Online forums were the social networks of the web before social networks existed. And they are still thriving today as online spaces where people can find like-minded communities, ask questions about niche interests, purchase recommendations or advice at key life stages, and enjoy more anonymity than social media usually allows.
Brandwatch has been a leader in the social listening industry since its beginnings in the early 2000s. Since then social media usage across the globe has exploded. Listening to the millions of conversations occurring every day helps Brandwatch users keep track of how their brand is being talked about and understand the wants, needs, and behaviors of their customers.
It’s easy to forget about forums when there is so much noise coming from the big social networks, but they continue to be a vital source of information when it comes to finding rich insights about key demographics and interest groups.
Brandwatch’s forum data
Because Brandwatch has had its own data crawlers since the very beginning, we’ve been able to target and collect public data on the forums that matter most to our customers over the years across multiple industries and regions. We also have a historical data archive of rich forum data back to 2010.
Brandwatch offers researchers the tools to access and analyze:
- Thousands of forums across the globe, from large international forums to niche local communities
- Millions of posts every month
- Tens of thousands of unique authors
- Historical data back to 2010
Brandwatch’s analytics tools work seamlessly with forum data allowing you to:
- Set up alerts for brand mentions or potential high-risk topics in forums or following specific threads where a brand risk has been detected.
- Create author lists of profiles you have found on specific forums, letting you analyze these groups or personas in even more detail or research what they say about other topics.
- Conduct sentiment and topic analysis or segment forum data by themes to build an overview of how your brand or topics are being talked about in online communities.
What makes forum data so useful?
Forum conversations are particularly rich in insights because they are places people go to discuss specific topics, brands, and products in a community of like-minded people.
- Topic relevancy: Forums will often be dedicated to specific topics, industries or interests. Or they will have sections dedicated to these. This makes finding relevant conversations on the topics that matter to you much easier
- Self-selecting audiences: Forums are often designed for specific groups of people, making it possible to study demographics such as parents, students or retirees
- Product focus: People go to forums to talk about the products and services they love or hate and the conversation is usually rich in detail
- Early visibility: Issues or trends are often first surfaced in forums, before they are amplified across social media
Examples
Among the thousands of forums covered by Brandwatch here are some examples that show an idea of the depth and breadth of consumer conversations captured in forum data.
Life stages
When people reach key moments in their lives, forums can be a valuable resource for information on how to navigate them. And these forums are a rich source of intelligence for brands that have products or services to offer consumers at these moments.
- Mumsnet: Highly influential UK-based forum for parents with millions of unique users
- BabyTree: Parenting community and one of the most popular forums in China
- The Student Room: The UK’s largest online community for students
- College Confidential: US college admissions site with a thriving community forum
Regional giants
In different countries, forums have built huge communities and become some of the most visited websites in the region.
- Naver: South Korean web platform that has vibrant user created communities (Naver Cafe) and Q&A forums (Naver Knowledge IN)
- ReclameAqui: Brazilian site whose name translates as ‘Complain Here’ and has become one of the most popular sites in the country where consumers voice their opinions about brands, products, and life in general
- LIHKG: Sometimes referred to as the ‘Reddit of Hong Kong’, it is one of the top 10 websites in the region
- Reddit: Technically a global giant, especially in the English-speaking world. But did you know that Reddit’s second-largest audience is in Australia and is the 4th most popular website in that country?
Industry and niche topics
Forums dedicated to specific interests, hobbies, or topics attract like-minded people and are a fantastic source of intelligence, sometimes with areas of the forum dedicated to specific topics allowing for targeted listening.
- Spiceworks: A popular professional network for the IT community
- Pistonheads: One of many automotive forums covered by Brandwatch where drivers discuss brands, products, and vehicle maintenance
- Steam Community: Gaming forum with a global audience with forums dedicated to specific platforms and games
- Money Control: Business news site with a thriving forum where people discuss personal finance. One of the most popular sites in India
Top use cases using forum data
The unique nature of conversations that can be monitored in forums make this data particularly useful for key use cases.
