Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn: Why Do So Few People Actively Participate Upon Social Media?

Whether it's that old friend on Facebook from your school days, or that ex-colleague on LinkedIn from way back, some people seem to hog your social media timeline with memes, sayings, and photos from yesteryear.  And with social media platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, common across a range of mobile devices, and online activity seemingly so central to many people's lives, it seems rather ironic to be asking why so few people actually participate. In this article, I am going to discuss whether the "1% rule" still applies to levels of participation on social media and ask whether there is anything we can do about it?

The 1% Rule

In a seminal article at the time in 2006, the influential writer on technological matters, Jakob Nielsen, proposed that in most online communities, 90% of the users 'lurk' or don't participate, 9% participate to a limited extent, whereas 1% account for almost all of the activity. You may be able to judge for yourself whether this so-called '90-9-1 rule', or '1% rule', has any validity from the social media platforms of which you are a part, whether Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.  It is often the case that participation, in terms of posts, comments, or videos, is seemingly provided by a relatively low percentage of your total friends, followers, or contacts, which anecdotally supports Nielsen's thesis.

Participant Inequality

Nielsen referred to this phenomenon as 'participant inequality' and he partly based his findings on some prior research relating to activity on earlier platforms that pre-dated the World Wide Web, such as Usenet and CompuServe bulletin boards. Nielsen's 90-9-1 rule also reflects the Pareto principle - more commonly known as the '80:20 rule' or the 'law of the vital few' - which suggests that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. If we apply the Pareto principle to sales, we might see that 80% of our sales came from 20% of our customers; and if we apply it to social media, then 80% of activity would be accounted for by a minority of 20% of the users. 

The BBC Research: "The Participation Choice"

More recent research in 2012 by the BBC suggested that 77% of users are active in some way and they defined participation as creating or contributing content for others to see, whether that is a blog post or a Facebook update. The 77% identified by the BBC is analogous to the 10% (9+1) proposed by Nielsen. Inevitably some critics have questioned the reliability of the BBC's data in terms of the validity of the sample and its applicability to social media audiences beyond the UK, but it is worth examining and could represent a step-change in levels of online participation.

The 77% identified by the BBC was further sub-divided into 17% who are intensely active and 60% contributing to what they call 'easy' participation: while the former would be busy creating a wide array of content, from blogs to videos, the latter will be adding something that generates less risk, such as the occasional video sharing of the antics of a cat, or the rating of a product bought on Amazon. Of crucial significance is a large number of users who initiate further participation in response to what they have posted. But it is important to note that within this research 23% are still passive, whether they are consciously choosing not to participate or because they are digitally illiterate.

Why the change in participation?

The BBC researchers also suggested that the increase in participation is due to several factors:

• The greater availability of Internet access;
• Multiple devices: tablets, smartphones, laptops, etc.;
• A multitude of platforms simplifying participation: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.;
• Greater cultural acceptance of online lives - social media as a norm of everyday living.

Caution in updating the 1% rule

While accepting the valid criticisms of the BBC data, there is no doubt that some kind of step-change in the level of participation has occurred, even if we choose to split hairs about what that precise percentage might be. Changes in technology, in terms of devices and platforms, would seem to have enabled greater levels of participation in less than a decade. Caution, however, is required around the precise definition of participation applied, but even with the BBC data we can still see that 83% of users reflect a very low level of involvement, whereas only 17% account for the majority of activity. While Nielsen never claimed that the 90-9-1 rule was meant to be an exact ratio, it still has some relevance, albeit it needs qualification - and as it currently stands, the Pareto principle also seemingly offers a relevant analysis of participant inequality.

Does participant inequality matter?

Yes, as Nielsen makes clear. If from any online community you are only hearing the voice of a small and vocal minority - with the majority of lurkers remaining silent - this has profound consequences for both business and a number of other organizations and activities:

• Customer feedback may be unrepresentative.
• Reviews of products or services are likewise from a minority of customers.
• Online political viewpoints may be skewed by a vocal group of activists.
• Search engine page results may reflect the linking of pages generated by the minority, not the majority.
• 'Signal-to-noise' ratio - with so many posts and comments, users increasingly find it hard to differentiate the good quality from the poor.

So what can we do about it?

Nielsen was rather pessimistic about increasing participation, but the greater diffusion of technology has heightened levels of participation to some extent. He has, however, made some suggestions that still retain their relevance, whether you are a webmaster or the curator of some kind of online community:

• Simplify participation - such as the NetFlix star rating system after watching a movie.
• Participation as a side effect - Amazon, for example, applies a algorithm that generates a list of "people who bought this book, bought these other books", which is triggered by your purchases, but requires no active participation from the user.
• Edit, don't create - the greater availability of easy-to-use templates by platforms such as WordPress, have enabled far larger numbers of people to embrace participation than previously, by allowing them to edit a recommended structure, rather than feel they are starting from scratch.
• Reward Participation - this doesn't have to be monetary, think about the eBay rating system that sees users rise up the ranks as their participation increases.
• Promote quality contributors - reduce the 'noise' by highlighting and promoting the quality contributors that enhance the content within your community.

Why do so few people participate on social media?

While things have certainly changed since Nielsen's influential article in 2006, the nature of that participation has also evolved. Many more users now participate in what the BBC call an 'easy' way, in which their activity is either a by-product of other actions, or they contribute to an aggregated measure, such as a NetFlix movie rating. Whether you subscribe to Nielsen's original 1%, or or to the BBC's recent updating to 17%, it still remains clear that, while significant numbers of people may be registered with social networks, only a small minority intensely participate in terms of actively creating content. The numbers of active users has grown considerably in absolute terms, the continuing fact of participant inequality, however, has significant implications for social media strategy, digital marketing, and a range of other online activities dependent upon user generated content.

Will Trevor is Faculty Program Director for Marketing at Excelsior College

Disclaimer:

Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not represent the views or opinions of my employer.

This article was previously published here.

Picture Credits:

(1) Title Image: Candle Time By Henti Smith: https://flic.kr/p/asTDXx (Creative Commons)

(2) Participant Inequality image from the 2006 article by Jakob Nielsen, "The 90-9-1 Rule for Participation Inequality in Social Media and Online Communities" https://www.nngroup.com/articles/participation-inequality/

(3) 'Participation Choice' image from the 2012 BBC article, "BBC Online Briefing Spring 2012: The Participation Choice", by Holly Goodier, https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/bbcinternet/2012/05/bbc_online_briefing_spring_201_1.html