Are Telegram groups still better than Discord communities for engagement?

[jorge1243]

If you have used both, which platform has worked better for building an active community

 

[Akingee]

Still Telegram for immediate engagement and affiliate broadcasts—the open rates on mobile are just hard to beat. Discord is amazing for organization and retention, but there is way too much channel friction for quick conversions. What kind of niche are you setting it up for?

 

[T J Tutor]

which platform has worked better for building an active community

Active community for who? A niche to market to?

 

[jorge1243]

Active community for who? A niche to market to?

I mean niche communities built around a topic, brand, or interest where members actually participate. The goal is engagement and retention, not just collecting members. I am interested in which platform people have seen perform better for that.

 

[T J Tutor]

There are so many message boards, but none of them really rally around a community like a true forum board. Many of the support side businesses in our industry use all the platforms, but mostly as team projects to eventually move he members of those chat cycles to their site for indoctrination. They just become a segment of their funnels.

A true community needs to be on a true community platform. We use XenForo. Some go to Discourse which gives you the look and feel of what the industry calls "infinite scroll" instead of nested forums, sub forums, and threads. Discourse can in some ways be compared to having your own Discord type platform to place in your funnel to maturate a prospective target for recruiting, selling to, or leading to landers and conversion sites.

Discord, et al, are more a form of social platform that should be used by your team along side the other social platforms to gather community members and lead them to your site.

 

[jorge1243]

There are so many message boards, but none of them really rally around a community like a true forum board. Many of the support side businesses in our industry use all the platforms, but mostly as team projects to eventually move he members of those chat cycles to their site for indoctrination. They just become a segment of their funnels.

A true community needs to be on a true community platform. We use XenForo. Some go to Discourse which gives you the look and feel of what the industry calls "infinite scroll" instead of nested forums, sub forums, and threads. Discourse can in some ways be compared to having your own Discord type platform to place in your funnel to maturate a prospective target for recruiting, selling to, or leading to landers and conversion sites.

Discord, et al, are more a form of social platform that should be used by your team along side the other social platforms to gather community members and lead them to your site.

You are right that there’s a difference between a chat platform and a real community where discussions, knowledge and relationships can grow over time
The biggest challenge I see is getting people to move from quick conversations on Telegram or Discord into a dedicated forum. Do you think forums can still attract younger audiences today, or do most people now prefer faster platforms?

 

[T J Tutor]

Do you think forums can still attract younger audiences today, or do most people now prefer faster platforms?

That is the big question forum owners and management have been asking themselves for several years now. There has been a huge dip over the last many years in forums because of social platforms of every type. This happened when FB and Twitter were in their initial years, but the memberships began to grow again. Then more, newer, social platforms came out and we saw another dip. This past year, we have started seeing a resurgence back to forums by many of those that left. In most cases, it's due to being able to do easy searches for legacy information quickly and entering a thread with new, or newer, information and to more easily get into a conversation with a more targeted entry and response(s) on a target topic.

 

[jorge1243]

That is the big question forum owners and management have been asking themselves for several years now. There has been a huge dip over the last many years in forums because of social platforms of every type. This happened when FB and Twitter were in their initial years, but the memberships began to grow again. Then more, newer, social platforms came out and we saw another dip. This past year, we have started seeing a resurgence back to forums by many of those that left. In most cases, it's due to being able to do easy searches for legacy information quickly and entering a thread with new, or newer, information and to more easily get into a conversation with a more targeted entry and response(s) on a target topic.

That makes a lot of sense. Social platforms are great for quick updates, but forums are still hard to beat when you want detailed discussions and information that's easy to find later. It will be interesting to see if more people keep coming back for that reason.

 

[T J Tutor]

It will be interesting to see if more people keep coming back for that reason.

Fingers crossed!