Is facebook killing forums, or are people talking too much?

not according to: http://www.facebook.com/advertising/ as you apparently control the budget, like adwords I would presume

 

I love facebook but it cannot kill forums as it helps forums gain popularity ..

 

In my experience the Facebook ads are similar to Adwords but the nice thing about Facebook is you can really target your audience, not that you can't with Adwords but it is better on Facebook for some advertisers.

 

I pretty much think people blame Facebook because it's easier to blame their failures on something they can't control instead of just admitting it's them with the problem. Facebook has been around for years so if it was going to kill off forums then it would have done that a while ago.

Besides, Facebook appears to be more of a place where people can connect with RL friends and family so I really don't see how it could affect forums. If anything was going to possibly affect forums as far as social media goes then I would say Twitter due to the fact it's all about holding discussions on a wide range of topics which pretty much describes the general chat genre of forum.

 

I agree with that, particularly about people blaming something/someone else because of their failures. And Yes, I would say twitter is probably more for discussion as Facebook is more for socialising with your friends/family and staying in touch with them.

 

The one thing forums have over twitter is you can go in depth and post something more then a short sentence chopped up beyond recognition by god awful text speak. I tried using twitter once and it took me around a half hour to make a single tweet because of their stupid character limits. I somehow see the types that frequent twitter to not be the type of person you want around on a forum anyway as I doubt anyone wants people posting on a forum like they do twitter.

As for Facebook, it's more for RL friends and contacts so I doubt it would help a forum much since most people have issues with mixing online contacts and interests with RL contacts. I really haven't seen how either helps or hurts forums.

 

Yea, the twitter limits are a pain, and they went and removed the deck.ly service from TweetDeck which helped with longer tweets

As for Facebook, I Havant seen how it's hurting forums either, the only way it might help is with promotion via a Facebook page, but then you've got 2 things to promote

 

Thanks for the information. One of the game owners in my niche said Facebook ads are pretty expensive, compared to Project Wonderful(which you place bids to advertise on other sites).

 

Facebook drives more traffic to forums - if used correctly. And plus, you can also promoted via your friends list - and likes on certain forums features. I believe a lot of forums can benefit from Facebook advertising - especially if they have the money. If not, its always Google, Twitter for the win to advertise. Everything comes together though in the end - use everything to promote, and nothin will be a problem. People love to state facebook is killing forums, why? Because they get lazy and would rather talk stupid,. =p

 

I think Facebook is a totally different beast. You're not getting free exchanges of ideas, debates, and discussions (for the most part). It's mostly pictures of Linda on her Bermuda cruise or what Paul had for dinner last night. I don't think it's direct forum competition.

 

It's not about just the pictures. You can use user's facebook statuses to come up with new threads ideas for your community. It reminds me of Yahoo answers because there's so much content you can use to your advantage.

 

I wouldn't say that facebook is killing forums or otherwise. But to be frank, promoting one's forum on facebook is not that easy though its a plus cause if its non-existence, the possibility won't be there at all.

One thing I noticed is, even if u're in groups, have lot of friends(I have 900+), convincing them is really hard. Most of them don't get the psyche, they just want it to be like a typical social network, that's why one make a friend register and for the next 3months they are M.I.A.(Facebook is more fun to them compared to forums.).

Sometimes, I invite friends to my site, they complain of having low bandwidth.
Later, I go on a social network and I see that same friend using x5 of the bandwidth he could have used on mine.

Who said facebook is for family and friends alone? I have more than 900+ friends are they my family and friends.
Facebook can even be used as a forum, what's the group for?

My conclusion is this, facebook and social networks generally are addictive, the people who saw forums as a means of social network are already gone from forums, there is 90% tendency to stay on facebook compared to forums.
So, it has negative effects on forums, which i would like to call jealousy from forum owners, but what if there was no facebook at all then there won't be the possibility of getting free traffic from that source.

Note: you 80% guaranteed to get your links followed on twitter compared to facebook.

 

Well I don't mix these two. social media is one thing, forums are another one. If you try to compete with facebook, you'll fail. You're not facebook. You're not (I hope to god) posting cute pics with 3 word comments, you're not running after likes. A forum is a SPECIALIZED area where you discuss a topic, archive data etc. I do use social media to promote my stuff though

 

Facebook can't kill forums. I can't imagine people discussing their health issues and personal problems on Facebook, these things are better left for forums. Forums provides them anonymity and a chance to learn more about their problems without exposing themselves.

 

Tough one; on one hand, Facebook is a great place to advertise and get new members. On the other hand, people are too endorsed in Facebook, they spent all their online time on it.

 

It happens so often in the forums business, its ridiculous. The people with the most experience tend to have success than those who just give up because they can't come up with a good game plan to keep their forum moving forward.

 

Facebook = easily accessible gossip and games (very little depth)
Twitter = trendy, short info-posts (narrowly focused snippets to inform/advise/advertise the latest news and trends - a "peoples" news channel)
Forums = depth (focused, in-depth, involved and highly detailed discussions, usually around a specific niche, that are not available on FB or Twtr).

I think each has their place and forums owners can utilise social networks to our own advantage - we just need to use the same golden rule we use with the rest of our promotion activities - don't spam!!

Cheers,
Shaun

 

I'm not going to lie. I'm guilty of creating threads based around someone's status on Facebook, or a trending topic going on through Twitter. It's so nice to check on both of those sites - especially if you're stumped for the day - in terms of new ideas, and looking at those sites gives you another source of coming up with content for your site.