends on what your expectations are, whether you are looking for an opportunity to make some money online or are you simply trying to have a forum to talk about your hobbies and interests, in the latter case you should stick to your fan page!
Hello Daniel Black, I agree with you.
I thought a forum would generate traffic on one of my sites. HAH! It was even a site about dealing with feelings and depression– stuff like that. You think “People helping people. That’s a forum.” Forget it. You need thousands of visits a day to make a forum attractive. I hang out on one of the biggest forums in the world, and I still recognize eighty percent of the people on there on a weekly basis. Forums are great ways to share information, but starting one takes a TON of traffic. And the spam management is ungodly. It should be fun.
Wow Fred…I didn’t know you had done that.
Yeah the spam I was getting on my fansite forums for a few bands was making me want to just give up the internet entirely….either that or poke my eyes out. Instead i just trashed the forum…in my head it was just like in Office Space, in reality it was as simple as pushing the “red button” and pewf forum be gone! Thank the gods…
@Fred It absolutely does. Take it from someone who took 4 tries before starting someone successfully. Took a lot of cross promotion with all my sites to get Website Babble active.
FB fan page rocks for my niche. Through it, I achieve 80% of my goals for creating the page. The fan page has actually started ranking well in SERPs.
I hate to think that I don’t own the content but for now, the page is paying its dues. Even if facebook disappears tomorrow, I will still have the visitors who got to know about my website through their FB friends. And all it takes is a few minutes a day to reply to comments and answer questions.
My niche is quite small and can only be a category in a forum that has a wide range of topics. So will I be creating a forum in the near future? No thanks … lol
I guess the choice of which to go for depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to generate traffic, then you need a FB fan page, if you already have enough traffic, then create a forum. The order of flow of traffic should be FB > your site > forum.
good call Lisa, and I agree that it is unwise abandoning an active FB page. many would die for one. that said, the benefits of a self sustaining forum are far greater, and to the extent of one’s capacity, one should start evolving toward it. you can always hire someone to help you manage / maintain it unless you can recruit some nice volunteers.
here is an add on to the premise of this post. what about the SBI Content 2.0 forum capability. It is a forum, but more in a question/answer type format. It is difficult to navigate through and visitors often end up repeating questions because of the convoluted structure.
What are your thoughts on that Lisa? how does one best optimize the use of 2.0? should one migrate to a more traditional forum and abandon C2?
Hi Sunil
I don’t use Content 2.0 on my SBI! site but I do see the limitations. One thing you could do if you create a forum and would like to migrate away from it is to interlink forum posts into your pages that use Content 2.0. That’s how I started promoting my forum. I would find relevant pages on 2 Create a Website and link forum posts that relate to that.
And I think the answer to “should you migrate” really depends on your desire and needs. If your C2 pages aren’t getting much activity than migrating to a forum may not make sense. But if you see really great conversations developing frequently then perhaps you may want to think of integrating Infinit! with SBI! and setup your own forum.
That’s exactly the predicament Lisa. My C2 forum on my SBI sites are doing amazingly well, but they are cluttered, can be redundant, and not very efficient due to several limitations inherent in the program. I am considering using Infinit to integrate a proper forum, and will definitely put a link to the it from the C2 page. The challenge is moving over the hundreds of C2 pages over to the new forum platform. Certainly don’t want to lose the great content.
That I feel is the real challenge. No?
Thanks!
FB fan pages is one great way if you want traffic for your site too..forums maybe a way too but nowadays, Facebook is probably one of the best way to promote your business!
I think it really depends on your niche/topic. If it’s like a celebrity type of page, then it will probably work best on a fan page.
I also wouldn’t depend just on Facebook for marketing if I started a forum. I would try to put more efforts into search engine optimization. Because facebook can delete or change anything they want at anytime.
Facebook Pages have more buzz. Also, when you post on your page all of your fans can see that post in their Facebook news stream. Since so many people are on Facebook anyway, I think there is a better opportunity for them to see your information.
I have had many forums, and have completely gone away from them because of the convenience factor that Facebook offers. Forums were very popular back in the day, but no one wants to sign up for yet another account on the internet. So a fan page is what I tell people to do. Have the content on the website also if you can do that too.
I have been looking for a forum that connects with Google Friend Connect! If you know of one, please let me know!
In the meantime, I’m going to check out what a Forum (Discussions Tab) can do for my readers.
Thank you Lisa!!! 🙂
Holly
Lisa, when you say a “lot” of traffic is needed for a forum, how much is that? I totally understand that a specific number is not possible, because each site and forum is different. However, is a lot 1000 people a day, 10,000 people a day, or even more?
Let me put it like this. I tried launching a forum through 2 Create a Website on three different occasions. They all failed. It wasn’t until I had roughly 2,000 visitors per day, then my forum became active. Not saying that’s the minimum amount, just saying that’s what worked for me.
Thanks for the answer! That helps a lot.
Forums do take a lot of work to keep active. I had one that I closed earlier this year; people say they want it, but then they don’t visit. I’m not sure I’d start a forum again.
What I have set up just this weekend is a private area for people on come to the Tuesday Klatsch sessions on Skype. It’s almost Twitter-like – there’s a update box, and you can read the message below, all in order, including threaded comments. It’s very simple, and one good thing is it doesn’t look like a ghost town, like forums can when there’s no posts.
It’s simply a place to drop in, leave a question or answer a question and that’s it. You don’t have to do more that that if you don’t want to.
Hey Lisa:
I agree with Brankica and the fact that the forum approach takes a great deal of effort and really you need a lot of traffic to support. Right now I use a fan page and instead of creating a forum for discussions, I am going to continue to add more pages to my static website. To me, that will be a more beneficial use of my time. I still need to build traffic. Thanks for the post.
Hey Lisa,
I was thinking about Forum the other day. Well not in a million years thinking or creating one but someone told me they heard a tip from a blogger that you should create a forum to get more traffic to your blog.
That didn’t sound right to me after all I have learned from you. Why would anyone go to your forum just because you created one? I thought this was wrong and that the person isn’t really sure what having a forum means.
Like you say, you need traffic to get them to go to your forum, not the other way around.
Anyway, I think that the majority of people are active on fan pages because of the way it is easy to use, they already ahve accounts, etc.
There were so many times I searched for something and the answer would be on a forum, but I would keep looking because I was too lazy to register.
So I think Forum requires much more than anything else in this online world.
@Brankica, Yeah I would never create a forum to get traffic to something else. I would first build traffic up to my website and then use that to funnel traffic to a forum. Because most forums require registration, getting used to the layout/software, etc. it’s often harder to get people involved. So you definitely want to have existing traffic to promote to first.
Anything that has to do with self hosting..then I’m for it. I tell people to never put their hard work into things they don’t own even a facebook or youtube page..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Excellent information here. I have launched three forums and one of them has survived.
They are a lot of work for sure. Recently, I had a security breech with my Simple Machines form and for two days I was riddled with irritating spammers posting.
I was thinking the other day that in order for people to participate in a forum it seems like there should be some sort of give and taking happening.
Lisa’s WB community forum:
– Solves problems people have (this is a huge advantage)
– Allows webmasters to build backlinks in the signature area
– Provides information about one of the hottest topics in the world, the Internet
With all of the social media sites people have these days to be a part of, they are just not going to join a forum to hang out and talk to there friends.
In my niche there are a lot of well established forums. I thought about creating one for my website and after a analyzing I decided that the work needed to create, promote and administer a forum, when the competition is so tough, will be better spent in developing the content of my website. So I went with the Facebook Fan page option to interact with my readers.