Rubicon Consulting's web practice team recently conducted a broad survey of US web users to understand better how people in the US use the web, with a special focus on web community and its effect on consumers. Among the companies that have tried to work with communities online, many have found that the conversation is dominated by extreme enthusiasts rather than average users, and have concluded that online community is a distraction from their real customers. That turns out to be a very dangerous mistake, concludes the report.

About 80% of the user generated content on the web, including comments and questions is produced by 9% of users... the Most Frequent Contributors, says the report. About 65% of web users are passive readers who contribute content only occasionally. They account for only about 20% of content, depending on the medium. Another 9% of web users are pure lurkers, never contributing any content. And about 17% are community abstainers; they believe they never visit any community-related site on the web.

The Executive Summary posits these findings, conclusions and implications for companies:

The common perception of web communities is that they allow groups of people to share ideas and information, and that they allow companies to communicate directly with their customers. This is factually true, but also misleading, says the study. The vast majority of online conversation is driven by a small group of web users -- less than ten percent of them. The rest of the web community sits back and watches the interactions as a mostly-passive audience that only occasionally injects a few comments. Community experts have been aware of this phenomenon for years, calling it "participation inequality."

• 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute).
• 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time.
• 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs.

The 90-9-1 phenomenon means that an online community generally doesn't represent the opinions and interests of the average customer; instead, it tends to reflect the views of extreme enthusiasts.

Rubicon's survey confirms the idea behind the "1-9-90" rule, but not its specific details. The 1-9-90 rule says that 90% of web users are completely silent lurkers. In this research, a majority of web users said they sometimes contribute something, even if it's just an occasional comment. The truly silent lurkers are only 9% of the web population.

Netting it all out, about 10% of web users generate the vast majority of all user-created content. The rest of us are more or less voyeurs.

Here's what the top 10% contribute, according to the study:

Online comments and reviews posted by the enthusiasts are second only to word of mouth as a purchase driver for all web users. Those personal reviews are far more influential than official reviews posted by a website or magazine, or information posted online by a manufacturer. This means the old idea of "influencers" is confirmed and explained. The most frequent contributors are the influencers, and they have a strong influence on purchase decisions because they write most of the online recommendations and reviews.

Word of mouth (personal advice from a friend) is still the #1 driver of purchase decisions. Among web users (who are about 70% of the US population), content on the web has moved into second place, ahead of printed reviews and advice from salespeople. Reviews and comments posted by actual users are more influential than third-party reviews or information posted by manufacturers:

These findings mean online community matters enormously to companies. Online discussion is a poor way to communicate with the average customer, because average customers don't participate. But it is a great way to communicate to them, because average customers watch and listen.

Most Frequent Contributors are different from the average web user:

• They're more ethnically diverse;
• More technically skilled
• More likely to be single
• More likely to work in technology, entertainment, or communication companies
• More likely to be Democrats
• Younger than typical web users. Half of the web's most frequent contributors are under age 22

The survey also explored general use of the web community, and its impact on users' lives.  After search, if you look at sites generating the most daily traffic, the most intensely used site categories are:

• Social networking (such as Facebook and MySpace)
• General news sites (such as CNN.com and NYTimes.com)
• Online banking

If you look at breadth of visitors (which sites are eventually visited by the largest percent of web users), the leaders after search are:

• Mapping (MapQuest and others)
• Retail (Amazon.com and others)
• Reference (including Wikipedia)

Social sites are much more satisfying to teens than adults. Adults say they make fewer friends through social sites, and say the sites play a less important role in their social lives.

Despite differences over the social sites, the web as a whole has a significant impact on the social lives of many users. For example:

• 24% of web users say they have dated someone they first met online
• In the 22-30 age group, that percentage rises to 37%.
• Only 9% of web users said they visit dating websites at least once a month

Adults and teens use their social networks differently. Most adults will approve someone as a friend on a social site only if they already know them. Many teens will approve someone as a friend as long as they have even a vague idea of who they are. To adults, the friends list confirms relationships that they already have elsewhere. To teens, the friends list is an entry point for a relationship.

Different types of web communities have very different dynamics and user bases. Approaches that work well in one type of community may fail utterly in another, concludes the study.  Based on the research for this report and experience in the industry, Rubicon has developed a taxonomy of web communities that classifies them into five broad categories:

• Proximity, where users share a geographic location (Craigslist is an example)
• Purpose, where they share a common task (eBay, Wikipedia)
• Passion, where they share a common interest (YouTube, Dogster)
• Practice, where they share a common career or field of business (many online professional groups fall in this category)
• Providence, where they discover connections with others (Facebook)

For the complete Whitepaper, please visit Rubicon here