The Difference Between a Blog and a Forum

Wednesday, November 04 2009 - forums, blogs, social-media, social-networking

Blogs and forums are probably the two most recognized social media technologies out there.  Everyone knows what a blog is, and I would guess that most people can at least figure out the basic idea of a forum based on it's name - “forum”.  However, I have noticed that many people really don’t understand when they should be using one over the other.  Businesses often use a forum for things like announcements, where a blog fits better.  Or they use a forum where the content group is the only group that can start new discussions, with topics that they provide initial content for, which is essentially just posting a new blog entry.  Users, when given both options, often use the incorrect technology as well.  If users are given access to post to their own blog on a site that also has a forum, they will often post questions to the blog, rather than using the forum.  Likewise, they will post long, researched articles to the forum, instead of making use of the blog technologies available to them.  This will explain the differences between blogs and forums, when to use each one, and how to make them work together for the best possible solution.

What is a Blog?

To explain what a blog is, let's start with the origin of the word.  Blog is an abbreviation for web log (or more recently, weblog).  So, basically, it is a log on the web.  Most generically, a log is just a record of any sort of information.  In computer terms, it is defined as any of various chronological records made concerning the use of a computer system, the changes made to data, etc. A blog follows the chronological record aspect of that definition, but the similarity really ends there.  A blog is essentially a way to chronologically record your thoughts for others to read and potentially comment on.  Many people think of it as a journal or diary that is open to the public, which is a good analogy in most cases, especially for personal blogs.  Other blogs, like this one, are more informative, and are more closely related to regular columns in a newspaper, where the writer expresses his opinions or presents facts to arrive at a given point.  In either situation, a blog is a means for presenting information to others primarily in a one-way style of communication.  Yes, blogs typically have some sort of mechanism to comment on the post, but the blog owner decides what conversations are started, when they are forced to end and when they are allowed to continue.

What is a Forum?

Again, to explain what a forum is, we can just look at the word itself.  In Roman times, the forum was the public square in Roman cities, where people assembled to discuss business, political and judicial topics.  This led to the word forum meaning an assembly, meeting place, television program, etc., for the discussion of questions of public interest. In simplest terms, a forum is a place to have an open discussion.  One person starts off with a question or statement, and then others join in to voice their opinions or present additional facts.  In basic web terms, a forum is a collection of web pages where discussions are started and maintained.  This is actually where the problem starts to arise for some people.  If you have commenting in a blog, then a blog is also a collection of web pages where discussions are started and maintained.  The key difference here, then, is permissions.  With a blog, you typically have a small subset of users that are the authors of the blog.  Everyone else can only comment on what the authors post.  With a forum, the idea is that any user of the system can start any conversation that they want (well, ideally any conversation that remains on topic for the forum itself, but that’s another topic entirely).  Forums are also better suited to people asking questions, because a forum typically has a more general user base and a larger number of people that will browse and potentially provide answers to said questions.

How Blogs and Forums are Misused

I went over some basic examples above on how blogs and forums are misused, but I’ll go into more detail here.  I’m going to split this into two sections: how users misuse these technologies, and then how businesses misuse them.

Users

A user with access to post to both a blog and a forum will often use their blog as a means to ask questions of others.  There are potentially several reasons for this, such as not wanting his question to get lost in a forum or even something as simple as wanting to be the center of attention for a bit.  There’s nothing wrong with any of the reasons, but that doesn’t change the fact that a blog isn’t the best place to ask questions.  Like I mentioned above, blogs do not typically have the traffic that comes through forums.  People visiting forums are typically in a different mindset than people visiting blogs.  Forums are going to have more people that actually want to answer questions for people.  Many forums literally have users that just visit that site specifically to help others out and answer their questions.  In fact, many bigger, more topic-driven forums will often have paid employees specifically to answer questions on the forum.  That isn’t something that you can get from a blog, especially your own blog.

Forums also have more people that are interested in having discussions, rather than just reading a post and leaving to go to the next one.  So even if you aren’t asking a question, and just want to have a lively discussion, a forum is a better place to do that.  A blog will typically have a very targeted regular audience; one that primarily agrees (or sometimes primarily vehemently disagrees) with the blog author already.  It is hard to have a lively debate when the readers already agree with you or just disagree with you on principle.

On the flipside, forums are often misused in the exact opposite manner from how blogs are misused.  There are many times where I see people posting a statement (sometimes short, but often very long) just because they want people to read their opinions.  I have even seen it where the author disables replies to their thread (on forums that allow that).  That is honestly an option that I have never understood on forums, at least when it comes to allowing users to use it.  Forums are meant to be for discussion, and allowing someone to just post their thoughts and not allow replies just doesn’t make any sense.

The main reason for posting these types of items in forums is also fairly selfish; the author wants to reach that larger and broader audience that the forum provides, just because he wants his opinion heard by as many people as possible.  Again, nothing wrong with that, but the author would be better served with creating his own blog and working to build up traffic there with good quality content.

Businesses

For businesses, the question is “should we have a blog on our site, or should we have a forum (or both)?”  That question can really simply be answered with the following questionnaire:

Blogs

• Do you want to post announcements for your users to read?
• Do you want to have your editorial team post content that your users can comment on?

Forums

• Do you want to allow your users to have open discussions with your staff and each other?
• Do you want to allow your users to ask questions that your staff (or other users) then answers publicly?

I don’t often see blogs misused by businesses, but I do see forums misused by businesses all the time.  Reader’s Digest uses forums exclusively for the discussion of editorially-chosen topics. (UPDATE: Apparently, Reader's Digest has now removed their forums entirely and just uses Disqus for comments) A very large number of forums out there have an “Announcements” forum, where only admins can post and often user’s cannot reply at all.  I never understood Reader’s Digest’s reasoning for the former (and trust me, I asked several people there), but for the latter, it is just like when users misuse forums; they want to reach the broadest audience possible.  If making announcements about the forum itself, this is a good idea, but I still really think that general company or site announcements are much better served with a blog.  In addition to having a standalone place that people can bookmark to get to these announcements, you typically have more control over things like formatting, URL and other content-related items that can both improve your users’ experience as well as improve search engine optimization, driving more people to your site.

How to Make Blogs and Forums Work Together

That all said, there is no reason that you can’t make use of both forums and blogs, and also make them work together for the best possible solution.  Here are just a few ideas:

• Use your blog to highlight great conversations taking place on your forum.
• Use your forum as inspiration for more, fully researched blog posts.  If your users are having a conversation on something really interesting, take it and run with it.
• If your blog doesn’t support commenting (for whatever reason), you can use your forum as a mechanism to allow commenting on your blog posts, as long as you still leave it open for users to post their own topics as well.

There are probably countless other ideas on how to use forums and blogs, both separately and together.  Use your imagination to come up with a great idea and help fill out this list by posting your ideas in the comments.