What is Forum Software?

Over the years, forums have become more and more popular. Look at Reddit, for example, with millions of users posting and interacting with thousands of threads on their favorite video games, movies, tv shows, football, exercise, and everything in-between.

Forums are a place people go when they are looking for advice, whether it’s how to ask out a girl for the first time or how to level up a character on a video game. However, it’s also a place for discussion, taking place in these threads, maybe discussing the recent football match, favorite foods, sharing recipes, or their cool new BMX tricks.

Create a Forum with WoltLab Suite

The point we’re trying to make is that forums are hot stuff - people enjoy getting involved in various threads - it’s a pastime in itself. So, with this being said, this article will discuss more on forum software. However, we’ll also discuss a few benefits of running your own forum.

Forum Software is a Powerful Tool

Without forum software, there would be no shared space for collaboration and shared ideas. And sure, while that may seem rather obvious, we don’t quite realize how much we take forums (and similar spaces) for granted.

Forum software provides users, individuals, and entire communities with the tools to engage with one another. This includes making new threads and discussions, leaving comments on other posts, placing previous posts in archives to view later, and many, many more features.

Following on from our previous point, hosting a forum or even getting involved with a forum, can be a great asset for your business. This allows you to engage with like-minded individuals, customers, or your target audience, allowing you to gain valuable insights.

What Are the Benefits of Running Your Own Forum?

If you’ve ever considered setting up your own forum, then there’s never been a better time to jump the gun. There are many benefits on offer, whether you’re a business looking for new insights or you’re striving to create a community that doesn’t yet exist.

Nonetheless, benefits of running your own forum include:

• Create a place for shared collaboration and thoughts
• Fill a gap in the market or community
• Gain new business ideas
• Increase visitors to your website & improve conversions

Each of these benefits will now be explained in more detail below.

Create a Place for Shared Collaboration and Thoughts

To begin with, when you create a forum, you create a place for shared collaboration and thoughts. Now, this space can be topical, or it can be general, perhaps started by a group of friends or like-minded individuals.

However, by creating a forum, you welcome others into the community that you have created - and wonderful and immersive experience, if we say so ourselves.

Fill a Gap in the Market or Community

Second, you may choose to create a forum to fill a gap in the market or your community. Whether you’re a business striving to better understand your demographic or you’re looking for advice on how to complete a level on a video game, there’s a thread for it. And if there isn’t, well, that’s where you come in.

Hosting a forum allows you to create what you’re missing. Besides, if it doesn’t exist and you’ve had the idea, then that’s already a good sign that others will be looking for something similar.

Gain New Business Ideas

Second, to last, setting up a forum allows you to gain new business ideas. As aforementioned, a forum allows you to get to know your demographic on a much deeper level. The forum may be representative of the business, or maybe something you interact with separately but gain valuable insight that can be implemented and taken on board for new products or services you release in the future.

Increase vVisitors to Your Website & Improve Conversions

Finally, if you already have a successful business and following (or not), a forum can help you further increase traffic to your website. For example, the more you share your content, especially to your specific demographic, the more people will view your blogs posts, website content, or products.

Inevitably, this leads to more conversions and success for your business. What’s not to love?

What Is an Example of a Popular Forum?

There are many popular forums out there, including Reddit, Quora, GamesSpot, and others. However, don’t let that stop you from creating your very own forum with dedicated forum software. If you notice a gap in the market or community, take advantage of it and create your very own forum for like-minded people to interact with one another.

For inspiration on how to set your forum up, you can visit these sites, looking at the individual threads, posts, restrictions, and other key details which you may want to note down if you plan on creating your own forum in the near future.

How Do You Create a Successful Forum?

So, if you’re looking to set up your own forum, you may be wondering how to make it a success. Well, firstly, good question: who doesn’t want to have a successful forum? Nonetheless, to create a successful forum you should:

• Use dedicated forum software such as WoltLab Suite
• Implement a forum structure
• Advertise your forum on social media to gain more followers and users to your new community
• Begin a few good discussions and threads to get the conversations going

There are many things you can do to ensure the success of your forum. However, arguably, the forum software is the most important. For example, if your chosen software is unreliable, then users will not be able to access the forum. This creates a disruptive user experience, likely resulting in users leaving to find other forums to participate in.

So, using dedicated forum software, such as WoltLab suite, as previously mentioned, ensures you are providing the optimal experience to all users who have taken the time to join your forum, interact with your threads and community.

Good luck creating your very first forum - it’s a rewarding experience!