Creating a Community forum can be a great way for members to get involved and improve the SEO of the website but Facebook groups are easy to create and free. Read the pros and cons of two most common method of engagement i.e. Community forums and Facebook groups.

The community is at the heart of a successful online site, especially if members can cancel at any time. So, what kind of community do you need to think in my eyes? But should you use a Community forum or a Facebook group?

Facebook group or Community forum. What should I start?

Online Forum

Pros:

  1. Keep Members of the site
  2. You can easily find previous information and discussions.
  3. Advanced features like text formatting, private messaging, and more.
  4. Full member profiles.
  5. Automatic access – No need to manually approve or delete members.
  6. Better categorization of topics and posts.
  7. Fully focused on brands and products.
  8. Members speak specifically about the product and its content.
  9. Online Community Forum has a huge SEO impact on your website positively.
  10. You are the legal owner of all the content generated on the forum.

Cons:

  1. You must be logged in to the site to consciously access the community.
  2. If you are new to the learning curve of the forum.
  3. More opportunities for members with technical problems.
  4. Early involvement can be difficult
  5. Buzz atmosphere requires more members
  6. More complex settings to think about and more technical implications

 

One of the most important points of the forum for me is to keep members on the site, and also increase the likelihood of content consumption while they are there. Everything is relevant to your brand, it is right for your product, there are no ads in the sidebar, no news feed to steal your attention, and it is a pure focal point for your community and products.

FaceBook Group

Pros:

  1. Most people have an existing account.
  2. Many people sign up every day or at least every week.
  3. Easy to run the initial contract.
  4. Known platforms and most people already know how to use it.
  5. Quick response to messages.
  6. Applications for easy tablet and phone use.
  7. Instant Message and Response notifications.
  8. Quick and easy to set up.

Cons:

  1. Difficult to keep track of topics.
  2. Personal Profile Required.
  3. Poor search capacity.
  4. Out of focus content
  5. Not Automated, Members must be approved or removed manually
  6. Play with the rules of Facebook, which can change.
  7. Competing against other Facebook noise.
  8. Members who are not necessarily the right mentality
  9. You are not the legal owner of the content.
  10. Facebook Groups does not have any impact on the SEO of the website.

 

Still, do not know what to choose? Here are my general recommendations:

  1. Is the add-in for a course or a membership site in the community (for example, more information about general questions and the support of an integral part of the product)? If so, the Online Forum is the best bet.
  2. Is the community actually a central part of the membership site and an important selling point? If so, it is a good idea to first select a forum on site.
  3. If in doubt, ask your audience. A forum can be thought of as a good idea, but it wastes your time if members do not use it. Similarly, members can assume that they prefer Facebook, but are actually easier to read and more in-depth discussions through the search forums. So if you are looking for quick and easy engagement go for a Facebook group if you are looking for a better feature and focus product go for a forum.

AnswerCart help companies build modern, intuitive & engaging community discussion forum on their website.  Our software includes some really cool features like gamification, polling,  auto-answer APIs, etc. You can check our features here.

We ensure that our clients have a hassle-free & quick integration.  If you want to check us in action, book a demo here.