Comments on: Don’t discount the lurkers in your community http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009/06/14/dont-discount-the-lurkers-in-your-community/ Angela Connor on Growing Successful Online Communities Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:04:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Take this community manager survey and you could win a copy of my book « Online Community Strategist http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009/06/14/dont-discount-the-lurkers-in-your-community/#comment-2283 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:09:41 +0000 http://blog.angelaconnor.com/?p=1238#comment-2283 [...] of questions from dealing with irrational troublemakers to methods for recruiting new members and luring lurkers into becoming active participants. I answer them all. The private exchanges are great, but those [...]

]]> By: Sonny Gill http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009/06/14/dont-discount-the-lurkers-in-your-community/#comment-1683 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:06:37 +0000 http://blog.angelaconnor.com/?p=1238#comment-1683 @Lisa – Bryan and I host #CmtyChat every Friday at 1pm Eastern. We talk on the business of online communities and ask specific questions for the community each week. We’d love for you to join us this Friday :)

Shoot me an email via my site if you have any questions!

]]> By: Angela Connor http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009/06/14/dont-discount-the-lurkers-in-your-community/#comment-1682 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:09:59 +0000 http://blog.angelaconnor.com/?p=1238#comment-1682 Hi there Lisa:
i want to know more about this banking community. Sounds intriguing. Listen, if you are able to join #cmtychat on Friday at 1, you should. Just go to tweetchat.com and log in, and enter that #cmtychat hashtag. I’m glad to hear your thoughts on lurkers because I too believe they are beneficial. Sometimes members can create more nightmares than anyone else. I have some ideas about moving lurkers to active members. Let’s talk offline. I’ll send you an email. Thanks for the comment.

]]> By: Lisa Randolph http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009/06/14/dont-discount-the-lurkers-in-your-community/#comment-1679 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:58:39 +0000 http://blog.angelaconnor.com/?p=1238#comment-1679 I’ve never heard of #CmtyChat, but I’m interested in learning more about it. I’m the Community Manager for a social site for bankers, and am interested in networking with other community managers to learn how to better grow our community.

Oh, and my two sense on lurkers are that they’re actually quite beneficial. On several occasions I’ve run into someone that refers people to our site and can recall a few hot topics discussed on our site, though I’ve never seen them post in our community. Any suggestions on the best solution to move them from lurker to active member?

Definitely glad I saw this post!

]]> By: Chris Bailey http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009/06/14/dont-discount-the-lurkers-in-your-community/#comment-1676 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:56:49 +0000 http://blog.angelaconnor.com/?p=1238#comment-1676 I remember an argument I once had with a colleague whose expertise is in online security. He claimed that lurkers were “bad” because they weren’t openly declaring their intentions to the community. They were…”lurking.” What the exchange drove home to me is that we really need to coin a new term for these folks. Lurking does have a bit of a bad connotation to it and new folks exploring our space might not care for the label. Ideas? I like browsers, but it gets caught up in the apps like IE.

I also like your ideas for creating low barriers for entry. Once in the space, give a “browser” a chance to explore the social norms of the community. What we find is that one reason why people browse is that they don’t want to look “stupid” in public. So we need to give them ways to play safely at first so they can get a feel for their environment. With confidence, they’ll become more comfortable and contribute to their community more.

]]> By: Angela Connor http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009/06/14/dont-discount-the-lurkers-in-your-community/#comment-1674 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:53:35 +0000 http://blog.angelaconnor.com/?p=1238#comment-1674 Thank YOU Sonny, for the commitment to providing a weekly platform. I know it will continue to gain popularity I am happy to support your efforts. It is going to become bigger than you could imagine. Just watch. Until Friday….

]]> By: Angela Connor http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009/06/14/dont-discount-the-lurkers-in-your-community/#comment-1673 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:52:05 +0000 http://blog.angelaconnor.com/?p=1238#comment-1673 Bryan: I was thrilled to be there. I did mention a low barrier to entry during the chat. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have a place to share with like-minded people. What we do is still so new and there is no “one-way” to do it. I’ll see you next Friday. :-)

]]> By: Sonny Gill http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009/06/14/dont-discount-the-lurkers-in-your-community/#comment-1672 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:59:15 +0000 http://blog.angelaconnor.com/?p=1238#comment-1672 As Bryan said, we’re definitely excited to have such a huge community evangelist on the #CmtyChats.

You make a good point here. I’ve always had the same sentiment towards actual community members and taking care of those that may not be as active as some of the more prominent members, but taking that further to people who aren’t members yet is something that CMs definitely need to keep in mind if they’re looking to further grow their community.

Thanks for this, Angela!

]]> By: Bryan Person http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009/06/14/dont-discount-the-lurkers-in-your-community/#comment-1671 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:34:37 +0000 http://blog.angelaconnor.com/?p=1238#comment-1671 Angela:

We were thrilled to have you as part of #CmtyChat again last Friday. One of the ideas we discussed–and might have been raised by you?–was having a low enough barrier to entry to the community to give those lurkers an easy way to get involved in discussions. It might be a poll or a microblogging-like functionality, but it should be a communication form that a new member won’t be intimidated by. As time goes on and those newbies gain some more courage, they’ll start to create longer-form content.

Hope to “see” you again on Friday!

Bryan | @BryanPerson
LiveWorld

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