Lurker (stalker in English) is the name given to virtual community participants who have only receptive activity, without actively contributing by contributing files, writing in discussion groups, etc.
Not only in the virtual world there are 'lurkers'. They exist in all communities. In the real world, those who do not participate in public life publicly (1), but have the right to vote (or could have), are often called 'the silent majority' or 'the invisible majority'. Some are so quiet that they won't even vote when it's their turn. They are very important in Political Marketing. Easily 'the silent majority' - in many countries - could decide the outcome of an election. They do not do it. They do not join. They are not expressed. They are not motivated.
Something similar happens in the virtual world, although somehow the 'lurkers' identify themselves precisely by participating in a virtual community. With that single piece of information, marketers have to guess their preferences, guess their tastes, intuit their motivations. It's roughly easy. For example, we have 'lurkers' in a community of cat friends and 'lurkers' followers of a football club, like Barça. It is not difficult to understand that cat food and vitamins are not to be offered to the fans of the best team in the world. But, which brand of car do they prefer? Or which colony? How do you know if they are vegetarian or carnivore? Apart from cats or goals, with what other topic can we reach each group?
Because that's what it's about. To convince them and to sell them our ointment or our idea or our candidate. And if they don't say a peep, how do you know their preferences?
All companies are entering a war for the best positioning. Some, still from the prehistory of when the Internet did not exist, want to position themselves in the minds of as many audiences as possible. These companies believe in general, mass advertising and spend millions on junk ads on TV, newspapers and magazines, billboards (panels) on public roads, whatever, the question is' have a presence ',' be seen ',' which something is always remembered. ' ("Don't you believe me? Well, look at Coca Cola, how it has managed to position itself in everyone's mind"). That kind of troglodyte company has no future. They ignore that it is not possible to position themselves in everyone's mind, because that mind is already occupied by about 200 brands and displacing one of them has a cost much higher than the benefits and a very slow ROI,if he can recoup the investment.
There are other more agile companies that seek positioning by segmentation of their market and try to be present in the mind of their target, with diversified strategies for each target. Complex and difficult task, although starting from a good study of the Real Market (current clients) we can know their motivations and by extrapolation those of our potential market in an analogous segment. (Put plainly, if Pepito is my client and Jorgito is his competition, Jorgito can be my client and I can assume that the purchase motivations of both are similar).
An ABC Analysis -for example- would allow me to separate my Real Market into three large areas: A, B and C, with which I can study a different strategy for each area. An additional complication is maintaining the imaging unit in order to achieve synergy in our communications. The solution, as my kind reader or kind reader may have already guessed, is to apply the techniques of Direct Marketing (Direct Advertising) and its derivatives such as CRM, MK 101, Relational MK, etc.
In both cases we are NOT faithfully following the primary idea of Marketing, which is to start by finding a market niche, discovering their needs and then manufacturing and selling the product or service that can satisfy them at the price that market wants to pay… and earn money with it.
That is a common mistake in the real world, before the Internet, in which the product was always (or almost always) manufactured before and then people who wanted to buy it were found. What if these people were not found or did not exist? Well, Marketing had to convince anyone that this product or service interested them. This method of looking after the market has worked so far, in some cases with good research marketing and correct application; in other cases, through the use and abuse of misleading advertising. The latter has discredited Marketing and created a secret discontent in the buyer and a latent malaise, especially against large companies that only seek their profit and not customer satisfaction.
What is the solution? The truth is that we must begin by asking ourselves what the problem is. In fact, the 'lurkers' exist and are - in the virtual world and in the real world - a very desirable "silent majority", due to their supposed purchasing or voting power. The difficulty is that they are invisible. We can quantify them, but we cannot individualize them. The best-prepared market studies can give us an approximation, but not very reliable. Let's not forget that the writing of a questionnaire is a subjective fact. The design of the sample also lacks subjectivity. So how do we get to them if we can't even recognize them if we see them on the street?
A good solution is to reach them through Social Media companies, through Social Marketing strategies and tactics or what we know as Web Marketing applications 2, which in good accounts is the old method of trial and error. Every time you make a mistake, invent something else and try again. Let's see if I explain myself. You have a company and a product or service. You want to sell it taking advantage of this boom in social networks and create your own network. You hire Web 2 experts who tell you a lot of strange words, you pay them less than a transnational advertising company, you follow their advice and you enter a social network like Facebook; upload videos to YouTube; you open a photo album on Flick; create one or more blogs; create one or more podcasts; don't forget Twitter; just in case,you register with 500 search engines (although you have heard that this is no longer used); you link everything through links to your official website and look at the PageRank. Hallelujah! Your PageRank has gone up and so have your sales, although not as much as you wanted.
If you really want to have followers, that your 'lurkers' become visible and participate, even that they become evangelizers of your product, in addition to buying everything you want to sell them, the solution is very simple: Really Marketing. And if you don't know how to do it, the solution is simpler, hire my business consultant services.
(1) The redundancy is intentional.
