Forums & Word of Web

Best-Practice Guide

By: Tarek Reda Salem

8-Nov-2010

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 1 of 17

Contents

Executive Summary………………………………………………………………….3

Findings / Analysis…………………………………………………………………...4

Everybody is talking!………………………………………………………....4

What is a Forum?....................................................................................5

Business impact of Forums………………………………………………….5

The voice of customers………………………………………………5

Forums and online reputation……………………………………….7

Forums in a step-by-step process…………………………………..8

Case studies………………………………………………………….11

The Guild case study………………………………………...11

Mozilla case study……………………………………………12

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….14

References…………………………………………………………………………….15

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 2 of 17

Executive Summary

Word of web is a double-edged weapon that can either boost your online reputation or
totally destroy it. Therefore companies must carefully follow an appropriate consistent
set of techniques in order to manage online word of mouth.

Listening to the customer’s voice in online discussion forums and interacting

accordingly, not only provides the company with an excellent opportunity to build up its
online reputation within the industry, but it also brings direct traffic to the company’s
website. Posting valuable content on forums related to one’s industry on a global scale
is a great way to increase inbound links and traffic to the website (Batten 2010). Online
discussion forums have an effective impact on improving the company’s credibility,
reputation and search engine ranking. In an email on 7 th November 2010 Monica stated
that there is one truth above all; no business will survive this new shift in communication
if it will not adopt reactive and proactive reply to this ever challenging, dynamic field.

A case study conducted by Nelson (2007) shows the effective impact of online
discussion forums on business decisions and marketing strategies. Online discussions
provide a clearer image of what the customers are really looking for, what they like, and
what they don’t, which helps business owners make much more effective decisions.
Another case study by Philipson (2010) shows how he applied effective methods in
order to boost customer experience and multiply the positive online word of mouth for
Mozilla.

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 3 of 17

Findings / Analysis

Everybody is talking!

 Word of mouth is for the most part responsible for the

online success of many big names such as Hotmail and
the early days of Amazon (Pastore 2000). In an email
on 2nd November 2010 Faysal stated that if you want to
understand the importance of online word of mouth
think of how important offline word of mouth is and
multiply it by tens if not hundreds or thousands. Online
channels provide a very easy platform for users around
the world to express and share their thoughts about anything, what’s very
interesting is that your brand could be the subject for those conversations.

 Komisarjevsky (n.d.) as cited by Pastore (2000) discussed that in today’s e-

society one influential online person can shape the attitudes and behavior of
about eight people anywhere around the world. The challenge nowadays is
for companies to understand the influence of online word of mouth and utilize
its potential impact to achieve measurable business results in today’s internet
focused age.

 One of the examples of the word of web and its impact on a business is
musician Dave Carroll. Carroll flew United Airlines to Nebraska for a one-
week tour where he witnessed the luggage handlers carelessly throwing his
$3,500 guitar and totally damaging his guitar. After nine months of trying get
United’s attention, Carroll turned to the public.
His band wrote a song and filmed a music
video titled “United Breaks Guitars,” where he
tells the story of his miserable experience and
the airline’s careless attitude. He uploaded the
video to Youtube and it quickly went viral and
everybody started sharing it; so far the video
has 9.4 million views and conversations about
this video flooded everywhere. Not very good
news for United Airlines! (S. Narisi 2009).

 In an email on 2nd November 2010 Philipson shared some statistics about

word of mouth:
o Consumer research, carried out by YouGov, (May 2010 this year) shows
that over 80% of online consumers use online reviews as part of the

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 4 of 17

 journey to purchase in the last 12 months.
YouGov also found that 62% of consumers have changed their minds
about a purchase as a result of a bad review or word of mouth warning.

o PQ Media report “Word-of-Mouth Marketing Forecast 2009-2013” showed

the following figures:
 Word of mouth spending to reach $3 Billion by 2013.

 Word of mouth spending is on pace to grow another 10.2% this

year, placing it among the fastest growing advertising and
marketing segments.

o He also mentioned the fact that viral of word of mouth is not a cheap way
to promote your brand. The planning and investment required to make a
good campaign should not be understated.

What is a Forum?

 An online resource where participants post, reply, and discuss topics. It

brings together people from around the world for conversations, opinions,
and interactions. In order to use a forum, users need to have a web
browser, a login ID, and a password. (Stroll 2006).

 Forums do not show messages in real-time; in order to see new

messages the forum page must be reloaded. The posted message might
also need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes visible on the
forum (Wikipedia n.d.).

