Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 12

Thread: Social Media Vs Forums

  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    11
    Thanks
    2
    Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post

    Social Media Vs Forums

    I'm just curious, what is the most powerful communication tool between Forums and Social Media? does the Forums have an impact in our current communication environment?

  2. #2
    Diamond Member Citizen X's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    lenasia
    Posts
    3,404
    Thanks
    868
    Thanked 701 Times in 613 Posts
    I think that TFSA creates dialogue. It’s an actual community in that we are existing individuals. With TFSA the underlying philosophy is business and matters incidental thereof.

    Members create threads in which business problem areas are highlighted and the community is then left to provide a solution(s).

    At many times problems are posed in real time and solutions to the problem is posted in real time or shortly thereafter.

    I think that TFSA is a specimen of South Africa as people from all over our country join. I think that as a group with common values and ideals, TFSA can have a strong voice in matters that affect us as South Africans.

    It’s also a social community in that we discuss issues in our headlines as well as display our individual personalities. As you can no doubt see, we also have a general chat forum and a jokes forum.
    I think that the main difference between a social network and TFSA is that TFSA is creating a body of knowledge that can assist South Africans



    “Ubuntu is the essence of being humane" Desmond Tutu
    Spelling mistakes and/or typographical errors I found in leading publications.
    Click here
    sabbaticus

  3. #3
    Suspended
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Had enough
    Posts
    3,358
    Thanks
    114
    Thanked 213 Times in 201 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by John Sebetsi View Post
    I'm just curious, what is the most powerful communication tool between Forums and Social Media? does the Forums have an impact in our current communication environment?

    Yes because when searching on google for something, it picks up forums.

  4. #4
    Diamond Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    6,329
    Thanks
    426
    Thanked 978 Times in 795 Posts
    Forums are topic based whereas social media is people based. Becuase forums are topic based a person is able to go back to a discussion that is a year old and continue talking about it, this can't be done on social media sites. I find social media to be more like a tabloid newspaper having mostly trivial daily life updates. Each has its upsides and downsides but both have their place.

  5. #5
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Durban, South Africa
    Posts
    22,648
    Thanks
    3,304
    Thanked 2,676 Times in 2,257 Posts
    Blog Entries
    12
    Quote Originally Posted by John Sebetsi View Post
    I'm just curious, what is the most powerful communication tool between Forums and Social Media?
    What is your definition of social media?

    Definition of social media: forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)

    The Wikipedia entry on Classification of social media gives a bit more insight.

    Social media technologies take on many different forms including magazines, Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, social networks, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, music-sharing, crowdsourcing and voice over IP, to name a few. Many of these services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms. By applying a set of theories in the field of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes (self-presentation, self-disclosure) Kaplan and Haenlein created a classification scheme in their Business Horizons (2010) article, with six different types of social media: collaborative projects (for example, Wikipedia), blogs and microblogs (for example, Twitter), content communities (for example, YouTube and DailyMotion), social networking sites (for example, Facebook), virtual game worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft), and virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life). However, the boundaries between the different types have been increasingly blurred. For example, Shi, Rui and Whinston (2013) argues that Twitter, as a combination of broadcasting service and social network, is better to be classified as a "social broadcasting technology.

    As HR Solutions mentions, quality forum content certainly does very well on organic search.

    And as Adrian mentions, forum content tends to give communication more topic-related structure than social network platforms tend to.

  6. #6
    New Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    3
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
    Does the Forums have an impact in our current communication environment?
    Simply, Yes.

    Though, social media has the ability for a much greater reach. It really depends on just what you're trying to accomplish.
    Forums are pulled on search engines, so they do indeed have SEO value but remember that SEO and communication are in some ways similar and in others, completely different.
    Again, it comes back to this, what are you trying to achieve?

  7. #7
    Diamond Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    6,329
    Thanks
    426
    Thanked 978 Times in 795 Posts
    I think that if Facebook were to add topic / thread based interface as well then it would capture the forum market as well. All that they need to do is to allow you to mark a topic as a thread and hold it in a threads table. That table would contain all threads that you are subscribed to.

