ProBoards, the Internet’s largest free forum host, today announced the immediate availability of ProBoards Version 5. This new forum software comes with many new features including Live Search, Global Login, a Forum Dashboard to track multiple forum in one location, and hundreds of new features. Head on over to ProBoards to create a free forum or checkout the below video showcasing some of the new ProBoards v5 features.

Are the titans (google, facebook, twitter etc) trying to kill off the ‘long tail’ enthusiat forums?

I hate to say it, but it’s certainly looking that way! Recent announcements like this and other practices seem to indicate that these titans are trying to ensure that their own properties garner top results in all search activities (and therefore all traffic and adspend).

Lately, we’ve seen changes where non proprietary sites (although far more valuable and appropriate for user search results) fall well behind the google, yahoo and microsoft proprietary properties in search results. This is also creating a situation where the volume of “Remnant Ads” is increasing instead of the high quality advertising the forum industry deserves.

This predatory practice has the potential of a very negative impact on the forum world. Basically, these players are doing everything possible to ensure valuable properties (such as yours) do not get the traffic (including advertising revenue) to be sustainable. They want all the traffic themselves, even though their properties (so far) don’t offer anywhere near the value to the consumer! They also intuitively realize that any potential threats to their stranglehold on the market will come from emerging long-tail properties.

Is it time for the forum/review world to unite and develop an approach to protect themselves against this threat? Our regulators don’t see it so this hugely valuable industry needs to figure out an alternative approach!

Recently, VigLink posted up a “how-to” guide for forum monetization. If you are working on monetizing your forum online, it’s definitely worth the read. It covers everything from sponsorships, display ads, link monetization, donations, in-text and in-image ads, and more. You can get valuable insights into how to properly generate revenue from your website while minimizing the impact on your visitors.

Click here to download the free guide.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the SXSW panel titled “Confessions of a Community Moderator.” This talk featured panelists Kim Matlock from Hard Rock International, Kristin Rupert from Imagination, Lizz Kannenberg from Walton Isaacson, and was moderated by Chris Gokiert from Critical Mass. This talk largely focused on how large brands utilize social media and how these brands interact with their customers.

It was an interesting experience to learn how various top brands utilized social media. There was much talk of the heavyweights Facebook and Twitter, but there was also talk about the niche that Pinterest and other networks provide. Also mentioned was some of the channels that these large brands have tested but shied away from, such as Path and Quora, as they did not see the value from their efforts in these platforms.

Forum-Software.org, a leading forum review site, has announced the winners of their annual poll for Best Hosted Forum Service, Best Free Forum Software, and Best Commercial Forum Software.

With over 10,000 votes, the most votes in any category, ProBoards won the award for Best Hosted Forum Service for the second year in a row. ProBoards is planning to launch their new forum software, ProBoards v5, on April 29th, 2013. This new software brings a whole host of new features and Web 2.0 functionality including live search, user tagging, notifications, and much more. For a preview please visit ProBoards BetaZone.

I often wonder about how consumers really use the web to research things they want to buy.

Most of the surveys seem to have a slant based on certain preconceived objectives. Either the questions are slanted, the choices limited or the surveyed audience too narrow. Few, if any, really paint a clear picture of what’s really happening.

So, I’d like to start an honest discussion about consumer buying habits. No focus, no bias, just an honest answer to a simple question.

The last time you made a significant purchase (vacation, automobile, household  appliance or anything else where research or advice was needed), what online or offline sources (if any) did you use to make your decision? Where did you find the most valuable insight that helped you finally decide?

Please feel free to comment anonymously if you’d like but please provide as much detail as possible.

Thanks for your contribution!

A current blog post from Mashable indicated that, according to Gartner, by 2014 10% to 15% of social media reviews will be fake and paid for by companies.

Says Senior Analyst Jenny Sussin at Gartner,

With over half of the Internet’s population on social networks, organizations are scrambling for new ways to build bigger follower bases, generate more hits on videos, garner more positive reviews than their competitors and solicit ‘likes’ on their Facebook pages.

These days it’s all about reputation: managing it, preserving it, mitigating the negative effects…. and now, paying to create a good reputation or maintain its good standing.

What are forums really? They are collections of individual conversations amongst people with common interests and needs. People reviewing experiences and looking for guidance to make decisions.

They are akin to Twitter Hashtags or Facebook Fan Pages but in a more organized, focused platform. A place where people discuss their feelings about specific topics, look for help about things they need, want or have general interest in.

They are collections of human conversations from all over the world, but online and documented forever. They are specifically categorized and easily accessible. Anyone can learn about anything they want, anytime.

As the social media phenomenon continues to blossom, the business community’s uncertainty about how to capitalize on it is evolving. We see corporate use of social media exploding across the internet. You now see national brands promoting their new Facebook fan pages or their new Twitter accounts, with industry leaders asking you to “Like”, “Follow”, or “+1″ them.

All this activity begs the questions, “what are companies getting for their efforts? What’s the payoff?” Are these flashy new Facebook pages driving sales? Are regularly scheduled Tweets really deepening relationships with customers? Granted, there are many documented marketing successes attributable to Facebook and Twitter, the fact remains these channels rely more on outdated “push” messaging rather than the more productive practice of collaborative, “participation” marketing.

As the use of computer technology in education expands, participants, administrators and observers continually wonder what’s effective and what’s a distraction. Unfortunately, many applications of technology in the classroom serve only to dilute the learning experience as students misuse resources or engage in unproductive diversions.

As a learning aid, discussion forums, on the other hand, have shown to stimulate critical thinking, improve communication skills, foster a sense of community among students, and encourage collaborative problem solving. Further, online forums enable students to work together on projects and participate at-will in evocative dialogues centered on course content.