Online communities are an integral part of any cohesive membership organisation. An active community expands reach to prospects, invokes a sense of belonging in existing members, and can even make USPs all the more compelling. In a recent podcast, discussion of the 90-9-1 rule highlighted a major challenge of online communities. The majority of users don’t actively participate.
In this article, we’ll look at how low participation harms organisations, and strategies to activate more members.
The Risk of Passive Participation
Passive participation might seem harmless but it certainly poses risks. It’s often the result of low engagement, which in turn leads to poor retention, poor ROI, and weaker communities. Studies show that actively engaged members are 12% more likely to renew their memberships compared to lurkers.
Lurkers are users who never participate. On average, these are the overwhelming majority (90%) of any given community. Occasional participants consist of 9%, and highly engaged members make up just one 1%; hence the 90-9-1 rule. With the right strategies, membership organisations could stand to gain a lot more renewals from 99% of their memberbase.
Strategies to Activate Lurkers
Improving member participation requires strategies that address the issue of low engagement head on. These include: Personalised Onboarding Journeys, Gamification and Micro-Engagement.
Personalised Onboarding Journeys
First impressions set the tone. When new members instantly feel seen, valued and appreciated, chances are they’ll want to interact with the organisation. A welcome email (with personalised CTAs) shows new members that your organisation is attentive and warm.
“First 30 Day” checklists or walkthroughs orient members much quicker too; which means they can contribute to the community sooner. Lastly, send personal invitations to groups, events and forums that are relevant to new members’ interests and preferences.
Gamification
Gamification remains one of the most effective methods of engagement as it answers our natural desire to play, compete, and to be entertained. In a word, gamification makes interacting “rewarding”. Plus, it further lowers barriers to participation by tapping into recognition and social proof.
Badges, points and leaderboards validate members’ efforts for contributing on posts, attending events, and interacting on forums. “Member spotlights” build on that even more when active participants feature in newsletters.
Micro-Engagement
Many lurkers hesitate because participating feels like a big step. Small asks reduce that pressure to engage. Soon after onboarding, once the member has had a chance to settle in, incentivise and recognise even small small contributions, such as onboarding feedback.
Eventually, your “low lift” actions can ask slightly more from members. Overall organisational feedback and surveys, event participation, content contributions all contribute in building confidence that shift lurkers to active participants. Eventually, you may have an advocate that refers other members.
How to Identify Lurkers
Use data. Signals to track include members with high page views but low posting rates. Similarly, members who open newsletters but don’t click through, or fail to attend an event they registered for, or didn’t even sign up to.
All these signals should help you identify all the common behaviours of lurkers: logging in, reading emails, browsing resources but never posting, commenting or attending events.
Tools to Use & How to Incentivise Lurkers
Use software like CRMs or more specialised loyalty and engagement software. These should come with dashboards and reports that identify the “silent” members. Once identified, nudge them with personalised prompts, recommendations, and invite them to participate in gamified experiences and low lift actions.
Lurkers are Untapped Potential
Perhaps “lurkers” is the wrong way to see these members. Instead, see them as untapped potential. But the majority is silent for a reason. Either through a lack of direction, interest or confidence. Personalised onboarding, gamification and micro-engagement address these negative sentiments head-on.
Propello offers a range of tools to help drive new member acquisition, increase brand loyalty, boost member retention and improve the experience for your members.
Contact us to learn more.
Leave A Comment