Similar to the almighty blog, a bulletin board is an electronic meeting place and announcement system. This open platform allows a number of users to carry on discussions, make announcements, and share files.
Unlike a blog which is essentially one person's online journal that receives comments from visitors, a bulletin board is designed to enable multiple users to start up conversations or threads, and respond to them as well. Several companies make use of bulletin boards to cater to their audience, as this platform has become a powerful business tool.
Not only do bulletin boards give an online business the ability to analyze perceptions and establish relationships, but it is also time and cost-efficient.
How a Bulletin Board Works
Each bulletin board is typically comprised of anywhere from 18 to 20 respondents - approximately twice the size of your average focus group. Moderators carefully screen respondents who are generally required to meet a set of predefined qualifications. Once approved, they are given a username and password, which give them access to fully moderated discussions that occur over a certain amount of time.
Respondents spend time on the bulletin board answering questions or replying to comments posted by the moderator while reacting to comments from other participates. Although the topics are usually only popular for a couple of days, they can be accessed 24/7 from any computer with an internet connection. Transcripts from the discussions may also be available following each session.
How a Bulletin Board Benefits Your Online Business
Bulletin boards can serve benefits to any online business, regardless of the industry. In fact, many experts have contested that such a system exceeds the use of other marketing strategies, calling it the "original social networking platform." This simply means that a bulletin board is able to provide both you and your customers with more than recreational opportunities, creating a network that helps your online business grow.
The bulletin board works wonders at enhancing your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts. Aside from looking at keywords and content in general, search engines also keep track of how many pages a website contains. Therefore, if your bulletin board becomes extremely popular and spans out over a couple of pages, you are likely to be indexed more frequently and possibly achieve higher rankings in a search engine like Google or Yahoo!
This platform allows you to present information in a creative form while staying on track with the topics of your business. More companies these days are using bulletin boards as an affordable yet effective means of providing technical support. Instead of hiring a full support staff to address critical issues, a bulletin board allows them to set up a Frequently Asked Questions forum, or even a medium where the community of respondents can assist each other.
Numerous online businesses, especially those in the IT field, use bulletin boards so that visitors can download essential updates for software applications or documentation associated with a particular product or service. Other businesses across a wide spectrum of industries use the bulletin for the following reasons:
More detailed benefits of a bulletin board include:
Archived sessions for future reference: Aside from creating an FAQ section, archived conversations can also be used to keep newcomers up to speed. As long as they are easily accessible, these sessions will always have great value.
Visitor interaction: Perhaps the greatest benefit of a bulletin board is the opportunity to interact with your audience. Customers like to know that their opinions matter, and they feel even more valued when their concerns are addressed from someone behind the scenes, whether it's just a staff member or the website administrator himself or herself. Additionally, visitors can ask questions and express concerns about important issues that you may have overlooked.
Consistent updates: A website that is constantly updated with fresh content reaps many more benefits than one that remains the same over long periods of time. Frequent posting on your bulletin board translates into new content for the search engines and shows newcomers that your site is the place to be.
Better absorption: On the web, this is often referred to as "stickiness," which is the key to consistent traffic. Stickiness simply describes a website that grabs and maintains the interest of its visitors, meaning they are more apt to absorb the information you are trying to get across. A bulletin board has this ability as it is dated, archived, searchable and open for conversation.
Moderating authority: When it comes to online business, you want your visitors to be able to express themselves, but there should always be some limitations. This can be done by assigning a moderator to the board to ensure that topics are appropriate and that all participates are adhering to the rules. In the end, it's up to you in regards to what gets posted and what gets deleted.
Conclusion
There are many ways to power your online business, and the bulletin board is one of the most effective strategies. This platform opens the floor to your visitors and lets them feel as if they are playing a major role in the process, while granting you complete control over the operation. Best of all, implementing a bulletin board onto your website is simple and affordable with one-click script installers and a variety of open-source programs.
Adam Hobach is a Network Engineer with "Doreo.com". You can learn more about "Web Hosting " services online at http://www.Doreo.com © 2008 Doreo http://www.Doreo.com You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "Author Biography"). |
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