Forum or Social Media Group: Where Should Your Community Live?

Social media forum or a forum of your own? A social media group is a feed that shows what is new. A forum is a library that keeps what is useful. This video explains what each one is for and what a rented group costs you.

Transcript

Should your community live in a social media group, or in a forum? They look alike, but they do different jobs. A social group is a feed. A forum is a library. A feed shows what is new. A forum keeps what is useful. And most communities need both. Start with what a social media group does well. Quick updates. Photos and small wins. Likes and comments. And people are already there, so joining takes one tap. That is real, and worth keeping. But a rented group costs you four things. The feed decides who sees each post, so many members never see yours. Answers sink. A good reply from last month is almost impossible to find again. The member list belongs to the platform, not to you. And the rules can change overnight, with no say from you. So your members end up scattered. Some in a group, some in a chat, some following a page. None of those places belong to you. And every month they stay there, the habit gets stronger, while your own website sits empty. Here is what a forum does differently. A question is asked once. It gets a page of its own, with the replies underneath. The best reply is marked, so nobody has to read the whole thread. And months later, search still finds it. Here it is on a real WordPress site. A running club asks which shoes to wear on wet rock. Members answer, and the person who asked marks the reply that helped. From then on, anyone who searches finds that answer, and so do visitors who arrive from a search engine. You do not give up the feed. On the same site, a community plugin gives members updates and photos, with comments underneath, the way a social group works. The feed is for today. The forum beside it, with a space for every subject, is for everything worth keeping. And the rules are yours. When a member reports a post, it lands in your own moderation queue, and your moderators decide. The member list sits on your site too. You can export it any day you like. Side by side. In a social group, the feed picks who sees a post. In a forum, every topic has its own page. Old answers sink, or old answers stay searchable. Their rules and their look, or your rules and your brand. Their member list, or yours. Every helpful answer posted in a rented group this month is one you will not find next year. On your own forum, it keeps working for you. Jetonomy is the free forum plugin for WordPress. Give your community a forum on the site you own, starting this week. Get Jetonomy. The link is below.