vBulletin and Invision Power Board bout provide integrated blogging for your forum users. Providing blog has become a matter of debate and many forum owners never had success with blogging on their community sites. Does that mean blogging should not be a part of Forum Social Network? If you ask me I would say without a blog, your forum is in-complete.
First of all, the forum owners should start their own blog by using it as a informational tool. Inform your members about the new features, functions you have added to your forum board. This will attract your members to visit your blogging segment.
Integrate your blog posts at the forum intrinsically. It can be by way of modification to forum post, member profile, a simple forum thread pointing to blog, or it can be your signatures and email campaigns.
There are times when a member had an earnest desire to write something very personal, and not want it to be discussed or get lost in the other threads. Here comes the Blog. It gives them their own space to post about and post ideas.
Blogging though has a disadvantage as many members who cannot differentiate between the blog and forum, ends up asking questions at the blog which is actually not the right place. My suggestion would be to put most of the blog post to moderation initially and by use of moderation you frame the rules and set example by telling what blog of your community is for!
Many a times comments to blog also end up becoming a question which a user must have asked at the forum.
If you can moderate and put dedicated efforts in your blogging segment, surely it is going to be a great asset to your community participation and wealth of information and views.
Good Luck!
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