My daughter recently did work experience with an amateur acting group. She helped with the costumes and, at the last minute, got a cameo role because one of the actors came down with Covid. I noticed how having an audience made such a difference to the actors. And it got me thinking about a recent blog I read by Seth Godin on lurkers. I love his pithy posts. 

The post resonated with me because we’re always thinking about how to encourage the lurkers in our community to make their first post or contribute to a discussion. So I was struck by his acknowledgement that “The 95% who lurk will almost always lurk. That’s okay.”

He suggests that “The place to focus is on the 5%. Because when their persistent, consistent and generous action begins to add up, change happens. And that brings the lurkers along. It might even activate them. They’ll catch up when they need to.”

So while our active members make a wonderful contribution to the community. Our lurker audience has a role to play too.