Admin Corner

I just returned from an annual conference of Forum Admins.  There were about 40 companies represented, so I got to see lots of great ideas in action.  I also got a sneak peak at the future of our software platform. More on that in a minute, but first...

 Forum Factoids:

• Member Communities on the internet are now more popular than email! (Forrester Research)
  
• At any given time, 90% of forum visitors don't post, 9% post once or twice, and 1% provide most of the content. But... 50% of a forum's visitors will post sometime!

Fabulous Forums:

I got to see some great examples of what you can do in a forum with a little creativity. To see what I mean, take a look at the Barnes and Noble Book Clubs -- one of the coolest clubs is Mashups!

The Future:

OK.  What's coming down the pike? Over the next year, you will see many changes and new features on our forum. A few that I especially liked were:

•  Improved search - better display of results and a series of filters to narrow down your results.
• Tribal Knowledge Base - users who promote topics to a formal knowledge base or edit an article get credit for their efforts and rise through the forum ranks.
• Twitter Integration - a widget in the right column will feature a feed of tweets relevant to the displayed topic. Users can respond right from the forum page, link their response to a post, or convert a tweet directly to a forum post!

When the USPS changes the postage rates, just about everyone with a Pitney Bowes mailing system has to do something to update.  That makes the rate change a very big deal at Pitney Bowes. In fact, one of the motives for creating the user forum a year ago was to provide another channel for support during this crucial period.  Lots of people asked questions and a lot more read the answers. On average, each message was viewed 750 times!

Many people are finding answers on the forum again this year. How to Update Postage Rates on Your PB Equipment was viewed over 52,000 times before Jeremy updated it with this new post: Answers to your most common questions.  If you're looking for Rate Change help, that's a great place to start.

Here are some other tips for finding your answers:

• Use the "Search" tool at the top of  the Home Page. Chances are good that someone else has already asked your question and found the answer.
• Look for the "Solved" icon  - it means that the solution to the problem has been shown to work.
• Try clicking a tag related to your issue. The tag cloud is at the bottom of the home page and in the right column of every discussion board.

You can find more information on PB.com. Try:

• Rate Change Central - the hub for update instructions for your specific equipment
• Our Postal Information Site - a wealth of general information about postal rates and regulations.