Discover how to reach and convert the silent majority—social media users who watch but don’t engage. A guide for smarter strategies in 2025.
In a world shaped by algorithms and attention spans, where almost everyone is on social media, there’s a hidden audience most brands are missing, one that sees everything, but rarely speaks.
We’re all guilty of refreshing the like count. But beneath the visible signals, there’s an entire audience engaging with your content in silence. These are the lurkers, those in invisible mode and they make up the vast majority of your reach.
Lurkers are people who scroll, absorb, and click, but never visibly engage. They don’t comment or share, but they do watch. They are important for your organic and paid social media strategy.
According to the Nielsen Norman Group’s 90-9-1 rule, 90% of users consume content passively, 9% engage occasionally, and just 1% create. That ratio still holds true in 2025.
Lurking isn’t laziness, it’s human behaviour.
Some people scroll without stopping because they’re short on time. Others stay quiet out of privacy concerns, uncertainty, or simply because they prefer to observe. And in professional spaces, many hold back out of fear of judgment or imposter syndrome. Just because they don’t speak doesn’t mean they’re not paying attention.
They may not click 'like', but they:
Ignoring lurkers means ignoring your real audience.
Even in campaigns optimised for engagement or reach, lurkers are watching—and acting.
According to Meta and TikTok Ads, view-through conversions are common: users might never click, but they’ll visit your site later. Watch time and video completion often outpace engagement.
Not all conversions start with a like. Lurkers are still part of the funnel—they just move through it differently.
Certain formats are better at reaching and engaging passive users:
These aren’t formats to “go viral”—they’re formats that stick.
In a landscape where public interaction is shrinking and passive consumption is growing, it’s time to move beyond regular metrics.
Still, many teams continue to judge success by likes and comments—because they’re visible, familiar, and easy to present. But when behaviour shifts, measurement has to follow. Reframing this for stakeholders starts with a simple truth: attention doesn’t always make noise, but it still drives results.
Start tracking:
In the era of algorithmic feeds, followers don’t guarantee reach.
On platforms like TikTok and Instagram, most content discovery now happens through recommendation algorithms, not from your audience, but from the platform’s.
The for you page, explore tab, and suggested reels push your content to strangers more than to your followers.
High reach and low engagement doesn’t mean failure, it often means visibility is expanding beyond your bubble.
Lurkers won’t cheer you on, but they will remember who shows up consistently.
This is how brands like Red Bull win. As shown in HypeAuditor’s 2025 case study, their growth wasn’t driven by virality, but by steady, culture-first content that connected with niche audiences and showed up in the right places over time.
Think in sequences, not just single posts. Multi-part stories, carousels, and episodic content give users a reason to stick around, without needing to respond.
Try things like:
Small nudges work better than loud asks for quiet users.
Design content that travels outside your follower base and thrives in suggested feeds.
Just because they didn’t click the first time doesn’t mean they’re not watching.
Use paid retargeting to complete the journey.
Share UGC, reviews, and testimonials.
Even if your audience is silent, they still trust what others say.
Lurkers are everywhere and they convert.
If your strategy only listens to the loudest voices, you’ll miss the true scale of your influence.
At Studio 34, we believe that the best-performing strategies consider everyone, not just the loudest.