  8. #8
    Diamond Member Blurock's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Durban
    Posts
    4,151
    Thanks
    758
    Thanked 886 Times in 735 Posts
    Blog Entries
    7
    Facebook is for talking crap and The Forum for talking business?
    Excellence is not a skill; its an attitude...

  9. #9
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Durban, South Africa
    Posts
    22,648
    Thanks
    3,304
    Thanked 2,676 Times in 2,257 Posts
    Blog Entries
    12
    Quote Originally Posted by adrianh View Post
    I think that if Facebook were to add topic / thread based interface as well then it would capture the forum market as well.
    Open content forums have been "under assault" by "big business" for years and years already.

    Both Facebook and LinkedIn have taken a dip at trying to reproduce the forum format with their groups functionality. On this front LinkedIn was the first and Facebook followed.

    Google has had a couple of cracks at it. I forget the first, but Google+ is the current effort.
    Yahoo! Answers has been around forever.
    Microsoft Live is MS's effort.
    Wikipedia isn't that far removed from a forum format...

    I haven't been hanging around forum webmaster circles for a couple of years now, but it seemed at the time that Facebook and LinkedIn was certainly hurting the "anything and everything" type forums. Solidly niched and well administered community forums weren't taking a hit, but were certainly keeping a wary eye on developments. There were even pretty robust calls to stop all the various social networking and bookmarking buttons that have been part of forum products for ages now.

    Then add the content aggregator sites - most of which had degenerated to questionable scraper sites. Our local example, Afrigator started off looking like a good thing, but when they started framing TFSA content within their site rather than giving previews and linking to the content, I really felt a line had been crossed. Sidenote: Just checked to see if they had changed their ways and I see they're gone now. I wonder what happened.

    As all this has passed by, I've realised it's not the forum format that determines a community website's success. If it was, every forum launch would be a hit. In truth the opposite is true; exceptionally few get any traction at all. There are hordes of dead and dying forum websites out there.

    Ultimately I've come to the conclusion the factors that determine a forum's (or blog's for that matter) success is exactly the same set of factors that affect small business success or failure when up against big business - which at this time of night I'm struggling to reduce to a short list.

    But here goes:
    Network
    Expertise
    Niche
    Focus
    Leadership
    Embedded culture

    Oh I give up - it's something like that. Maybe someone can help me out...
    (And that's the real power and value of a community forum website)

  10. #10
    Suspended
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Had enough
    Posts
    3,358
    Thanks
    114
    Thanked 213 Times in 201 Posts
    Ultimately I've come to the conclusion the factors that determine a forum's (or blog's for that matter) success is exactly the same set of factors that affect small business success or failure when up against big business - which at this time of night I'm struggling to reduce to a short list.

    But here goes:
    Network
    Expertise
    Niche
    Focus
    Leadership
    Embedded culture
    I'm agree with you. I would imagine that managing a forum is totally like running a business. You have to give the odd warnings here and there. Suspend people now and again and fire those that are out of line that wont conform.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. Points to Consider With Social Media Marketing
    By DianaHeuser in forum Marketing Forum
    Replies: 16
    Last Post: 16-May-13, 08:41 PM
  2. [Opinion] Make the most of Social Media and Online Marketing
    By Camstar in forum Business Online Forum
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 17-Oct-12, 08:45 PM
  3. Social Media 101
    By Dave A in forum Business Online Forum
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 07-Aug-11, 06:53 PM
  4. [Article] The Social Media Marketing Network
    By BBBEE_CompSpec in forum Marketing Forum
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 20-May-10, 07:31 PM
  5. [Article] 12 Tenets of Social Media Marketing
    By duncan drennan in forum Marketing Forum
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 24-Jan-07, 07:01 AM

Did you like this article? Share it with your favourite social network.

Did you like this article? Share it with your favourite social network.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •