Encouraging Users to post to your website forum

People are registering and reading but just not posting

[Chuma]

About the middle of last year I set up a user forum on the website of the company I work for to encourage user feedback and for asking technical support questions.

Now over six months later only a few people have posted questions to the forum even though it is advertised in the weekly newsletter we send out to customers.

Does anyone have any strategies to encourage people to use a forum?

Thanks.

[hakre]

hi Chuma,

that's really a specific question. i think it's ever good when starting a forum to have a crew of people answering questions posted (with high quality answers ;) ). this can help establishing a forum.

and: is it clear for what a forum is? do the users know what kind (of help?!) they get? do they use other places (email etc.) instead of the forum? maybe it's a good thing to propagate the forum on other places of the website, too. not only in the newsletter.

just my 2p,
hakre

[sun818]

Hi, do you receive technical support via e-mail or by phone? Others have suggested that e-mail is a gold mine. I pretend to be different people and I answer my own questions. :) Take care not to reply too quickly to your own posts. Your support staff may be responsive... but they're not that fast. ;)

[fathom]

I tend to believe it's a bad idea to post your own questions, and then your own answers... this can lead to credibility issues, and have the opposite effect to what you are trying to achieve.

The forum use (tech support) may not be needed that much if nothing ever goes wrong and no problems, why would anyone post?

Better directions

Start posting newsworthy or thought provoking articles on industry/market specific topics where visitors can response.

Open up product/service develop issues where visitors/customers can have input into designing/developing new features that they wish to receive from new versions.

Try something like the gizmo quiz here at WebmasterWorld where the winner gets something of value to them.

Regardless of what... make it crystal clear who is engaging in these proactive communications to entice a response from their markets.

[caine]

I think fathom hit the mark.

Try adding a community element to the forums, that draws people into it. And not necessarily tech related, maybe something regarding the happenings of the company - social events in the area, interesting facts. Obviously, i don't have a clue about the scale of the project or of the size of the company and the potential amount of users, but something that can get appeal to the lowest common denominator as a backbone for the community will help in untold amounts.

[hayluke]

We're having the same problem too so any ideas would be appreciated. It seems there is a bit of intimidation being one of the first to put your view forward. It's like claiming to be an expert in front of hundreds of people with little or no reward.

I think the key is getting that 'community' feel as others have said but the question is how do you get that?

[fathom]

Appeal to why they are at your site in the first place?

WebmasterWorld has about 4:1 lurkers to members many of which are likely intimidate by the level of knowledge, skill... they don't like looking like a fool!

It takes time to develop a comfort level but in most cases a first time poster, posts on a thread already started because they have an answer or their question is almost the same (but not quite) as someone elses.

A bit like the first dance at your first prom! No one wants to go first. :)

[carfac]

I am running a forum on the same topic as a main site, but off the main site. Mine is more informational than direct support, but here are a coupole of my ideas:

1) Actively link from your main page to the forum
2) Expanding on # 1, post some "hot topics" on the main page, with intriguingly-worded links
3) Add a poll, and link to that from all over.
4) Link from your e-mail or contact page to the forum ("Post to our forum now for an immediate answer!")
5) Add a comments section, and make guest posts available on that forum specifically.

Hope that bit helps!

dave

[Chuma]

Thanks for your replies everyone.

I will pass them on to management for their consideration.

I spent most of yesterday researching this topic on the web, but only managed to find about half a dozen web pages on the topic (it's much better to hear from people who actually run forums though.)

It was also interesting to read the newsletter from 'Joel on Software' this morning that talked about the relationship between the software the forum uses and what effect it has on the users of the forum.

Thanks.

[awcabot]

The vote, question & prize and other things previously suggested are good tools, but do not answer the main concern: how to start an active forum.

I will re-iterate what has been dismissed as before: create questions and answer them yourself. A forum is a social place, and something needs to be done to bring in people. Night clubs have employees look like regular club-goers dance just to warm-up the night. I do not think it deceptive of yourself to post legitimate questions and give good answers under different names. If done properly nobody will be able to tell the difference (your server records are private, right?).

Then start giving quality answers yourself in a timely manner to genuine issues and later on pass that task to colleagues. When you start seeing some genuine replies, send a bried, personal note to the first two-three posters. It MUST BE PERSONAL. If you can even think it smells like a form mail, the poster will be turned off and will be very unlikely to ever post again. They will appreciate the attention and maybe bother looking again in the future.

It will give an excellent tone to your forum and set the seed for further quality discussions between users.

You must also keep check the quality of the post and ban annoying users. I once risked destroying my excellent forum because I let two-three posters exchange barbs for a few days.

You can also get more users my seeking out other forums, posting a good reply and then inviting them to participate in your forum. This is how Brett got webmasterworld.com going: by posting in alt.html and alt.www.search-engines (I think).