Business impact of Forums

 The voice of customers:

o Today's technology provides various opportunities for
consumers to start conversations. Every day customers talk
among themselves in online product forums and social
networks. They share their thoughts to the whole world about

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 5 of 17

 products and services, their likes and dislikes, and their hopes
for future offerings (Bean 2008).

o The PostRelease and Synovate 2009 study in USA (cited in

Marketing Profs) showed that customers who frequently use
forums are considered direct influencers to the business. They
are more likely to share links to products, write reviews and
ratings, and recommend a particular purchase to other users.
The study also shows that forum contributors are active
bloggers as well. They are now more engaged and have the
freedom to have their own platform and share their experiences
with a certain product explicitly.

o Another source mentioned that forums are a tool for businesses

that forms a semi-permanent archive of consumers' online word
of mouth, and therefore digital marketing managers should mine
the conversations for consumer insights into their products and
even into their marketing programs (Marketing Profs 2010).

o A company must always listen to the voice of

customers; what information they’re saying and
where does it come from so that communications
messages can be adjusted quickly in response to
emerging opinions (Hampton 2004).

o In a conversation on 4th November 2010 Bernier said that his

company doesn’t believe in ‘one size fits all’ solution, therefore
they have different forums with different languages to make it
cozy enough for customers worldwide to interact and consume
information more effectively.

o He also mentioned that before a company would set a forum

with a specific language it should consider how many active
users will be speaking that language in order to justify the
money spent on such development.

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 6 of 17

  Forums and online reputation:
o We cannot argue that internet has become the hub of
information and the use of online discussion forums has grown
by 7,000% in the last four years. Such forums are being used
increasingly by consumers to support or criticize products and
brands; they are now influencing the perspectives of millions of
consumers worldwide. This consumer generated media directly
influences a business’s online reputation and that’s why it must
be constantly under the radar (Hampton 2004).

o Online discussion forums not only shape the corporate online

reputation, it also influences the mainstream media due to the
fact that Journalists are using online discussion forums to gain
an instant image of the consumer opinion (Hampton 2004).

o Bean (2008) states that customers do not have much trust in

advertising - but rather what others say. Recommendations and
opinions are the most trusted and important information a
company receives.

o In an email on 28th October 2010 Mito discussed his personal

experience with the word of web, he said: “I saw the trailer of
Julia Roberts 'Eat Love Pray' and thought it was an awesome
movie & thought I have to go to the cinema & watch it. Same
day, I saw a post on an online forum saying that the film was
'way below than expected' and then I saw some 18
comments on that post of other users saying the same thing. It
was a disappointment so I decided not to go; as a business
impact Julia Roberts did lose some of her fortune,
Hollywood was affected, and finally the cinemas here in Egypt
were affected too, all because of some online discussion forum
comments”.

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 7 of 17

 o Jodi (2010) advised forum business users to be helpful, to
listen, and to answer questions. In other words, build trust in
your knowledge and abilities, then when people on the forum
need what you do or sell, they'll turn to you because they know
you have the knowledge.

o Montalbano (2010) states that one must be very active on

forums and give extra time and energy to provide knowledge for
those in need and expect nothing in return.

 Forums in a step-by-step process:

o There are basically 2 sides when dealing with forums and word
of web channels; the side where you listen, and the side where
you interact.

o Listen
 Freed (n.d.) stated some valid points that should be
followed in order to monitor online word of mouth
efficiently:
 Do not buy recommendations by providing
incentives to do so. What you’re looking for is
‘earned recommendation’ not ‘bought
recommendation’.

 In order to monitor the actual promoters of your

brand, you need to be more elaborative in your
questions; do not just ask “Would you recommend
us to a friend or colleague?” but rather go for “How
likely are you to communicate about your
experiences?” and give them a scale from 0 to 10.

 Another metric that should be measured is

‘satisfaction’ because this is what drives a

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 8 of 17

 customer to recommend your product/service. Ask
your customers how satisfied are they with a
certain product/service on a scale from 0 to 10.

 In an email on 2nd November 2010 Faysal stated that you

need to be active in addressing issues that people
complain about and don't like. You may also want to
thank people who would say positive stuff about your
company and reward this behavior.

 In an email on 1st November 2010 Berry

said that marketers should listen to the on-
going conversations to help define the
emerging trends and future ideas.

 He also noted that a good way for a

company to get consumers to take part
in a conversation 'around' its brand is to facilitate a
discussion on a branded forum on its website and keep
an eye on the conversations happening.

