Influentials are in Forums says PostRelease

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:10:00 GMT

According to a survey released today by PostRelease (the forum advertising network), people who contribute to online forums are overwhelmingly more engaged in influential activities than people who don't use forums.

In fact, those contributing to online forums are 10 times more likely than non-contributors to also publish a weblog, and are 9 times more likely to take an active role in organizing an offline event or meetup for a group that originally met online. Most interesting is that forum-users are 3.5 times more likely to proactively recommend a particular purchase to someone else, 3.5 times more likely to share links about new products, 4 times more likely to post online ratings and reviews, and almost twice as likely to share advice – offline and in person – based on information they’ve read online.

“Online forums are great places to find enthusiastic consumers and influential brand advocates,” said Justin Choi, founder and president of PostRelease. “Forums are essentially online gathering places for people with similar passions, so it’s natural that their passion would extend beyond the forum’s virtual walls. The people in forums are often discussing specific products, sharing advice and asking each other for recommendations. For marketers, participating in that discussion is not quite as simple as jumping into a forum conversation – forums have rules about that. But there are tools for connecting in a way that’s transparent and relevant.”

79.2 percent of forum contributors help a friend or family member make a decision about a product purchase – compared with 47.6 percent of non-contributors and 53.8 percent overall.
65 percent of forum contributors share advice (offline and in person) based on information that they’ve read online – compared with 35 percent of non-contributors and 40.8 percent overall.
66 percent of forum contributors post online ratings/reviews of products/services, compared with 16.8 percent of non-contributors and 26.4 percent overall.
57.7 percent of forum contributors proactively recommend that someone make a particular purchase – compared with 16.9 percent of non-contributors and 24.9 percent overall.
43.6 percent of forum contributors share links to articles about new products or with reviews of products – compared with 12 percent of non-contributors and 18.2 percent overall.
35.6 percent of forum contributors attend an offline event or meet up where people with similar interests or who share the same hobby connect – compared with 13.8 percent of non-contributors and 18 percent overall.
20.6 percent of forum contributors publish a blog – compared with 2.1 percent of non-contributors and 5.7 percent overall.
18.8 percent of forum contributors take an active role in organizing an offline event or meet up for a group that met originally online – compared with 2.4 percent of non-contributors and 5.6 percent overall.

The study also offers insights about who is most likely to contribute to online forums:

Men are more likely to contribute to forums than women: 23.5 percent of men say they contribute, versus 15.7 percent of women.
Younger respondents were more likely to say they contribute to forums: one-third of those 18-24 and one-fourth of those 25-34, compared with one in five overall.
Respondents with children participate in forums more than those without: 26 percent versus 16.3 percent, respectively.
A college education makes a difference: 20 percent of respondents with post-grad degrees participate in forums and 21.8 percent of those with at least some college said the same, compared with 12.9 percent of respondents with high school or less.
Non-white respondents were more likely than white respondents to contribute: 26 percent versus 18 percent, respectively.
Those in the South and West are more active in forums than those in the Northeast and Midwest: 23.2 percent, 22.2 percent, 16 percent and 13.5 percent, respectively.

Online Forum Advertising (With a Twist)

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:35:00 GMT

Does advertising within social media environments such as forums sound appealing? For many marketers it does but the problem is that those wanting to actively participate in the word-of-mouth conversations occurring are often called out as spammers thanks to often poorly disguised commercial messages.

PostRelease, launched by Cie Studios today, hopes to change that by enabling companies (through advertising) to reach audiences at the point where opinions are being formed and buying decisions made - on the forums. Companies can insert posts that contain relevant content into targeted online forum discussions using the automated system.

PostRelease posts can include text, pictures, hyperlinks and links to video. The posts are clearly marked as from PostRelease, and they remain in the lead position (toward the top of the post list page) of selected forum discussion categories for seven days. Once released from the top position, the post remains part of the forum discussion. These posts are archived as forum content, so they continue to generate responses after a campaign ends.

From the release: The approach is automated but audited – all posts are reviewed to ensure the content is relevant to the discussion topic. It is this quality control that sets PostRelease apart from banner and text ads: in its year-long beta, PostRelease click-through rates averaged 33 percent, with highs reaching nearly 90 percent.

By the looks of the PostRelease forum network, over 100 publishers are using the system, although it seems to be focused primarily on the automotive industry at the moment. I see a lot of potential in solutions like these for forum owners/publishers.

“Forums are where the real product conversations happen – they’re the uncut diamonds of the social web,” said Justin Choi, founder and president of Cie Studios. “Forums are an ideal place for marketers and consumers to meet, because product conversations are not intrusive, they’re integral. We’ve created a solution that enables companies to insert relevant information, helps consumers learn more about products they’re already discussing and gives forum owners a much-needed source of revenue.”

'Net Features : advertising, postrelease

Influentials are in Forums says PostRelease

Online Forum Advertising (With a Twist)