Last week we looked at internet chat.  The main difference between a chat session and a discussion forum is that for chat, both (or all) parties need to be online and in the chat room at the same time.

With a discussion forum, this isn’t the case - someone can post a question and leave, and others can post responses to a question throughout the day. 

The other nice part about forums is that the discussions can be archived and have a search engine, so all past questions and answers are available and searcheable by newcomers to the site. 

In the business world, discussion forums can have impact to a business in a couple of ways.

Sometimes a business adds discussion forums to their corporate site as way to provide support to customers of their product or service.  One example is the pMachine forums where users of the pMachine blogging software get and provide support to each other in using the software to develop websites. 

Some businesses choose instead to approach an existing, non-profit discussion forum where the their target market is already interacting online.  The EarlyCJ5.com forums have been approached by a few vendors looking for feedback and input on their products designed for the early Jeeps.

Take note, though, that vendors often make some major mistakes when attempting to approach an existing online community.  I’ve written a set of guidelines to look at if you’re contemplating this for your business.