At Back2Front we provide website services primarily to businesses, professionals and associations, so the following may not apply to other types of websites. However, it is wise to think carefully about adding interactive components such as blogs, forums, chat and membership to your site. These components can be costly in time, effort and money, and they often provide a poor return on this investment.
Unlike the rest of your website, chat, forums and blogs all provide some facility for the public to participate and provide content.
Chat 101
Chat is real-time interaction that is a free exchange between the parties. Usually a relatively small number of people interact at one time. Chats transcripts are not usually kept for any length of time and are not often available for non-participants to see at a later date. Chat is useful for some customer support situations.
For example, Constant Contact (the email newsletter company) provides a chat facility from their website to provide real time support to its users. This may be less expensive than a call centre and also provides support to people who have dial-up connections and can’t see their website at the same time as using the phone.
Forums 101
Forums follow a “post” then “answer” format, which allows a moderator to approve or monitor posts before they are seen by other participants. Forums usually are based on a particular topic and have rules that are enforced by the monitor.
The discussions form threads, which can diverge from the main topic as needed between two or more participants. These threads are kept and can be seen for some length of time. Forums serve user groups well—such as people learning a particular skill or piece of software. The advantage of a forum over a chat is that anyone can answer a post, which provides a much larger pool of expertise. As well, for a company, it means that users provide support to each other rather than relying entirely on the company directly.
Blogs 101
Blogs are an evolution of the online diary. Usually a single person writes entries that are then presented in reverse chronological order. The public can submit comments on these entries. The blog author may reply to the comments and may edit or remove the comments as they see fit. Both blog entries and the comments are often displayed for some time.
The topic of a blog is at the discretion of the author and often changes over time. Blogs are commonly used for breaking news, such as first-hand reporting of a disaster from someone on the scene and in-depth analysis of news topics. Often blogs are used to distribute information not picked up by the mainstream media due to its narrow base of reader interest.
Blogs are currently being tried by some large corporations to announce new product offerings or business news, and thereby generate interest in the company. The value of a blog for a small company is not clear. Often the popularity of a blog is due its controversial topic—and controversy is at odds with the purpose of corporate website.
Members-only access
Membership is often used in combination with chat, forums and blogs. A section of a website is restricted and a user name and password is needed to access the members-only area. The idea is to provide extra value to members, justifying the cost of membership.
A major drawback (that is rarely considered) is the headaches created by users who forget their passwords and or have trouble logging in. Trust me, this is a major problem and should not be taken lightly. The headaches for the owners and the frustration for the members can far outweigh the value of the content that is offered in this way. Since it’s vital for the success of a chat, forum or blog to have as large an audience as possible, restricting it to only those who are “members” could kill any chance for success.
In our opinion it’s only worthwhile to have membership functionality if it’s necessary to identify the user as an individual in order to provide individualized content. Only information like a client’s ordering history or statement of accounts is important enough for most people to bother to go through a login procedure and remember user names and passwords.
At Back2Front we have seen most attempts to use chat, forums, blogs or membership fail due lack of participation from the public or lack of time by the owner.
The bottom line on blogs/chat/forums
Ask yourself the following questions: Do you already have a significant audience? A large newsletter readership? A heavy call volume or a huge number of emails asking for product support or news? Does the topic you intend to cover have a wide enough appeal to attract sufficient participation? Does your company have sufficient resources to dedicate someone to the care and feeding of the effort?
If so, you may be one of the few who are in a situation to take good advantage of this kind of interactivity. If not, then wait. Create your website and develop your audience. Monitor your site’s visitor statistics and grow your newsletter mailing list. If your client’s begin to clamour for more input, then a chat or forum may be a solution.
The idea that blogging can drive traffic to a website is mostly false. Few blogs ever generate enough interest to be able to pass traffic to a site. The huge amount of effort required in most cases is better spent in other marketing efforts.
However, if you love to write so much that you would be doing it anyway, have the time and the energy to dedicate to the effort for an extended period of time, and have a topic that others are interested in, then blogging may be for you.
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