Using Forums to Build Your Fan Base

Creating a personal relationship with your customers is one of the best ways of guaranteeing that they'll return and, more importantly, tell their friends about your product. This is especially true of creative products because the author of a book or musician behind a CD is more closely associated with the final product than, for example, the engineer who designed a car. One of the best ways to establish this personal connection with customers, and thereby create fans and increase word-of-mouth advertising, is to build an active forum on your web site.

The first step in creating an active forum is to recruit members. You and your staff or co-creators should be the first members of the forum, and should make it a point to be as active in the discussions taking place there as possible. Remember, the whole point of setting up the forums in the first place is to create a personal relationship with fans, and that can't happen if you never check the boards. Before announcing the forums to the general public, you and your inner circle should get a few discussions under way so that visitors will see an active group from the moment they sign up. After you've generated some activity, announce the forum on your web site and mailing list, and send out a press release to all appropriate news sources.

Casual web browsers are unlikely to join your forum based on a link alone, even if they're fans of your creative output. In order to convince them to join, you'll need to lure them in with hints of the discussions that are taking place on the forums. If your web site features a blog or other regularly-updated section, periodically mention the latest forum discussions. Many forums provide RSS feeds of recent topics that can be streamed to your home page. The topic titles from such feeds are usually much more enticing than a link that says "visit our forums."

Although you want your forums to be accessible to the general public, you also want members to feel that they're part of a select group of fans. The best way to do this is by creating a "members only" area of the forum that includes exclusive content of some sort-new short stories, free music downloads, or the beta versions of new games, for example. If you post something that will eventually be released or published, ask the forum members for feedback, and acknowledge them for their contribution when the product is released. This makes forum members feel like they're involved in the creative process, and almost guarantees that they'll buy the product.

Everyone enjoys being part of "the in crowd," and forums are a great way to create that feeling in fans who visit your web site. When you participate in forum discussions, you connect with your fans in an informal way, which makes them feel like they know you on a personal level. In addition to making them more loyal fans, this turns them into free word-of-mouth advertisements, because they can brag to their friends that they know the person (or people) behind whatever creative property you're promoting.