On the importance of “Lurking”
On the interwebs, a lurker is a user who reads and observes conversations and activities on forums or social networks but does not participate actively – contributing content, commenting or discussing. According to the 90-9-1 thumb rule of the internet, 90% of internet users are lurkers, 9% participate moderately and 1% contribute with the most content on the internet. There are whole pages dedicated to insights and statistics on how to motivate lurkers to participate, how to target them and who they are.
But I’m not going to go into that. Lurking is good! It is crucial when entering a new group. Newbies in any community are usually invited to present themselves or add profile information and then just “lurk” for a while to get a feel of how the community works. That is to avoid redundancies, inappropriate comments or bad manners.
This works well if you think of the party metaphor. Imagine a social media community is a party – you can join in anytime, but you don’t barge in on a vegan cook-out and start yelling about “that tofu thing” you heard of.
You introduce yourself and take a seat somewhere on the sideline and listen in on the conversation. Get to know the topics of interest, the etiquette, specific rules, do’s and don’ts and generally what is helpful and what is not.
There are lots of rules and guidelines on how to interact in online communities. But none of these can ever exhaust the specific traits and dubious habits of every community and platform. And no theoretic reading can match personal experience. And this is especially important if you represent a company or organisation. Maybe it is cheaper and less time consuming to spam your salespitch anonymously on forums, like many companies do – but those users aren’t oblivious, even if they don’t voice their opinion, they can tell a community member from a salesman. And they will not buy it. This is what companies can use social platforms for – becoming a responsible member of society, not selling.
So whenever entering a new discussion board, forum, site or blog – take your time, read, observe and enjoy from the shadows. See what jokes go around, what attitude is frowned upon, read the comments, get to know the 1% of top-contributers and then start posting. Take a week, maybe two.
Or maybe, just to be sure, take a month.
So it is that on 4chan – a place full of wisdom for young communication specialists – I have aquired one of the few rules I stick to in online interactions – lurk moar. Being one of the few things I am sure of, I wanted to share with you. So, happy lurking!
