The use of a forum can be an effective means of understanding your customers. However, the start-up of a forum can be a bit like attending a get-together where no one wants to be the first to say something.
Most get-togethers require some sort of icebreaker and the same is true for a forum. You can hope for the best and eventually a few people will post, but the most successful forums are often the ones that already have a visible history of posts where a visitor can easily sound off on an existing thread or conversation.
So how do you make your forum a desired online destination when you initialize the message board?
Well, there are a couple of ways to encourage your visitors to post.
Contests
You can develop contests for your visitors to participate in. This can be tied to most active member (no spam or meaningless posts allowed) or it can simply be a random drawing from all active members. It can also be tied to a variety of other creative criteria.
Paid Forum Posts
There are several companies that can provide a team of forum posters that can help infuse your site with as many posts as you need. These companies utilize a...