Introduction

1.1 Background

Technology has substantially revolutionised by providing an avenue through which individuals can interact, communicate, and transfer pieces of information. According to Drucker (2017), Internet’s invention was a significant occurrence in the 20th century’s last half. Scientists began developing devices that would allow individuals to access the world web and exploit the opportunities available in the Internet. Drucker (2017) argued that devices such as computers and laptops were the first equipment to be used to access information via the web. However, smartphones and tablets grew in popularity to overshadow these two devices. Technology and the internet also paved the way for the development of social media sites that were intended to create online communities and platforms through which persons could transfer their knowledge and experiences. Aichner and Jacob (2015) defined social media as aninteractive platform that enables users to develop and share web content. Social media’s principal goal is to facilitate the process of participating in networking activities. Aichner and Jacob (2015) contended that despite the rapid rise of social media over the past two decades, the platforms harbour persons with different characters. Social media have changed their roles from pure social networking to the creation of interactive spaces that provide platforms for real-time communication among users from different regions of the globe.

Social media platforms are divided into different types based on their role and content allowable. Kuss and Griffiths (2017) stated that the first social media type is the social networking sites that connect friends, brands, professionals, and families. Such platforms allow users to share content ranging from pictures to videos and have been used by major brands to advertise their products due to the large numbers of users. Social networking sites also facilitate the process of conducting research. Examples of social networking sites include Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. The second social media type is the image sharing sites that only allow visual content in the form of illustrations, infographics, and photos. The platforms are created to inspire users to explore and create and share content that interests other users within the sites. Instagram is one such image sharing site that encourages its users to generate content in the form of images and share with their followers (Zhu & Chen, 2015). The third and highly significant social media type is the community blogs that incorporate both written content and visuals. Sitter and Curnew (2016) stated that community blogs are educative and allow persons to share their opinions and ideas regarding the various issues that face the entire or a part of the community. Community blogs act as platforms for developing a voice to air grievances that need to be addressed and inspiring readers through the use of syndicated content. Examples of community blogs include Tumblr and Medium. The final major social media type that is used by a majority of persons on the Internet is video hosting sites. YouTube emerged as the largest and most popular video hosting. Lashari et al. (2019) contended that YouTube created an avenue for creating, watching and providing individual opinions on video content and attracted multiple users due to the numerous incentives that it provided.

The rising number of different users across the internet who serve multiple purposes was the main driver for this research. The goal of the study was to study users of LinkedIn professional groups and explore the decision science, context and triggers that are involved in switching someone from being an active reader (lurker) to a participant that builds the narrative and community by being an active or proactive participant, or indeed activist. LinkedIn is asocial media and social networking Utz (2016) that was specifically designed for professionals and the business community. According to Cho and Lam (2017), the establishment of LinkedIn was inspired by the urgent need of a site that would allow registered members to establish networks with the persons that they knew and shared common professional interests. LinkedIn further provides an opportunity for professional development by linking like-minded individuals. Florenthal (2015) contended that recruiters and employers use the platform to find suitable job candidates with appropriate skills to fill vacancies in their corporations. The development of LinkedIn in 2003 revolutionised the white-collar business world by creating an interactive channel for experts. The social media site allows its users to begin their participation by creating a profile, finding persons who they share the same professional or career interests, connecting with these users, and joining groups that are relevant to an individual’s profession.  LinkedIn also allows its users to create or find groups of persons from the same career and transfer the skills and opinions regarding issues that affect the profession and the available opportunities (Cho & Lam, 2017)).

According to Pilcher and Harper (2016), LinkedIn groups can be categorised into unlisted and standard groups. The standard professional categories are the most popular and show up whenever a user searches for them. The process of becoming a member of such groups is relatively easy with the profiles of all other users who share the same vision or interests being displayed. However, the unlisted group types are invitation-only. The creator or manager of the group invites persons that they believe have a common interest and members have specific sets of regulations that govern their conduct whenever they are in these professional groups. Pilcher and Harper (2016) explained that unlike the standard LinkedIn group, unlisted forums do not display their content or logo whenever they are searched through the search engine and non-members cannot access any pieces of information in or about the group. Employee-only and customer-only forums are typical examples of unlisted groups in.

1.2 LinkedIn.

Social media platforms have a vast variety of users. Statista (2019) estimated the number of internet users as of 2018 in the various social media platforms at 2.65 billion. Individuals join social media sites in various regions. While some users remain active throughout their involvement in the social media platforms, others browse through comments and do not participate in discussions and other forms of engagement in the sites. The latter category is referred to as the lurkers. Gong, Lim, and Zhu (2015) defined a social media lurker as a person who instead of participating in online discussions and interacting with other users on social media sites, only observe passively and fail to provide data that may be used in enhancing the user experience of such sites. Lurkers only log onto the social media platforms to view the content uploaded by other users and do not upload data regarding themselves or use other indicators within social media sites or platforms (Gong et al., 2015).