Customer care
When customers have issues with the products or services they have bought, consumer forums will be one of the first places they go to find a solution or make a complaint. It is particularly important for brands to monitor these conversations because if the customer has not found a resolution through the usual support channels these threads can dissuade others from buying from the same brand or even escalate into bigger reputational threats.
By keeping track of unhappy customers across forums, brands can stop issues in their tracks and learn how to improve the customer experience in future. With Brandwatch you can even create feeds of forum conversations that connect directly to our Engage module, allowing customer support teams to identify and respond to complaints and issues on non-social channels.
Example:
A government agency studied forum conversations to understand the most frequent questions or complaints that people had when trying to fill out paperwork for specific services. For example, they found that deadlines provided for paperwork returned via post were wrong, making it hard for people to return their documents in time.
They quickly adapted processes to reflect and mitigate this problem, informing their customer service agents and enabling them to be prepared to handle any questions or complaints regarding this matter.
Product development
Consumers will talk in great detail about the products they love and the frustrations they have. This provides a fantastic opportunity to discover potential improvements for existing products or to find untapped opportunities where consumers are expressing a wish for a product that solves specific problems they have.
Example:
A global CPG brand set-up “always-on” analysis for the hair care category across various content sources but with a focus on forums such as Mumsnet where consumers tend to share concerns and seek advice more often.
They discovered that consumers had an issue with the bottle for one of their conditioners, expressing frustration that they struggled to squeeze the product out of the packaging.
They were able to inform the R&D team which updated the bottle design to facilitate one-handed operation, with an indented center that had a textured non-stick surface. Customers raved about the design and reviews became more positive, helping the brand to reduce churn and increase satisfaction.
Market research
By studying more general conversations about key themes and topics, you can use forum data as a valuable resource for studying key demographics in order to better understand their wants and needs and inform how you should be communicating with these groups.
Example:
A major pharmaceutical company had heard evidence that women have historically been mistreated when it comes to diagnosis and treatment of pain conditions. The team wanted to expand their understanding of this topic and to learn how their brand could address gender biases when it comes to recognizing and treating pain.
They monitored conversations on forums to better understand women’s experiences of pain in the context of menopause, period pain, fibromyalgia, and migraines. They found that women were often dissatisfied with the support they received from healthcare professionals. They felt abandoned and even gaslit when seeking support for period pain and were able to use these insights to inform their educational content strategy, messaging, and product R&D.
Content strategy
Forums are where people go to ask questions. This makes for extremely valuable inspiration for brands looking to create more valuable and effective marketing and educational content. By responding to the unmet needs of consumers, brands can build relationships and present their products and services as the best solutions to the problems customers are looking to solve.
Example:
A pet food company wanted to know if cat owners were aware that they needed to change their cat’s food once their cat had been neutered.
They found that while there was a lot of conversation about pet neutering in general on social media, the majority of questions about what to feed pets after they had been neutered was found on more niche pet forums where people were going for practical advice. In these forums they discovered there was a lot of confusion about the best diets for cats that had been neutered.
Their marketing teams are now focusing on creating content around post-neutering care to educate cat owners on food changes and position their brand as the go-to for post-neutering cat food.
Risk mitigation
While crises tend to be amplified on social media, forums are often the earliest place to spot potential problems as customers head to dedicated forums to share their frustrations. Brands can stop issues in their tracks by discovering them early and before they go viral.
Example:
A multinational engineering company uses Brandwatch to set up alerts across conversations about their products on review sites and forums so they can detect any recurring issues being reported by customers quickly. This means that, if necessary, they can initiate a product recall or distribute educational materials fast to deal with these issues.
They discovered multiple discussions on forums around one of their car wiper blades not functioning correctly and not being stable when installed. They realized this was not actually a product defect but a problem related to how the wiper was attached and were able to quickly amend the instructions that came with the product to make sure customers had better guidance for preventing the issue.