Why mustn't we overlook the social media lurker?

A few reasons why some individuals are lurkers include:

- Lack of interest/need to post.

- Privacy concerns.
- Timid in public domain.

- Lack of technology.

The main reason, however, can be attributed to the lack of interest to engage with social media content. This often results in the lurker being over looked in the social media sphere. However, lurkers are still indirectly participating and adding value to the social media world. Lurkers constitute the majority of the average social media audience; therefore, can provide vital information.

This information, such as their demographic traits, interests and preferences can provide vital audience insights seeing as they are also potential customers for targeted marketing. This means that disregarding lurkers could provide an inaccurate view of overall population.

So, why must we not dismiss the value of the lurker? Although the lurker is not directly engaging with your content, they are still aware, interested and being influenced by your content.

Just because we do not directly interact with these individuals, it does not mean they are not there, silently lurking in the background, consuming all your content.