Many people use the words forum and blog interchangeably. While there are certainly a few similarities between the two portals, that which differentiates them are important to understand for your success in using them or marketing your own website with them.
Both involve communities of people who can leave comments which will be read by others. Certainly this is similar as well to other social media. From a marketing point of view, both forums and blogs have the ability to increase your customer retention if you are planning on using one or the other or even both on your own website, for example. Both can also serve to increase your SEO rankings as well.
What sets the two apart, however, is their actual purpose and function.
Generally speaking, the author posts information, an opinion or a commentary on the topic of his or her choosing in a blog. Readers of the blog may be able to leave their comments on what the author has posted. Think of a blog as attending a presentation. After the main speaker has completed his or her delivery, those in the audience may be allowed to ask questions or offer their own views. Your attendance at the presentation is your choice because of the subject matter.
The concept of a community forum, on the other hand, is to help people resolve a problem or issue with a product or a service. In a forum, anyone can start a new topic; and, other community members can respond with advice or suggestions. The goal is to solve the problem posed by the original author of that topic. This allows for a two-way conversation between the topic author and the other forum members. This is not unlike a group of people sitting around a kitchen table helping the host decide the best way to fix a leaking pipe for example.
Simply put, if you are the author of a blog, you have total control over the topics to be discussed. If you are a reader of that blog, you can comment on what the writer has said, but you cannot choose a new subject. In a forum, members can and do start new discussions at their own discretion.
Both blogs and community forums are valuable information sources in their own rights; but, if you are looking to get self-help online, the forum is probably the best way to go.
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