There are around 1.1 billion Internet users. 55 million people (5 percent) have blogs but only 0.1 percent of users post on a daily basis.
The participation gap
In most online communities, 90 percent of users are “lurkers” who never contribute, 9 percent of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account generate most of the dialogue – with blogs, the rule is more like 95-4.9-0.1.
Are there ways to overcome this participation inequality?
The short answer is no.
Liz Strauss outlined ten reasons why readers don’t leave comments, which, incidentally, has 503 comments.
The first step to dealing with participation inequality is to recognise that it will always exist.
The only thing that you can change is the level of inequality- are you going to have the typical 90-9-1 distribution, or can you encourage a positively lively 80-15-5?
Changing lurkers into contributors
Some lurkers are happy to sit on the sidelines and watch the blogs go by. For those of you who are thinking about taking the plunge into the blogosphere, here are some words of encouragement to help you venture out of the lurker closet.
- Participating can help you get promote yourself in a non-aggressive, non-obtrusive way. When you leave a comment, don’t be afraid to link back to your website, blog, Facebook or Twitter- each one is another way for customers to find you.
- Writing well-placed comments with interesting ideas can help you build a reputation as an expert.
- Consistently adding comments to a blog will attract attention and may lead to a link in the blogroll (the list of top commenters on the sidebar).
- Bloggers appreciate comments…even negative ones…
- …Negative comments are not always bad for blogs. Just try to be constructive and be prepared for the blogger to reply!
- Don’t be self conscious! Not all comments will generate meaningful discussion, but that shouldn’t put you off.
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Here’s my comment
I’m curious – why is daily posting cosidered a meaningful measurement for participation? A post every day is a lot!
Many blogs publish 2-3 times a week and can be considered “lively” with steady commenters and good traffic.
I think one of the nice things about blogs is that they are not a newspaper that has to publish no matter what, but rather like a friend who shares interesting information or thoughts as they come.
Hi Einat. It’s a common idea that you have to post every day. Certainly, I find my traffic increases when I do and I suspect that this increased attention drives more comments. However, regularity is more important than frequency in my experience. Matthew
Increased traffic means that more people read each post or that overall traffic increases?
It really depends on the goals you set for your blog, but if you’re not looking to generate traffic for its own sake I think quality is most important and after that, regularity. Some bloggers I know write a post anywhere between 2 weeks and 2 months and still get tons of comments because the content is so engaging.
Maybe they don’t generate as much traffic as others, but they certainly engage their audience.
Hi – an interesting and useful post, thank you. I work for one of the largest PR firms in the world, and as our clients are increasingly trying to engage with consumers in the digital environment, a lot of the work I end up doing involves tracking down influential bloggers, with good blogs. There are no definitive flags, but regular posting and meaningful commenting are two of the signs we look for when seeking out key opinion leaders. I think the same signs are good indicators for brand and corporate blogs. I love the http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/ guidebook for twitter, and I think many brands would benefit from a similar set of guidance for blogging.
Hi CY. Thank you for your comment.
There is The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging – I might add it to my list of “Think Week” books…
As only 0.1 percent of bloggers blogging on a daily basis and only 0.1 percent of readers actively commenting, there is (literally!) a one in a million chance of generating daily discussion on your blog.
Of course, active participation is not always useful conversation. Engadget disabled comments on its posts after its Apple-centric iPad coverage in February received “trollish” comments from its users. Disabling comments, of course, had the effect of igniting a lot of discussion!
Is there a fine line for corporate blogs between directing the conversation to spark discussion versus pushing an agenda that can leave sites open to unnecessarily harsh comments? Laura
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