Turning lurkers into posters: what has worked for you?

I was recently reading @iFroggy article about how to turn Lurkers into posters.

Here's some of the things he said: http://www.managingcommunities.com/...do-to-convert-more-lurkers-on-your-community/

I know when I ask new users questions, it makes them post more. Simple questions like - how are you doing? How was your weekend? And then discuss things that they may like, and it usually works.

What about you though? What has worked for you in terms of turning lurkers into posters?

 

Thank you for the mention, @cpvr. I appreciate it.

The biggest number of lurkers are the ones that you'll never have a chance to talk with. That's why calls to action are probably the biggest thing you can do, to remind them of what your community offers and encourage them to participate.

Patrick

 

One thing I have found to work is controversal topics, bait them in. Post something they are just dying to reply to to give their 2 cents

Another is offering something for free (ebook, or software or whatever) in a board only members with XXX amount of posts a can view could be a way to get them started as a member on the forum and then you can engage them.

 

That works as well. Forum drama seems to bring out major posters and lurkers. Especially if it happens a lot. Write something wrong about a major company? Expect a lot of posts. Or good reviews/interviews that bait the lurkers in as well. Juicy topics always seem to be a major hit. I agree with you there. @Dan Hutter

You're welcome. What I've noticed is lurkers usually jump into a conversation if they find the thread to be of a huge interest of theirs.

 

I was thinking about doing a few call to action images and putting them in a vBulletin notice for people with zero posts.

 

There's a mod/plugin for that on vBulletin.org I remember implementing it a while ago.

 

I used4 to use that. When @Brandon had vBSetup he had a great tutorial on welcome imagemaps.

Now a days we can just use notices.

 

Yup, notices are really cool as well. I use them for new interviews.

 

Oh yes, I remember one day saying that one of the advertisement software out on the net was confusing to use. About a day later, their official marketing guy got one the forum and joined replying to that thread, haha.