 A good way to monitor the company’s buzz and word of

mouth is to use Google Alerts; you can enter your
“company name” + “forum” as a search term and Google
Alerts will alert you every time someone mentions your
search term (Vinerean n.d.).

o Interact
 Bain (c.2008) outlined a framework to interact on forums:
 Search for forums in search engines by typing
your “keyword phrase” + “forum”. Then make a list
of the top 5 to 10 relevant forums to your industry
using *Alexa rank and **Page rank.

*Alexa rank is a ranking of all the websites based on their traffic; the more traffic, the lower the rank e.g. Google
has the highest traffic of all websites and therefore in Alexa ranking it’s number 1.

**Page rank is a tool by Google that ranks websites based on their inbound links on a numeric weighting from 0
to 10. The more inbound links a webpage has, the higher its page rank.

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 9 of 17

  Logon to the chosen forums and start answering
specific industry questions to demonstrate that you
are an expert in the industry.

 Your posts in the forum should be of value so that

people would be interested to visit your website.

 Don’t be a spammer and start advertising for your

company or business because then people will
lose interest in your posts. You are there to
interact and provide useful content, not to sell your
products.

 Submit tips and advice, and people will like to

know more and actually refer you to other users.

 Post on a regular basis, e.g. weekly, to develop

credibility and consistency.

 Manage your time e.g. half an hour every week.

 Always remember to include a link to your website

in your post signature. Usually forums don’t allow
you to include links before having 10 or 20 posts.

 Make sure your link is your main keyword phrase

in order to be optimized for search engines.

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 10 of 17

  Case studies:

 The Guild case study:

o Nelson (2007) demonstrates a case study that shows the effective

impact of online discussion forums on business decisions and
marketing strategies:

o The company:
 The Guild – a company that represents 1,200 artists and
markets their work through its Artfulhome.com website,
catalogs, and books.

o The issue:
 Toni Sikes, CEO and founder of The Guild was hoping to
grow more traffic to the website Artfulhome.com. However
she wasn't certain what her customers really wanted.

 The Guild was a medium-sized company, Sikes had limited

resources.

 Sikes thought that product reviews might help customers

and staff understands what's most popular on the site, but
she was worried they might also damage the company's
relationship with artists themselves through negative
feedback.

o The solution:
 The Guild decided to turn to Networked Insights, which
offers a managed customer forum system for monitoring
user discussions.

 The forum on Artfulhome.com included discussion topics

such as Ask the Artist Community and Share Your Own
Artful Home.

 The forum showed a huge success; it accumulated 536

members, who engaged in 13,850 total interactions and
started 87 discussion topics.

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 11 of 17

  Sikes found that the home decorating category has pulled in
the most number of conversations; accordingly she decided
to shift the company’s priority focus to ideas for home
decorating.

 By providing a community for her customers to interact with

each other on topics that are important to them, The Guild
was then able to mine those discussions for their own
marketing needs and gather customer insights without
bothering them to join a survey or focus group.

 Mozilla case study:

o In an email on 2nd November 2010 Philipson reveals a case study

of a campaign he recently undertook for Mozilla. The case study
shows the impact of positive online word of mouth:

o Objective:
 The recent Internet browser skirmish has been fought out on
billboards, television and in media across Europe. In June
2010, the European Commission ruled on a landmark
settlement.

 The case cited that if you were running a Microsoft Windows

PC inside the European economic area and using their
default Web browser, you would see a Browser Choice
screen appear offering you a number of different alternatives
to the software that navigates you around the Web. It was
nicknamed “The Browser Ballot”.

o Challenge:
 The big technology companies including Google and
Microsoft spent millions on advertising and marketing to
promote their new browsers to gain and sustain lucrative
market share during the ballot.

 Mozilla however is a non-profit with limited marketing spends

and a strong reliance on an effective communications
strategy that integrates traditional and social media to

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 12 of 17

 successfully meet the challenges posed by aggressive-
spending browser brands.

o Approach: 
 Racepoint (Philipson’s company) worked with Mozilla to
mobilize their existing community to educate consumers and
build buzz through word of mouth and a number of call to
actions:

 A website was set up at called “Open To Choice” which

highlighted a variety of ways people could get involved,
educating, informing and engaging with the broader public
about the importance of choosing a browser that suits their
particular habits on the wonderful Web.

 Visitors could download posters, add Twitter logos to their

handles, download flyers to be distributed, organize booths
at local events or even give talks. A blog post was published
from the CEO and Chairwoman highlighting what Mozilla
considered important in regard to having the right to ‘choose
your own browser’ and distributed to key national news
desks and key influencers through social media channels.