1.3 Problem statement

The central problem that the research aimed at exploring is the various ways in which inactive individuals on social media who are also called lurkers can be transformed to activism. The creation of LinkedIn had a substantial impact on the entire process of social networking as it created a platform that would allow individuals to not only interact socially but also share career knowledge that would build on their professional lives (Utz, 2016). LinkedIn became the pioneer professional networking site at an era when the common social media platforms were rarely used due to the low penetration of the Internet in the various regions of the globe. However, the years following the development of LinkedIn saw tremendous advancement in technology and the introduction of hand-held devices that were internet-enabled. The numbers of Lurkers on LinkedIn have also increased as in the other social media platform partly because of the low activity in most groups and due to the desire by some users to remain private in their professional lives (Gong et al., 2015). The problem with being a lurker in a social media platform such as LinkedIn is the difficulty in creating productive connections. Kim (2018) asserted that exciting employment opportunities may pass social media lurkers on platforms such as LinkedIn due to their inactivity. Additionally, LinkedIn remains the only platform with the highest number of recruiters and employers (Chen, Lee, & Ting, 2017). The two group of individuals use factors such as social media activity and contribution to expert forums and decisions to define whether or not an individual is fit to fill a vacant position at their corporations. The social media activity of lurkers is limited to browsing important newsfeeds with some individuals in this category failing to update information regarding them. Therefore, lurkers remain invisible in the eyes of employers and recruiters.

An additional problem that the research aimed at exploring is the psychological dimension of lurking. According to Edelmann (2015), lurkers are deemed as antisocial beings who avoid engaging actively or passively in social media forums due to the fear of the hazards and threats presented by these sites. Lurking is also perceived to be a decision made by an individual and propagated to the level that it remains their culture. Moreover, the fear of involvement in some forums and the desires to remain discrete in the activities of an individual are the central reasons for becoming lurkers. A study conducted by Vuong et al. (2018) established that out of the more than 2 billion individuals using the internet and other social media platforms, only 1 percent are active users who contribute to various discussions. Nine percent engage in discussions from time to time and the remaining 90% are lurkers who only log in to social media to understand the various events that occur. The findings also demonstrate that lurking is a behaviour that can be addressed or avoided due to its immense consequences. Similarly, Nielsen (2006) argued that previous pieces of research on social media activity have focussed on the examinations of the behaviours of individuals on these platforms and the various types of users. Nielsen (2006) further stated that only a minority of users on the various social media platforms are immense contributors who create content regularly. Figure 1 below demonstrates a typical social media activity that is referred to as the 90-9-1 rule.

Figure 1: User profiles (Nielsen, 2006)

The figure above illustrates that 90% of all users of the different social media platforms are passive. The individuals only read posts and observe without making any meaningful contribution. Nine out of the remaining ten percent are intermittent contributors who unlike the lurkers, they contribute from time to time. However, the priorities of the nine percent dominate their time leading to inactivity on specific occasions. The third group of users who occupy the remaining one percent are the active contributors. According to Nielsen (2006), the heavy users and content creators contribute to more than 90% of the entire content generated on social media. Uncertainty regarding the lives of the 1% outside social media exists with researchers stating that the heavy contributors consider such platforms as integral components of their existence. LinkedIn is also dominated by the 1% who have increased their visibility and chances of accessing employment opportunities and creating networks and connections that would fulfill their career interests. The research aimed at transforming social media lurkers to active users by first understanding their behavioural decisions.

The third problem that the study emphasised on and addressed significantly was the identification of triggers of lurking. Brooks et al. (2015) asserted that the first stage of any psychology research is the determination of the different factors that influence or affect the development of a given behaviour. The data gathered from the cause analysis assists in the exploration of the potential solution to the given problem. An understanding of the triggers of lurking provides an avenue through which behavioural changes can be effected. Osatuyi (2015) argued that the primary triggers for social media lurking include cyber insecurity and threats, lack of comprehension of the topics under discussion, and fear of disapproval or receiving attention from other users. Despite the extensive pieces of scholarly research that have beenconducted in the past to understand the concept of lurking, a few scholars have delved into the psychological element of the behaviour and identified the central triggers that influence the anti-social character on platforms that were created to create social networks. The research problem presented in this report is the identification of action inhibitors that promote lurking. According to Wellman and Gulia (2018), lurkers face numerous psychological challenges that are misunderstood and that inhibit them from engaging constructively in the activities that take place on social media platforms. The main loophole that was the paucity of knowledge regarding the inhibitors of social media activism and the various approaches that can be adopted to increase the participation of the various individuals into discussion forums on platforms such as LinkedIn.

