What is social media?This is a rather loaded question and you may find it is answered differently depending on what marketer you ask. To keep it simple, NewsReal will be running a series of articles over the year outlining the most commonly used aspects of social media to help make it easier to understand.

Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, blogs, podcasts, video, social bookmarking and social networking (such as Facebook). Social media is much larger than this, but we’ll keep simple by only talking about the most common elements!

In our April edition, we outlined social networking platform ‘Twitter’. In this edition we are giving you a brief overview of online forums.

Your quick guide to online forums

Online forums allow you to post your views, ask questions and exchange information with other people online.

What are online forums?
Online forums are basically discussion groups and are email-based, subject-specific forums. By logging into a forum you are then able to subscribe to groups that discuss issues that are relevant to you either personally or professionally. Most forums will have a moderator for every group within the forum that controls the flow and direction of topics within the group.

How to join a forum
All forums provide some basic instruction about how to join, but the process goes something like this: You request be added to the subscriber base. You will then receive a confirmation with log in details and information about how to post messages.

Why engage in online forums?
Online discussion groups can be a great source of inspiration and information for you. The greatest advantage of online forums or discussion groups is that all the subscribers have an interest in the subject matter. And networking is all about building your personal contacts, especially within your given career field, so joining one or more discussion groups related to your career can exponentially grow your network of contacts.

It’s also a great way to enhance your professional development, position yourself as a thought leader, as well as helping you become part of a support network.

Dos and Don’ts of online forums  Click here