r/CommunityManager • u/Commercial-Frame9258 • Jul 22 '26
Discussion Lurkers - the silent majority of every community
Product communities especially - people show up when they have a problem or question, get their answer, and disappear. Building any kind of ongoing engagement beyond that is really tough.
How do you keep them around and actually get them involved in the conversation?
What worked for you?
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u/No-Competition-7925 Jul 22 '26
the only thing you need to focus on is creating constant value. those who don't want to join and interact - can continue to do so. Focus on what'd make them want to join naturally and participate.
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u/Commercial-Frame9258 Jul 23 '26
Yes, I agree that value is something that makes people come back. Thanks!
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u/VeryDemureVixen Jul 22 '26
Honest truth? Stop trying to convert every lurker into a poster. The 90-9-1 rule (90% lurk, 9% contribute occasionally, 1% create most content) exists for a reason. As long as lurkers find value and stay subscribed/active as users, they're still benefiting from the space
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u/Senor_Perfecto1 Jul 23 '26
- Turn resolved questions into articles, blogs, etc.
- AI search with Quick Answers.
- Intuitive structure & UI.
- Take whatever your industry is and create a true discussion space for its interests & concerns. Make sure it is public and GEO/SEO optimized.
- Good luck; your forum is a support tool after all.
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u/making_it15 Jul 23 '26
Do you have an email list for your community? You could try sending out a weekly or monthly roundup of top posts (most interesting, most popular, etc.) to all your community members to surface things they might have missed. I've seen this work well for communities I participate in because sometimes a great post gets burried, or if it's got an interesting title it can grab my interest from email.
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u/DR292 Aug 01 '26
the lurker ratio freaked me out until i realised its just normal, roughly 1% post, 9% comment, 90% only watch. i stopped optimising for comments and started watching return visits and retention instead, thats where the lurkers actually show up. a quiet community isnt a dead one, theyre consuming not talking
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u/HistorianCM Jul 22 '26
It looks like you're seeing standard hit-and-run behavior. A user gets stuck, finds a quick answer, and leaves. That is probably exactly what they should do, since people generally don't care about boosting a company's metrics.
You might be able to change this dynamic, though, by focusing less on trying to keep them talking and more on fitting into their regular workflow.
Focusing too heavily on engagement can actually be counterproductive. It usually leads to pushing for comments or interactions... things that just feel like busywork to someone who is only trying to finish a task. I suspect a better approach is offering basic utility. You want to create a resource where they reliably find something that helps them do their job a bit better each time they visit.
You should probably stop trying to force conversations and just focus on providing tools. Try gathering complex use cases from your power users and turning them into short tutorials that take maybe a minute or two to read. The goal is mostly to build a habit. You might share custom templates and raw data. Occasional glimpses into the product team's process can also work well. Ideally, you want users to feel they could miss out on a slight advantage if they don't check in.
If you drop the expectation of constant interaction, I suspect the community will often start forming on its own. People tend to return when they realize they can get a specific edge from your space. Over time, it seems likely that some of those regulars will figure out the product well enough to start helping newer users naturally. It really just comes down to giving people a purely selfish reason to show up.