 1.4 Rationale and Justification

The rationale for conducting the study was the high numbers of LinkedIn users who are lurkers and the inadequacy of evidence-based approaches that can be utilised to increase their participation and activism in the social networking sites. The main challenge with the lurking behaviour is that it hinders individuals from expressing themselves. Wellman and Gulia (2018) termed lurkers as consumers who do not contribute meaningfully to the activities in social media. The consequence of lurking on a professional is that it hinders them from acquiring skills and information that would enable them to attain their career dreams or actualise their interests. Therefore, the research provides an avenue through which scholars can identify the factors that facilitate the development of lurking on social media and draw solution to the malignant problem that faces more than 90% of the users of these sites. The second rationale for conducting the study was to facilitate the process of building communication skills on social media platforms. The inadequacy of communication skills is a major trigger for the development of the lurking behaviour. Lurkers lack the knowledge of expressing their idea and are engulfed by fear whenever they think of starting or supporting an online discussion. Therefore, the study sealed a major research loophole by creating a forum for the identification of the triggers of lurking and the proposition of the measures that can be adapted to convert lurkers to active social media users on LinkedIn.

The final rationale for conducting the study was the need to explore the degree to which the creation of a sticky environment could help in increasing participation in LinkedIn discussions and professional group forums. The only avenue of increasing participation in social media was identifying the risks and one of the findings of Osatuyi (2015) was that the environment has a substantial role in defining the nature of activity in a given social discussion. The study focussed on eliminating the barriers and inhibitors of active facilitation and transforming lurkers to vibrant users by establishing a conducive surrounding for this group of individuals. Therefore, the significance of the study was that it introduced a new dimension of addressing social media lurking while providing solutions that could assist other users to interact with this group of persons on the various platforms.

1.5. Research Questions and Objectives

The central objective of the study was to analyse the process through which lurkers on social media can be transformed into active users. Many individuals join social media groups only to remain passive and contribute minimally to discussions. Therefore, the specific aims of the study include:

• To identify the barriers and risks linked to social media activity.
• To analyse the benefits that individuals can draw from being active with online communities.
• To investigate the degree to which “sticky” environment can help to increase participation.
• To evaluate the factors that motivate persons or users to become an active participant in an online community
• To discover the triggers of social media lurking and the potential solutions for lurkers.
• To examine the success rates of online communities (OLCs) in achieving their stated purpose.

The primary research question was: “How lurkers on social media can betransformed into active online community participants or users?

The following queries facilitated the process of addressing the main research question:

• What are the barriers people perceiving to becoming active?
• What are the risks of participation? • What benefits do people get from being active within online communities?
• To what extent does a “sticky” environment help to increase participation?
• What is the motivation to become an active participant in an online community?
• What triggers social media lurkers to become active participants? •

How successful are online communities (OLCs) in achieving their stated purpose?

1.6 Scope of the Study

The study was restricted to social media lurkers and not on other groups of users. Vuong et al. (2018) established that social media has a rule in which 90% are lurkers, 9% are active users of the platforms and only one percent of the users create new content regularly. Numerous pieces of research have focussed on the exploration of the internet culture and the habits portrayed by persons using different social media. Therefore, the study focussed on the 99% of internet users who only browse the data presented by the 1%. Additionally, the study limited its focus to LinkedIn thereby ignoring other social networking and media sites. LinkedIn has grown in popularity over the past decade to become a vibrant platform for professionals (Utz ,2016). The nature of actions and activities that are supported by the networking site may have negative impacts on lurkers who will most likely be ignored by recruiters, potential partners, employers, and professional groups due to inactivity. Therefore, the study focussed on LinkedIn as the platform has the most adverse impacts on lurkers who are passive users and do not contribute like the one percent of their connections.

1.7 Structure of the Paper

The paper has been structured in six distinct sections that explore different research elements. The first chapter introduces the concept of social media lurking. The chapter provides the backgrounds of social media, LinkedIn, and lurking behaviour while providing the problem that the research hoped to address and the rationale for conducting the study. Chapter two is the literature review where the past pieces of research are analysed and discussed in-depth to give the research topic some scholarly founding. The chapter provides a conceptual map that guided the literature review process and presents the empirical framework for the analysis of studies and other scholarly works. Chapter three presents the methods and materials used in the study to gather and analyse information. The methodology chapter discusses the research methods, designs, philosophy and approach, data collection techniques, sample and sampling, data analysis methodology and the ethical considerations that were made during the research. The fourth section of the paper explores the various findings that were derived using the methods in chapter 3 and connects them to the research objectives and questions while the fifth sections analyses the findings in the light of previous studies. The final chapter is the conclusion that summarises the report and provides recommendations for practice and future research. 2.0

Literature Review

2.1Introduction

To develop a theoretical foundation for this research, this chapter discusses the existing literature on the relevant topics, namely Social Media Activity and definition, Social Media Lurkers, LinkedIn, and Social Media Lurkers, Triggers of Social Media Lurkers, Converting Lurkers into Active Social Media Users.  Moreover, this chapter explores different scholarly works regarding the concept of lurkers in social media and activity in LinkedIn forums and groups.

