Lurkers, Listeners & the Amplification Factor

Bryan Person pointed me to Kyle Flaherty, who has a good post based on a conversation ignited by Jackie Huba of Church of the Customer Blog and Society for Word of Mouth in relation to stats that say 90% of folks involved in your social media activity are "lurkers" and a mere 10% are active participants. Kyle's view is that it is more accurate to call them "listeners" than lurkers and, in any case they should not be overlooked.

I agree with all of that. Whether or not, the number is accurate is not that mportant to me. What is important is that every time you post something in social media--on a blog, or in Twitter, Friendfeed or FaceBook, you should imagine that ten times that number have read or watch what you said and share the view being expressed, whether that view is negative or positive.

There are exceptions of course. Buty when you do the 10X calculation, you start understanding that those 4 comments you received are a sampling of maybe 40 readers & watchers.

Like Kyle, I'm not that fond of the term "lurkers." We all read and watch and move on. We do it all the time and I'd be surprised that very many of us comment on 10% of what we read, hear or see in social media. When we do, it's often because we either feel strongly about a post or think we can add value to the conversation.I would guess for every time you post there are ten more people who share your view.

I call this the "Amplification Factor." Think about it next time someone comments n what you have posted.

Comments

[Amrita Chandra]

Shel,

This is a good point, especially for those who are focused solely on the numbers they can track, vs. the numbers who may read or talk about your blog/site to others. It is like a magazine in a waiting room -- one subscription perhaps but many readers.

BTW, I love your About Me page. :)

--Amrita (@tinkugallery on Twitter)

[Ben LeBlond]

Yes "lurkers" is a term used to express the lack of control of the lurkee. Whereas that same person is the one that exposed him/herself to be listened to in the first place (whether motivated by narcissism or not is a whole different question).

It's like a "message in a bottle", we throw it in the sea not only to express feelings/views but in hope that someone will intercept it and make something of it. How about letting go of control and show some optimism? :)

[Matthew Brazil]

Great post and something I talk about with clients on a regular basis. The term listeners fits the bill perfectly.

You can categorize listeners into
1) Reactive listeners - those that watch and read all that you write (adding to the 10x amplification) but only comment when the content hits a nerve.

2) Proactive listeners - those that comment on as much as possible for varying reasons (self promotion, genuine interest, something to give etc)

Thanks

[Kyle]

Hi Shel and thanks for reading (and thanks to Bryan). In our social media activities we are working with a community that is very niche and very comfortable listening for a long time before any type of action. We do a lot of writing and activities (videos, etc) based on that knowledge...and eventually we see the result; a stronger and more engaged community.

Kyle
@kyleflaherty

[Jeremiah Owyang]

Forrester prefers the term "Spectators" vs "Lurkder".

When you think about those at a game, spectators (while not playing the game) can be highly engaged.

[Erik Giberti]

I've heard something similar from an old employer -describing the impact of negative feedback. It takes ten happy customers to negate a single bad one. I wonder if this could be proven/disproven through more research to measure the impact of listeners perceptions over time. It seems to me it's right up the alley for you and Scoble to explore for the next iteration of Naked Conversations.

[Alanna]

I had noticed from my blog stats that I get one comment for every 10-20 visitors. Interesting that I am apparently completely normal. I agree with disliking the term "lurker" - you don't necessarily have something pithy to say about every interesting article you read.

[Ari Herzog]

This reminds me of something a high school teacher once told me that went something like, "Every time you raise your hand to ask a question in class, there are nine other people who wanted to ask that question but were either shy or thought the question was silly."

I asked, and continue to ask, many questions. This adds to my belief (that never fails) that I learn a new thing every day.

[frank]

I love the term spectators vs. lurkers. No one wants to be called a lurker!

--
http://twitter.com/franswaa

[Deeps]

I say lurker, You say listener, Any which way, I like-er.

Just a silly ditty made up on spur of the moment to say, Ddeeps was here :)