 Racepoint also organized a number of wide reaching

consumer media briefings including women’s lifestyle
magazine Good Housekeeping, PA broadcast, BBC World
Service, BBC Click, The Guardian and The Financial Times.

o Results: 
 In one week alone, Mozilla commented and was referenced
as the safest or the number one browser for consumers in
over 50 broadcast mediums including the BBC World
Service, BBC Click, BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, BBC
Radio 1 Newsbeat, Sky News Breakfast, Channel 4 News
and Working Lunch.

 In print and online media including The Financial Times,

Telegraph, The Guardian and ZDNet, it was reported that
the Mozilla had added more than 50,000 new users within
the first week. In that same week, the Web was swamped
with Mozilla advocates championing the “Open To
Choice” website with over 16,000 visits and the twitter
handle gaining 500 influencers including the BBC and
Google.

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 13 of 17

Conclusion

 Communications professionals who master the techniques of monitoring

online discussion forums and interact accordingly will be able to better
manage their company's reputation and brand as well as bring direct traffic
to their website.

 Word of web brings high return on investment, considering the amount of

money paid on generating a discussion and the amount of return from
conversations about your brand.

 This digital channel provides insightful resources that can be utilized as

part of an effective marketing campaign; however it shouldn’t be analyzed
individually, all channels should be interconnected.

 Nowadays, multichannel customers are getting smarter; companies are

now adapting to the customers instead of the opposite. With all the
powerful tools available to them, customers now are the ones who shape
the organization’s culture and processes.

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 14 of 17

References

Primary sources:

Email from Mito on 28th October 2010

Email from Berry on 1st November 2010

Email from Philipson on 2nd November 2010

Email from Faysal on 2nd November 2010

Skype call with J. Bernier on 4th November 2010

Email from Monica on 6th November 2010

Secondary sources:

MARKETING PROFS (2010) We're Way More Complex Than That [WWW].
Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/1709/were-way-more-
complex-than-that. [Accessed 31/10/2010].

MARKETING PROFS (2010) Online Forum Users Are Influential Consumers

[WWW]. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3304/online-forum-
users-are-influential-consumers. [Accessed 31/10/2010].

F. HAMPTON (2004) How to Manage Your Corporate Reputation Online [WWW].

Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/hampton1.asp. [Accessed
31/10/2010].

H. STROLL (2006) Marketing Challenge: Three Ways to Engage Employees and

Customers [WWW]. Available from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/stroll115.asp.
[Accessed 31/10/2010].

D. BEAN (2008) How to Hear the Voice of Your Customers: Hone First-Person
Intelligence From All Forms of Feedback [WWW]. Available from:

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 15 of 17

http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/voice-of-customer-hone-first-person-intelligence-from-
feedback-bean.asp. [Accessed 31/10/2010].

WIKIPEDIA (n.d.) Internet forum. [Online]. Available from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum. [Accessed 31/10/2010].

D. BAIN. (c.2008). 26 Week Plan [online video]. Available from:

http://www.26weekplan.com/interacting-on-forums-video.html. [Accessed 31/10/2010].

JODI. (2010) Marketing Profs. Weblog [Online] 1st April. Available from:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=33066. [Accessed
1/11/2010].

R. MONTALBANO (2010) Marketing Profs. Weblog [Online] 1st April. Available

from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=33066. [Accessed
1/11/2010].

M. PASTORE (2000) The Value of Word of Mouth [WWW]. Available from:

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/stats/1703408/the-value-word-mouth . [Accessed
1/11/2010].

S. NARISI (2009). Angry customer + YouTube = Ruined reputation. HR Morning.

Weblog [Online] 30th July. Available from: http://www.hrmorning.com/angry-customer-
youtube-ruined-reputation/. [Accessed 1/11/2010].

L. FREED (n.d.) Measuring Word of Mouth Online: Six Key Considerations

[WWW] Foresee Results. Available from: http://www.foreseeresults.com. [Accessed
1/11/2010].

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 16 of 17

 T. VINEREAN (n.d.). Top 10 Free Tools To Monitor Your Online Reputation.
TonTenz. Weblog [Online]. Available from: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-free-tools-to-
monitor-your-online-reputation.php. [Accessed 1/11/2010].

M. G. NELSON (2007) Artful Home Mines Customer Forums to Decide Web

Strategy [WWW] Clickz. Available from:
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1705361/artful-home-mines-customer-forums-decide-
web-strategy. [Accessed 1/11/2010].

J. BATTEN (2010) Nine Tools for Your Link-Building Toolkit [WWW] Clickz.
Available from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1712238/nine-tools-your-link-
building-toolkit. [Accessed 1/11/2010].

Forums & Word of Web – Best Practice Guide Page 17 of 17