Online communities have given new meaning to the word “lurk.”  It used to mean “to hide in preparation to attack.”  Now it means to read but not contribute online.    By some estimates, lurkers account for 90% of the readership of community sites, but 0% of the posts or comments.  Conversely, 90% of the posts come from 1% of the community.

You can conclude that the 1% that post are the most influential members of the community.  You can really see this effect on sport fan message boards.  If you want to see what the fan base is thinking, all one need to do is go to the fan base message board.  A big message board will have more good and bad information than the best sports page.  And while there are loose cannons on these fan message boards, they really can measure the temperature of a fan base. Don’t be surprised if the local sports editor is a regular lurker.

As you think about product rating websites like iTunes and Amazon, just think how that 1% can make or break a product.  If that 1% says the product is good, then it will probably sell to the 90% that lurk.

The number of people who lurk, make it vitally important to know what the 1% are saying about your product online.  We’ve seen companies totally unaware of extremely negative comments about their products. And it undoubtedly cost them sales.  We’ve heard the discussions that perhaps those disgruntled customers should just be ignored rather than risk inflating the problem.  In our view, you should have a strategy to mitigate the negative and accentuate the positive comments made in online communities.  If you don’t, you let 1% influence 90% who will, in turn, influence even more people offline.