Well, are Off Topic Posts Ever Okay?
Do you think that off topic posts are ever okay? Does anyone else think they are? Surprisingly, yes. They can often be a lot more than okay.
Even the most literal-minded among us rarely remain perfectly on message all the time. It’s so hard to express yourself quite so linearly.
It just plain is not how we interact with our fellow human beings.
Most conversations meander; otherwise, they become dull. And there are just so many ways one can talk about the fact that there’s a 40% chance of rain over the weekend. This is the case even if you’re speaking at a Meteorologists’ Convention.
For example, even very specific TV programs, such as This Week in Baseball or This Old House will jump around.
Our human attention spans aren’t what they used to be. But there’s more to it than just that. It’s also about creating a memorable presentation. A little memorable off-topic talking can save an otherwise limited conversation.
Communities Have Off Topic Posts All the Time
The same is true with communities, even those started and run by corporations. You make and promote conversations. Because no one is writing scholarly papers. Or advertising copy. Seriously, put down the company’s vision statement and step away.
Picture this: you’ve just started a forum, with a modest group of users. But after only one or two topics, or five or so posts, they leave. Now, there will always be people who join a forum for one small, specific purpose and then depart.
In addition, you will always have a healthy percentage (it can even be a good 90%!) of lurkers, no matter what you do.
They are a part of every community, and they are a sign of health. So don’t worry about them!
But right now, your issue is that there’s no traction. Users come in quickly, may or may not get satisfaction, and then they just… disappear. And because they are not engaging with one another, there isn’t enough momentum to create cohesion among them.
And no one misses them or asks about them.
A healthy number of off topic posts, in all seriousness, is a way for a community to grow. Sorry, not sorry, corporate overlords.
Off Topic Posts Tend to Help More Than They Harm
Here’s where some targeted off-subject conversations can work. Let us assume that your forum is about water softening. It may seem to be an esoteric topic. You probably won’t get people too emotionally engaged.
Most will come in looking for a dealer, a part, a catalog or some quick advice.
But there are targeted, related topics you can try. Your users are virtually all homeowners (some may be landlords or superintendents), so which topics do homeowners typically discuss?
There’s mortgages, appliances, pest control, repairs, landscaping, and purchases and sales, for starters.
The landlords in your community will inevitably have tenancy issues. Expand what you consider to be on topic to some of these areas by adding a few feeler topics such as these.
Humor as One Way to Address a Surfeit of Off Topic Posts
Consider humor as a way to counter an off topic onslaught.
But humor can fall flat, and it is easy to misinterpret. In addition, people from different countries, religions and cultures will find disparate things amusing (or offensive). Hence there are risks involved.
However, in the water softening forum example, you can offer a topic on, say, a humorous battle or competition where the course is changed (the tide is turned, perhaps) on the presence of softened versus hard water.
Absurd humor does seem to work better than other types (and it may have a longer shelf life), so this kind of topic can offer a little less risk.
Recognition
Another tactic: begin recognizing great topics, posts and answers. Promote people who draw in more users – you can spot them fairly quickly. This can take the form of badges, up votes, sticky topics and special user titles.
Mail them company swag if the budget allows (tee shirts, baseball and trucker caps, note pads, branded flash drives, whatever you’ve got).
Give these people a little more leeway than most when they do go off message. Keeping these ‘superstar users’ happy can pay dividends.
Corporate may want you to stay on message all the time, but that’s simply not realistic as it ignores normal human interactions. Furthermore, it tends to drive away users as they only hang around for the length of a few topics.
But give your users more topic leeway, and they will be more inclined to stay and become customers – a trade-off that any Marketing Department should embrace with ardor.
But Off Topic Posts Might Not Be So Great for SEO
Oh, well.
SEO tends to reward directness better than nearly anything else. This is particularly true about LLM SEO (that is, search engine optimization done for the purpose of attracting mentions by AI).
While forums are conversations, SEO is more about serving people who specifically want answers. Amy from Illinois just wants her water softening question answered.
She doesn’t want to hear about Louie from Hong Kong’s time in the Army.
So, recognize that there should be some topics which you should try harder to defend from an onslaught of off-topic sludge.
If there’s a good, on point give and take, and it’s still actively going on, then don’t let it be overrun by the off-topic stuff until you just can’t hold back the tide any longer.
Because too many off topic posts are going to bite your SEO efforts where it hurts the most.
An interesting discussion about this very subject is on Xenforo.
Want More About Community Management?
If my experiences with community management resonate with you, then check out my other blog posts about how online communities work. These are some posts about my years in community management, and what I’ve learned.
• A Day in the Life of a Community Manager
† Analytics
• Going From a Collection of Users to a True Community
† Risks of a Community Without Management
• Are Off Topic Posts Ever Okay?
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