Introduction
Hey Creative Teachers!
Not everyone in your online community will comment or participate, and that’s okay! The 90-9-1 Rule explains why most members quietly consume, some engage occasionally, and why only a small group drives the conversation. Let’s dig into this pattern for a healthier, more active community.
If you run an online community, you may sometimes wonder why so few members comment, post new stuff, or join in on the conversations. You might have dozens or even hundreds of members, yet only a handful seem to post or chime in regularly.
Does that mean your community isn’t working?
Not necessarily.
As a general rule of thumb, about 90% of members quietly consume what others share, 9% participate occasionally, and 1% contribute a large share of the community’s activity. This is known as the 90-9-1 Rule, and it’s a useful way to understand participation in online communities.
For community leaders, it serves as an important reminder: a quiet member isn’t always an unengaged member.
Understanding the three groups can help you create a healthier community, set better expectations, and encourage participation without constantly worrying about how many people are posting.
Let’s Go Over The 3 Types Of Engagement Styles
1. The 90% Who Quietly Watch
About 90% of community members mostly read, watch, listen, and learn without actively contributing. These are your lurkers and quiet consumers.
They might read a discussion without replying, watch a community video without commenting, or regularly check in without ever creating a post.
There are viewers who may simply prefer to observe. Others may be busy, shy, new to the community, or waiting until they have something meaningful to contribute.
Their silence doesn’t automatically mean they’re uninterested.
For example: Imagine you’re a fashion instructor who runs a private community for people designers learning garment construction. You post a message about choosing the right fabric for a particular type clothing style. Twenty-five members read the post, but only two comment.
It would be easy to assume the other 23 members didn’t care, but many of them may have learned something useful from the discussion or they might remember your advice when they start their next project – even if they never typed a response.
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As a community leader, don’t measure the value of your community only by visible activity. Quiet members can still be learning, returning, and building trust. But you can still do a better job of prompting the community for a quick like emoji.
2. The 9% Who Engage Occasionally
The next group is the ~9% who participate from time to time.
They might answer a question, leave a comment, share a project, ask for advice, or reply to another member’s post. They aren’t necessarily your most active members, but they are helping to create and continue the conversations that give your community value.
This group can be especially important because their questions and comments give you clues about what your members actually need and are thinking.
For example: Imagine you’ve created an online writing course with a private student community. And you’ve recently asked members to share one thing they’re currently struggling with in their writing.
Several students respond with questions about creating stronger characters and back stories, and a few others mention getting faster and useful feedback from future readers.
Those comments aren’t just nice to have responses; they’re literally strategic data for your training business. You may even discover that a question you thought was minor is actually a major challenge for many members.
This feedback can help you identify future products, lessons, discussion topics, workshops, FAQs, and resources. It can even help you with marketing ad hooks to sell more stuff using specific pain point words that your students need help with.
Pay attention to your 9%, they are often the bridge between a community that simply contains content and one where members begin learning from each other.
3. The 1% Who Drive the Conversation
This small group consists of your best community members who contribute again and again.
These members may start discussions, answer other people’s questions, share their work, post helpful resources, welcome new members, and create conversations that continue without you.
These members contribute to your community AND help to develop it.
For a community leader, this group can become incredibly valuable because they create activity that doesn’t all depend on you to keep it thriving.
For example: Imagine you’re a photography teacher who has a community for wedding photographers.
One member regularly posts shooting situations and shares photographs for feedback, answers questions from newer photographers, shares useful lighting techniques, and starts discussions about choosing the right lens. Other members start responding to those posts, and eventually the member becomes one of the people everyone loves in the community.
That’s the 1% in action.
They aren’t necessarily your most important customers because they spend more money. They’re super because they are the biggest contributors to the culture and usefulness of the community.
However, your job isn’t to turn every member into this kind of super-contributor. Just make it easy and natural for these people to contribute, recognize their value, and create opportunities to help the community and its members grow. For example, these 1% could get early access to your pro content, or maybe they get to be Mastermind small group leaders.
Summary
For community leaders, the 90-9-1 Rule serves as a guiding pattern when thinking about your members.
Most members will watch, some will participate, and a small group will drive much of the action…
and that’s normal!
So don’t panic when your community has lots of quiet members, don’t assume a lack of comments means people aren’t getting value, and don’t overlook the members who occasionally ask great questions or consistently help others.
We recommend checking metrics on how often people sign in and what percentage of your community logged in this month. This will show who’s coming back for the good stuff and who will potentially keep paying for more access.
As you create content, remember to help and set up the different engagement styles of your members.
- For the 90%: share valuable information that your team mostly drives
- For the 9%: create easy opportunities to participate with light comments and share feedback.
- For the 1%: encourage them and support them in posting new relevant topics.
Thriving communities don’t require the participation of EVERY SINGLE MEMBER.
To run a successful community, you just need the majority to find value in being there and enough opportunities for those who want to participate to make the community incredible for everyone.
You’ve got this! Good luck!
Artsy Course Experts Team
