Something To Keep in Mind
I recently learned about the 90-9-1 rule: “In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.”
So what you see online (mostly) is what 1% of the users think/feel because they contribute to the conversation, whereas 90% of people think silently or talk offline. They may or may not agree with the 1%’s postings. And 9% are posting, but we don’t know if the 1% influences them because they believe it to be the majority opinion.
I wonder if social media has impacted the efficacy of surveys because people read the 1%’s opinion before they can take in the facts and form their own thoughts. A little scary to think about how a tiny fraction of people can shape the conversation on and offline.
2 comments
Woo, I’m a thought leader!
In one of my FB groups. we’ve been around so long that we don’t have much to discuss any more. So instead of robust sharing from 20-30 people (about your 9%), we have a few of us posting memes or stuff from Ask A Manager, and one guy who posts endless nonsense. Most of the stuff he posts gets a few responses on why he’s wrong. But he’s absolutely convinced he’s never wrong even though you can watch him flip flop on issues in real time. It’s mildly entertaining.