I have to admit I’m not completely familiar with forums. I suppose comment pages could be counted as a kind of forum so I definitely am active on the televisionwithoutpity.com forum. I love all of the clever things people from around the world have to say about things (and I’m a television junkie).
I definitely see forums as more of an outlet for customers, loyal or infrequent, to gather and talk about your store, product, or website. I see it as more of a customer service opportunity than advertising or marketing. I think it would be a very smart move for any company to include a small forum on their main site (that is monitored of course) for customers to get questions answered, find great deals, rant about customer service issues, etc. Now that I think about it I did see a forum once that was dedicated to Black Friday. Contributors (mostly women) would find mentions of deals that would be going on, people were forming friendships and shopping buddies for that day, and they were planning their means attack on the various stores. Forums are definitely something I’d like to check out in the future on various subjects that I’m interested in. I would love to get other people’s perspectives on things that I am passionate about.
Social Media Scoop! 
Yes, comment pages are forums. I think the important thing to understand from this chapter is that if people are going to be talking about your organization, don’t you want them to be doing it on your site — and don’t you want to be a part of it? But some would say: “what if people are saying bad stuff, this will be bad!” No, you can help direct people to where they can get their problem solved, that’s not bad. Anyway, understanding the power of your audience-members talking directly to and between one another — that’s the important thing to remember here.