Forum – Definition, Internet and meaning for social networks

The term forum defines an online platform on which users can exchange information. At that time, the first vehicles were also pioneers for the transmitter-receiver model. The sender-receiver model describes the form of communication between a sending party and the receiving parties. A very classic example is the cinema. As one of the first popular media, feature films spread stories and information. The viewer can watch the film but has no influence on it. At some point there was the radio, just like the newspaper, you could react to articles and comments. Unlike newspapers, radio for the first time made it possible to react in real time with the help of the telephone. The presenter and audience were able to make direct contact. However, there were still barriers, e.g. the editor, who selects the conversation partners for the live broadcast. Three or four people are then connected between thousands of calls. For the first time, the transmitter-receiver model was changed by the Internet. The change of the communication model looks like this:

• 1:m – one organization / company sends, all receive
• M:n – all (can) transmit / all receive

The Internet is a digital platform in which anyone can provide equivalent data, information, but also media, to unveil without meaning, as well as cat videos, or one of the largest operators of the Internet, pornography. Forums made it possible to exchange data and, of course, opinions. This is why they are so important and are still very often used by society today. For example, as an operating manual for software. Here users can ask questions and the developers, or administrators can give answers and feedback to these questions. Each user can add further comments and of course add their own ideas. The transmitter-receiver model has changed fundamentally. From a structure of pure sending to sending and receiving or receiving and sending.

Development of networks, forums and definition

In a forum opinions and thoughts can be exchanged freely. Users can log in, create their own accounts and then create their own avatars. We’re ready to go. Of course you don’t have to register at every forum, but most of them require it in order to be able to upload the quality of the posts. The more open a forum is, the more bots and spam posts can be collected here. Therefore it is especially important for the administrators of a forum to keep their board clean and to avoid such things.

Forums are not only important for the members, who exchange themselves here mutually. The majority of the people on the forum are only passively on the move. E.g. by the inquiry in a search engine, after a certain topic, keyword, or even a question. No matter whether it concerns young families who have questions about pregnancy, later about building their own house and perhaps a little later, the first child goes to a college or university. No matter in which area of life, questions come up all the time and there are millions, maybe even billions, of answers in forums.

For these reasons, forums have also existed since the beginning of the Internet. The development of social networks also had a lasting influence on them. Until today forums have an extremely high relevance, of course also for SEO agencies. These are particularly concerned with search engine optimization. Backlinks, i.e. links to your own online project from large and well-known forums, are a great advantage for companies. That is why many agencies try to place links for their customers in renowned forums. A simple example from life could be now, when the young family father is looking for the right pram. He goes to the search engine and asks:

• “What should I look out for when buying a pram?”

Exactly the same chain of words appears as a question in a forum for young parents. Directly the 3. comment refers to a baby carriage manufacturer, in whose Onlineshop one gets all models fast and favorably supplied. Our young family man takes the supposedly authentic user recommendation was and will perhaps click on the link. What’s the matter with you? We trust the opinion of other people. That’s why forums are also a very interesting area for online marketing.