Word of Mouth (Best Form of Advertising?)

[myke]

I realize we have a thread on advertising, but this is a little different.



Advertising on Google is great and all, but there is nothing better then one person telling another person how cool of a ProBoard they found, and suggest they check it out.

Now, admins, as a result, you must be kind and fair to your members. Word of mouth may get them there, but if the admins and staff are not going out of their way to make them feel welcome, then they will leave.

It is very important to make new members feel welcome, and to make them feel like they are part of the group, and not a lost soul on a board with a clique.

Study the digram above, and ask you members to tell their friends about your ProBoard. It may cause a chain reaction that will bring you a lot of traffic.

Anyone else wish to add to this?

[Artemis]

I think that word of mouth is the best way to go for generally any forum. It usually brings in about 60-70% of the member population for most boards I've seen, if not more.

When I think about it, I'd be much more likely to check out a forum if someone told me about it, rather than just seeing it online, unless I was searching for something specific. The person who told me would probably have an interest in it, be a member of it, or associated with it in some way.

The chart says it all. If you run a forum that somebody likes, then they will probably tell one or more of their friends about it. Those people will check it out, and see what it's all about. If they like it, they join. After a bit, they'll tell their friends as well.

One of the most important things to remember is that it usualy works a lot better of the person does it of their free will, and not told to 'recruit' by an admin. If the person likes the forum, they'll tell other people themselves, and that's all that's needed to get things moving.

[mrsyukisohma]

I replied to this topic earlier, then a fresh one was mad. @_@ Ah, well. I've seen some staff membes encourage members to tell there friends in a place like the Introductions forum. I personally wouldn't go that rout. I feel better about telling my personal friends who really know me and asking them to spread the word. If you ask them to spread the word to their friends, their friends will tell their friends, and so on and so forth and displayed above. I think that's the best way about it rather then just asking your members.

[Former Member]

For some reason my members do not tell ANYONE else about my board. I seem to be the only one REALLY advertising. I don't get it. At least one of 415 members should have told at least one of thier friends.
Ya know what I mena?

[dn107xc]

Good in theory, yet.. say, for instance, you have a gfx board and your friends have no interest what so ever- what then?

[Raven]

You have to find friends who like graphics.
I guess I see how it is the best form now, although I still think a top Google placement is super effective as it can get you thousands of members, assuming it has good content/graphics/coding.
A friend joins-tells a friend about the forum-repeat the whole process.
But the majority of my members find my site through ads, search engines, and my signature on other forums.
The best way to be found is the think out the name of the forum and the URL of the forum beforehand though, something I didn't do.

[myke]

bifnepasu said:

For some reason my members do not tell ANYONE else about my board. I seem to be the only one REALLY advertising. I don't get it. At least one of 415 members should have told at least one of thier friends.
Ya know what I mena?

If you have 415 active members, then I'm almost sure some people have told other people about your forum.

dn107xc said:

Good in theory, yet.. say, for instance, you have a gfx board and your friends have no interest what so ever- what then?

Then read the thread titled 'How To Advertise Your ProBoard', then as members start coming into the graphics forum, follow the advice in the other threads here, treat them right, make friends with them, give them a forum that compels them to return, and eventually they will tell their friends.

[Slacker]

Another thing to consider is just word of mouth on boards such as this.

I am usually in General Talk most of the time and members will come in looking for suggestions about a chat service or program they should get. Many people would reply with their favorite system and in a sense advertise the service. The same can be done with forums. while it may not be through posts (as that breaks the rules) but through private messages and AIM or MSN.

You don't have to tell your members to tell people in real life if they wouldn't be interested but have them spread the word on the internet. Reccomendations, links in sigs, etc.

[albertina]

I had initially tried to advertise through word-of-mouth and had successfully attracted some friends to join my site. However, they are not posters of forums therefore, they do not post that frequent. Some don't even post at all! What should I do? They had feedback that they do not know how forums work and I had tried to introduce them to the system step-by-step, but nobody seems to take notice. They were still unmotivated to post as they said they 'do not know how to start'.

[myke]

albertina said:

I had initially tried to advertise through word-of-mouth and had successfully attracted some friends to join my site. However, they are not posters of forums therefore, they do not post that frequent. Some don't even post at all! What should I do? They had feedback that they do not know how forums work and I had tried to introduce them to the system step-by-step, but nobody seems to take notice. They were still unmotivated to post as they said they 'do not know how to start'.

I think I would try to advertise the ways discussed in the 'How To Advertise Your ProBoard' first, then as active members arrive, and your forum begins to take form, try word of mouth advertising after that. Word of mouth works best when it's coming from a person whi is an active member, as they are showing by example the forum is interesting and worth posting on.

[Hacker Boy]

I believe that word of mouth is an excellent way to spread your boards fame, but you MUST find members who really like your forum! So that's why you need to spend alot of time on the skin and grpahics of your forum to make it attractive!

[andyy]

I made posters, laminated them and then posted them through shope letter boxes with a note attached asking if they would put it up, this dosnt work all the time, but there are shops around york with my website promoted in their windows

Also if you have the spare cash then you may find an event related to your site, and you could pay for it to be promoted at the event. In July there is a 3 week Christian convention in Keswick, I have paid for my site to be prmoted in their programme of events during the 3 weeks which been be seen by over 15,000 people!

[rockpunk99]

well, I see how this pertains, it's how I got my members affter all, but i'm not to good at advertising, and my friends don't tell anyone...but hey, its a good idea.

[exet]

Maybe i'm one of the few who doesn't have much faith in word of mouth advertising. But prehaps it is just because, if my friend came up to be and said, Omg I found this great Harry Potter forum. I who just be like, who cares? And not many of my friends are the kind of people who would join a forum because another friend did.

[myke]

exet said:

Maybe i'm one of the few who doesn't have much faith in word of mouth advertising. But prehaps it is just because, if my friend came up to be and said, Omg I found this great Harry Potter forum. I who just be like, who cares? And not many of my friends are the kind of people who would join a forum because another friend did.

My thinking is, if you were really into Harry Potter, and didn't have a HP forum to talk Potter, you may actually go check it out. If they had a nice looking forum, with nice activity and content, you may join.

However, if someone didn't tell you about this forum, you would never of known about it, and could of not made the choice to join it or not.

Advertising is only one step. Getting people to look at the forum is one step. Having a quality forum is another step. But if you have a quality forum, and no one knows it exists, then no one can join it.