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What are peoples thoughts on the debate between using a forum or social media?

Forum

1. Searchable
2. Specific content
3. easy administration with respect to allowing or getting rid of users

I ran a forum for many years and it does take a lot of time to keep it functional at the back end as well as dealing with people's complaints.

Social Media

1. Wider audience
2. Privacy concerns
3. Targeted advertising
4. Wider Networking

Like others I hated social media and refused to use it, especially facebook. However when I first applied to be a member of Team Racepak (and missed out on a spot) the importance of having a social media presence made me rethink. Without establishing a social media presence I would not have some of my current sponsors nor the network of people I can ask questions of.

With respect to my social media use it is not about sharing personal 'stuff' rather about my car. Hence I use social media as a tool to help the people who support me (marketing) and attract new people who could hep me. I find it very personally rewarding when these sorts of contacts move to long term relationships and/or become personal as well as business.

There are more points that could be added to the above lists... but trying to keep it to why some people prefer one format over the other or why one format is not used.

Irrespective, I have made friends because of my social media use and forum membership(s), so I guess it is horses for courses.

You've missed the biggest difference in my opinion, the persistence of information in a forum vs the temporary nature of social media. Every week you get the same questions from different people in forums, oil, tyres, wheels, suspension, WTB hardtop, etc. Veterans with knowledge get sick of answering and drop out while people with misinformation or incomplete information jump in and perpetuate the issue.

I browse the social medias, very very occasionally post. Social is good for whats happening now, sharing short snippets of what you're doing, where you've been and who you're with. I much prefer the community and history and knowledge pool of the forums.

I don't use social media. I'm not against it, just don't have the time or interest.

i think ManiacLachy summed it up well.

I use both. I prefer the forum from a knowledge bank point of view and as the best place for a discussion of a topic. Facebook, as ManiacLachy said, is all about the here and now instant response. If I need a quick answer because I need help with something I'm in the middle of doing right now (ie why are my caliper slide pins so hard to get out, help!), I'm more than likely to get an instant response on FB. But if it's a discussion about big brake kits etc, the forum is still best (ie Luke's V-Sport/APRacing BBK thread). If such a thing was posted on FB, within a day or even a couple of hours, it's dropped down the feed off the page and someone with great knowledge of the topic may never see it, where as they likely will see it on the forum here and contribute, even if the topic was posted a week ago.

So it feels like the forums have slowed down, and to be honest they have, but I think the content and discussions that are posted here are valuable and something that FB won't be able to replicate or accommodate with the instant gratification FB posts demand. Which is why you don't see garage build threads on FB.

I value forums for the information they contain and the ability to be able to search for it.
This is especially true for MX5 forums, the MX5 NAs are over 30 years old now so there's plenty of information out there which can be found to answer just about any question I have.

I can't be F*D these days responding to questions that have been answered many times on forums already, if the poster can't be bothered to look for this information, then I'm not going to waste my time typing in a response.

Social media is great for organising/publisizing events, announcing results and publicity, but not for technical content IMO.

I'm also anti-Facebook, putting all one's personal information in one place is insane from a privacy point of view (I've worked over 30 years as a software engineer and know that no system is un-hachk-able).

ManiacLachy wrote:the persistence of information in a forum vs the temporary nature of social media.

Maybe saying 'searchable' was too simple and I should have used "the persistence of information"

ManiacLachy wrote:I much prefer the community and history and knowledge pool of the forums.

Would have to agree that this is why I keep active on here (and other forums). Facebook does have a forum like feature, but it is not widely used, it is called Notes.

Facebook Note link
https://www.facebook.com/notes/car-drives-man/world-time-attack-challange-2019-1/1167676580286806/

I've only used social media when I was asked way back when my son was competing nationally and the other club members wanted instant updates. Even then I limited the account, it wasn't open public. I carried it on with friends and family for a while after but found it more annoying than useful and closed it all off and haven't used such media since. I think for the purpose Magpie explained, social media can work very well. Certainly from a marketing point of view social media romps over forums. But as Lachy mentioned, social media is pretty useless for searching (or even asking for) genuine assistance. Ask a question on a related forum and you'll invariably receive a mass of advice, mostly experienced, and minimal junk replies. Ask same question on social media and you'll receive a lot of junk interspersed with something (maybe) useful. You'll also have to go searching on the social media page for your post, because in a day it's probably disappeared hundreds of posts down the page! A specific forum is more like talking to a small group of genuinely interested like minded people whereas social media - even on specific pages - feels more like trying to find those few helpful individuals in a packed stadium. There's certainly a place for both though depending on usage.

Also, the forums don't have an algorithm that chooses what you see and when you see it. Often I'll see a post on FaceBook from a few days ago, it's hard to get a timely response to a question if FB won't show it to people in a timely manner.

Whenever I have an issue/question (ie: every time I work on the car), a Google powered forum search returns results much faster than asking FB ever would. And I can check multiple sources, all returned by my search at once, and check for a consensus in answers to ensure I'm not taking bad advice.

A forum or a specific group can be far more focussed than FB. I am one of those people who actually sees the value of e mail and yet even that is being dumped by many. One thing that is clear that this forum is now down to a small group of contributors - thats maybe the sign of the times.

Short answer is I use both. As already mentioned by others, I mainly use forums to learn from the valuable information they contain, but also follow like minded people whilst they document their journey of car ownership. Socials are more about keeping in touch with friends and family.

Social media is all about instant gratification. It is not a store of information.
I don't use social media for my business as I would not be able to (or remotely interested) service it constantly. All I would get is 'What do you think my number is worth?', repeated a few hundred times in a day. The one person who might be interested in buying a number would be buried in a sea of mindless questions. Genuine buyers can email or ring me.

I do get annoyed with the number of businesses and retailers these days who, when asked a question, direct you to "our facebook" for answers. They don't get my business. But that's off track to the question here ...

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I assume they get a benefit of more traffic to their FB, like Instagram and YouTube.
FB is only useful if you are willing to service it - ultimately pay someone to sit there and watch it. No point in having it and you only check it once or twice a day (customers can disappear in minutes).

It is like the advertising of Dodgy Days, I will only use this forum and NEVER social media to let people know that there is one on...

Each platform has its own purpose and audience. This is the one lesson I have learnt from being on Team Racepak, however still have not go into 'twitter'. It is a condition on being a member of Team Racepak that we are active (in the right way) on social media.

IMO social media is more unstructured and random, appeals to the nemos of the world (ie 4 second attention spans)
Forums are sooooo much better for finding, and organizing information and discussions.
Facebook in particular throws up so much rubbish in between posts on a topic that it makes it almost impossible to carry on a discussion over a few days or weeks.