Got sent this from an incredible critical thinker and strategist Graham Jeffery. It's a post on a LinkedIn club about statistics for online forums. The author is Rocket Scientist Gavin Lawrence.

Have a quick read. It may explain why not enough people are commenting on your blog or participating in your forums!

• 90-9-1 rule. Of your audience, 1 percent will actively answer questions and post, 9 percent will comment and ask questions, and 90 percent will passively read the content on your community.

• 30-10-10 rule. In general, during any 30-day period, about 10 percent of the traffic that sees your community promotion will visit your community area. Of this 10 percent, about 10 percent will register and participate in your forum. (Note: Most sites only require registration to post. Adding registration requirements will lower your participation rate.) It's critical to note that this indicator will vary based on several factors, such as the type and placement of your promotion. Also, the percentages tend to be lower for highly trafficked sites, such as major media destinations. Business-to-business communities by their nature attract smaller, more targeted audiences.

• 5-to-10-posts-per-day-per-forum rule. To reach critical mass, visitors must feel that a community is vibrant enough to merit return visits. You need roughly 5 to 10 posts per day per forum to achieve this goal. In the early stages, either a core of fans or company employees may be needed to help get the community going. For a healthy community, there should be about 10 percent to 20 percent growth per month in the number of posts during the community's first year. Over time, this trend tends to flatten out.

Now isn't that information worth reading? If you have any kind of interest in online media, you'll be able to take this data and apply it to your situation. Or make it relevant for your contacts and clients.

That's the power of online networks. Dissemmination of extremely useful information. Open and sharing instead of closed and with-holding. So five questions...

1. What could you take from this to help your online presence?
2. Who could you share this with that might find it useful?
3. Might it be worth you connecting with Graham or Gavin?
   
4. Who could you introduce Graham and/or Gavin to for mutual benefit?
5. What are you going to do now?