The three types of brand community members, and why they do what they do

What is it about?

When talking about online communities we often talk about the people who are lurkers (who never talk, they just read) and the people who are posters (the people who do talk). However, participation isn't just a yes or no question - and so this paper discusses the need to look at participation as a continuum (or at least to talk about three unique groups - those who only read, those who occasionally talk, and those who frequently talk). We also discuss the reasons why a person would choose to post in a community, so that we can understand how to encourage more participation.

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Why is it important?

If we never acknowledge that participation is a continuum and we only ever talk about participation as something you do or don't do, then we don't have a true understanding of any of the groups in these communities. By combining the people who post infrequently with the other two groups, we confuse our results and make it difficult to understand anybody's behaviour. This paper demonstrates the clear need for treating participation as a continuum, and takes a first step toward uncovering the different reasons for posting for each type of member.