Community Forum

What does a community forum mean? 

Community forums are online spaces provided by a brand to enable its customers to ask questions, seek self-service support, share feedback, receive exclusive branded content and interact with other customers.  A vibrant, tight-knit community forum fosters a feeling of oneness and loyalty among customers and helps build long-lasting relationships. Moreover, it’s a place for knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer interaction that keeps customers engaged. Finally, community forums have been found to be particularly useful in driving repeat sales, generating reusable user-generated content and supporting advocacy efforts.  

How to build a great community forum for your brand? 

Building a community forum starts with a stepwise approach that comprises: 

• Define your aim: Do you aim to support business goals, counter negative PR or drive customer engagement? Clarify your goal.  
• Choose the right platform: Choose between free platforms (like Facebook or X) or owned platforms tailored to your brand and industry.  
• Develop a launch plan: Establish community guidelines, appoint moderators, and launch a compelling benefit-led campaign to attract members.  
• Invite your customers: Reach out to customers, emphasizing the value they will gain and the fun they will have by joining your community forum.  
• Engage actively: Use polls, gamification, knowledge sharing to keep members engaged and answer their questions promptly. 
• Measure your success: Track KPIs to measure your community forum’s growth, engagement rates and member satisfaction, and optimize regularly.