Community Strategy Insights

The latest insights on community strategy, technology, and value by FeverBee’s founder, Richard Millington

How To Treat The 90-9-1 Theory

Richard Millington
Richard Millington

Founder of FeverBee

There is a theory that states in any online community, 90% lurk, 9% participate and 1% create. There are different ways you can treat this theory…

You can treat it as a huge opportunity. Most community managers are doing a bad job if only 10% of members are engaging. You can step in and save the day.

You can treat it as a benchmark. Anything below is bad, anything above is good. Clients like benchmarks.

You can treat it as a warning. Online communities are overrated and no-body really wants to get involved.

You can treat it as a strategy. You need to focus on finding the participating 10% and growing that number.

You can treat it as a tactic. If you kick out members that don’t contribute you’ve got 0-0-100% participation. Guaranteed.

You can treat it as a multiplier. If you need at least 20 people creating content, you need to attract 2000 members. That’s a target.

You can treat it as irrelevant. It’s an aging theory based upon communities that are nothing like yours.

How do you treat it?

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