Marketing Secrets of an Online “Lurker”
ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE — We’ve more or less established that today’s marketing needs to be female-focused in a unique, selective way. In other words: marketing to women has changed to understanding that each woman is a unique individual who would like to be marketed to selectively, even though she likely hangs out in a group.
Women like interactive marketing, and it may be tricky to figure out how to approach them in a selective manner. For the most part, that can mean encompassing any or all of these marketing strategies:
1. Using interactive games, stories, forums, blogs, and/or social media.
2. Openly requesting feedback from women in your target market. And then, listening to what they say.
3. Lurking…at blogs, Twitter, social media sites, or webinar/teleseminars.
Let’s talk about that last one: lurking. When blogs hit the net in a big way, just a few short years ago, it was their ability to create interactive conversations, beyond the email box, that had everyone buzzing about them. While blogs are really just another form of website, their open, friendly (usually) nature – and the enticing ability to create real-time connections (you blog, I read, I comment, you read, and comment back) – made them a virtual playground for the social butterflies of the net. Which gender brings to mind social butterflies? Yes, women. In short order, we discovered that blogs were a way to amplify our voices – all over the net.
And so, the blogosphere went its merry way – with the early adopters (early on it was more men than women, but that has changed) talking to each other and to every other new blogger who happened upon Typepad, Wordpress or Google’s Blogspot. New blog tools, supporting the conversations buzzing across the net, popped up all over and the language of doing business online got more interesting. It wasn’t long before blogs went mainstream and with them came trackbacks, and permalinks, and finally, widgets. Let’s talk about widgets another time. As the blogosphere grew, so did the women’s voices using these new tools. Social media became the new coffee klatch, the new meeting place (where you didn’t have to change out of your PJs, if you didn’t want to), the new social order of the day.
And yet, in the background, hidden by insecurity (or privacy issues), were the lurkers.
Diehard bloggers knew they were there, not because they announced themselves! Heavens no! We knew they were there because we could see their silence. Bloggers checking their traffic stats would count the visits and comments and … when they put two and two together, the numbers didn’t add up. The only conclusion was that a whole lot of their readers were visiting regularly, but not commenting. They were lurking. For instance: here, here and here.
Lurkers follow a blog or a blogger (and likely do so via Twitter, these days), but never comment. Never acknowledge their presence. Never really get into the conversation. Why are they there? Because, frankly, they can be. Also, it’s because they want to be part of the story, but they aren’t always comfortable helping create the story. In the world of business blogging, lurkers are equivalent to window shoppers, or browsers. They have their favorite places to go…but they don’t feel a need to announce themselves. They want to see what’s going on, to hear about what you’re doing, and while they generally won’t voice their opinions on your blog or website comment form, they often go off and talk to their friends about you – sometimes on a blog of their own!
The reason lurkers are important to you, and why I’m writing about them in a marketing to women online column for an interactive marketing publication is because – there are hundreds of thousands of them – and by virtue of the fact that more women than men are online today,
more of them are women than men. Not to mention that…more women are blogging, than men. So, your lurker is more likely to be female. Do understand that some lurkers add a select comment here and there – using their ‘handle,’ which is usually a name you cannot really identify them by.
“But,” I can hear you thinking, “women, LOVE to talk! Why would they lurk?”
Yes, we do love to talk. I’m quite fond of reminding people of those good old days when little boys taunted little girls with, “Telegraph, telephone, tell a girl!” because everyone knows girls can’t keep secrets. Today, the phrase converts to, “Telegraph, telephone, tell a woman blogger.” And yet, our coffee klatch chit-chat, our meetings at the well, our church social events, and other female gatherings over the years do not account for the lurkers among us – primarily because in the old venues, the lurkers were visible even if they weren’t saying anything. Today’s lurkers are truly the unique of the unique.
It pays to understand these silent women. Lurkers who do not join in your conversation, may well join in mine. Never doubt that lurkers have something to say – they do! But, they seldom say it to the world; instead, they share their thoughts in a small, trusted circle of friends. That circle might be a social media group, a few bloggers, or an email newsletter group. Be aware that while the lurkers are not necessarily passing along your marketing message in an open forum or a public blog, they are sharing it. And, because of that, lurkers can be great word of mouth marketers. They will pass the word, good or bad, without you ever knowing it. It may be that one or more of the women in their inner circle is a popular blogger or even a mainstream media journalist. You just never know.
Maybe you (or someone on your staff) should test this out. Become a lurker, yourself.
Visit blogs and read but don’t comment. Watch conversations on Twitter but don’t reply. Create a Facebook page and join groups, under your own name, not your company’s logo; always be watching and learning. As you take your silent perspective of what’s going on in the busy social world of Internet chatter between the women who talk and the women who don’t, you will learn how to get women to buy from you, and you may uncover some “real” lurkers that just can’t keep quiet – about your great new focus on understanding your female customer.
In fact, your lurkers may just get you moving on that hip new game you’ve been planning to implement for the ladies. Or, that contest – offering a 3-day cruise as the Grand Prize. Or that sweepstakes with passes to the set of Heroes. Wow! I bet those items would out some lurkers!
As for me, I’m lurking about…watching. And waiting. Catch me if you can.
Reader Comments.
Interesting — never heard anyone talk about lurkers as a demographic before. There certainly are plenty out there!
“Lurking” can be a great marketing strategy in itself. I use it to get ideas for blog posts … it’s also a great way to get your finger on the pulse of your target market’s concerns and desires.
Just don’t lurk from your office or the company you are visiting will know.
They could use a “website visitor identification” web service that reveals the company name of the visitor.
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