Discussion forums are better for publishers than social media
Social media is all the rage with publishers these days. Things like Facebook metrics, Twitter engagement, etc. are viewed as tremendously important by many publishers. This obsession with social media has caused many publishers to discontinue or not even bother setting up discussion forums on their sites.
This unhealthy focus on social media is unfortunate as discussion forums are a much smarter bet for most publishers than wasting time and resources on social media. Oh sure, social media works well enough for content marketing, but that’s about it.
Here’s a quick breakdown of why creating and owning discussion forums should be a top priority for publishers.
Advantages of discussion forums:
1. You own your community.
2. You get to choose the software, interface, etc.
3. You build a useful knowledge base that has value over time, and that keeps users coming back again and again to your site.
4. You are not at the mercy of a social media company.
5. You retain all advertising, e-commerce, and …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Jim Lynch Newsletter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.