The Outdor Leisure division of Haymarket Consumer Media who administer and pay for this website and forum are a part of a large market leading commercial company, and amongst other things they publish Practical Caravan Magazine and Practical Motorhome magazines.
In common with every other commercial business or organisation, Haymarket need to reach as wide a potential customer base (or audience) as possible in order to maximise sales and also to develop and to reinforce brand loyalty.
The advent of instant mass communication has completely revolutionised the possibilities for promotion of brand awareness in recent times.
Around ten years ago internet forums and websites were the cutting edge method with which to broaden appeal, but technological advances in electronic communication mean that a relatively compact i-phone or tablet is now more multi-functional than,say, a ten year old desktop computer was in it's heyday.
The greatest innovations in peer to peer advertising and brand reinforcement in recent times have been Facebook and Twitter, and both were designed to function via i-pads, mobile phones etc which is why they are so effective as marketing tools.
A commuter on a bus or a train may well switch on their i-phone to have a look at their Facebook profile (or page) or perhaps look at their Twitter account while they are travelling to and from work, they don't want to be involved in long detailed discussions but they may switch to Practical Caravan on Facebook to ask a quick question or to post a photo which is also on their i-phone, or just to provide a one line opinion.
This more recent technology does not mean that we on this forum are under threat or doomed, we fulfill a completely different but equally valid function to Facebook or Twitter, but it does mean that Haymarket use more than one internet resource in order to increase customer awareness and brand loyalty.
It's true that this forum has been quiet in comparison to other caravan related internet forums, and in some respects we've lost ground to Facebook.
The forum 'upgrade' which took place around three years ago cost us some members who found the interface difficult to use, and continuing issues with Internet Explorer and the problems that arose because of the anti spam software have also seen potential members go elsewhere.
In the past few weeks I've been given the tools with which to upgrade the status of forum members so that they are no longer required to complete the annoying letters and numbers 'captcha' box whenever they submit a forum post.
I was unaware of this problem until forumites contacted me for help, some had been completing the 'captcha' box for ages without saying a word!
I've been quietly working in the background for a few weeks to upgrade every bona fide forum account, including the new members, so that no one has to complete this word verification process.
I've also been conducting a private war against spammers (which I'm winning!) whereby I'm blockng them before they get the chance to cause problems, the unseen spammers have meant that this website was damaged in terms of Google rankings.
Thanks to everyone who contacts me via email when a spam post makes it onto the message boards, but please be assured that for every spam post that appears there are many more that are blocked or deleted by other means.
It's true that Practical Caravan editorial staff often interact with Facebook users, there are several reasons for this, not least because of the advertising potential of FB and Twitter which help Practical Caravan to continue to be a market leader thus securing the employees future prospects.
Community Editor Stacie Pardoe often has a look on this forum for good pictures for inclusion in the magazine with a chance to win a prize, and she also contacts those of us with interesting points or stories from forum posts which are included in the readers letters.
One or two forum members have won prizes in recent months thanks to Stacie, myself included, and if she doesn't post very often this is because she is a busy young mother who works part time with not a lot of time to spare because of tight deadlines for articles and arranging her trips which she juggles with family life.
It has to be said that on occasion new and somewhat nervous Practical Caravan editorial staff have posted on this forum, only to receive responses that have seemed a bit robust or not very friendly, so perhaps we could all play our part in being a bit more welcoming to the editorial staff whenever they venture onto the forum even if we don't always share their point of view ( about FB for example
)
It's good that Practical Caravan on Facebook draw some inspiration from forum posts, and of course I never miss an opportunity to draw attention to this forum on FB, so that if some detailed technical information is required this forum is the first port of call.
Facebook
Twitter