Social Media Optimisation: Online Forums

In 1999 Bodybuilding.com opened its online forum just 2 months after opening its shop, now it has over 1.1 million members who make 1.6 million posts and create 67,000 new topics/threads per month. This example shows the power of online forums if utilised properly, a forum is a place where people can come together and form a community discussing something that interests them all, in this case it was bodybuilding but in other cases i.e. Whirpool Broadband Forums, its the internet. Forums work best for E-retailers and have been shown to generally work best for those with a passion about a certain product or item and a forum provides a place to discuss this passion in detail and share information about it. Forums allow people with like interests to connect globally aswell, there was a time where those interested in horse riding only met at horse shows and people interested in birds met whilst looking for a bird on a hike, with the creation of the internet and forums it meant that all these people could meet online easily and communicate with one another with relative ease. Creating a forum relevant to your business can create real advantages for business and build a community with an interest in your product as it is discussed more and becomes more popular the better it is for your product.