This chapter is organised according to the fields of the literature reviewed as follows. Section 2.2 defines the concept of social media, users, and types. Section 2.3 reviews studies on social media lurkers. Section 2.4 discusses social media activity, motivation, barriers, and benefits. Section 2.5 provides an overview of other studies on LinkedIn and social media users. Section 2.6 discusses studies on the triggers of social media lurkers and converting lurkers into social media users. Section 2.7 develops a conceptual framework based on existing literature to investigate the various ways in which inactive individuals on social media who are also called lurkers can be transformed into activism. Section 2.8 concludes this chapter by drawing useful insights from current literature to guide the research process.

2.2Social media: Definition, Types, and Users

According to McCay-Peet and Quan-Haase (2017), social media refers to an interactive computer-mediated technology that provides a platform for its users to create and share content. Users usually access these social media services via web designed technologies on laptops, desktops and downloaded services on their phones that offer social media functions. McCay-Peet and Quan-Haase (2017) stated that social media had a substantial impact on human interactions as it allowed individuals from different regions of the globe to share their opinions and ideas regarding various factors. Social media is believed to have advanced the lives of its users in all the social, political and economic dimensions. Companies are currently using social media platforms to reach their target audiences and promote their brands. Social media and Marketing experts generally agree that social media is made up of the following 13 types: blogs, virtual worlds, business networks, video sharing, collaborative projects, social networks, enterprise social networks, gaming, forums, bookmarking, photo sharing and products and services review. The fact that social media is defined as a platform to create a connection among people has been considered as a broad definition which would mean that technologies like telephones and telegraph they are also social media platforms. In the mid-2000s, some researchers referred to social media as a network that provides social communication and connection services. A more recent article written by Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart& Madden, spotted out four common features to the current social media programs (2015). The features regarded their web application, user generated content, profiles created by the users and finally their aim which is to facilitate the creation of online social networks.

 

In 2019, statista estimated that there will be close to 2.77 billion people using social media around the globe showing an increase from 2.46 billion in the year 2017.  Some social media users include governments mainly to interact with its citizens, businesses to market, individuals to connect with others, schools in admissions, politicians for campaigning, and employers for hiring.

2.3 Social Media Activity: Motivation, Barriers, and Benefits

According to Kryvasheyeu, Chen, Obradovich, Moro, VanHentenryck, Fowler &Cebrian, different groups of individuals are motivated to engage in social media activities by different reasons (2016). For instance, teenagers and youths will mainly use social media to connect with other people across the globe. Recently the government is using social media to analyze public opinions, cooperate with citizens and interact with them. Businesses always are motivated to use social media because it acts as a marketing platform. Kahne& Bowyerpointed out that businesses can use social media as a tool to track, monitor and examine online reviews and conversations about their products and brands (2018). This comes in handy when evaluating the return on investment for their ad spending on social media and understanding their market trends. Social media has been praised as allowing anyone who has an internet connection to empower their users by becoming a content creator. Recently, an increase in the number of political news posted on social media has increased the level at which younger generations are becoming exposed and involved in politics. This has given politicians the motivation to do their campaigns on social media. Social media have recruiters and college admission officers have found an easy way out to assess their applicants before accepting them into their organisations.

Djerf-Pierre&Pierrestates that by using social media individuals can record memories, advertise themselves, form good relationships and explore and learn about things from each other (2016). It also enables the growth of ideas and expansion of knowledge through the creation of blogs, videos, game sites, and podcasts.

2.4 Social Media Lurkers

The term lurk can be dated back to 14 century when it was first used. Back then, the word referred to someone who would conceal their identity often for an evil purpose. When bulletin board systems became popular in the 1980s, the word lurk started to be related to the internet. In the 1980s era, the bullet boards could be accessed through a single call line that users would post comments and upload files to be shared with the community. The result was that those using the system would make contributions. Since lurkers would not contribute anything even though they kept their lines busy for a long time, they were viewed negatively. Lurking is seen as a danger to communities because of the risk that free riding can have on society if everyone decides to lurk since the survival of the community is dependent on the contributions of its members (Osatuyi, 2015).

Until recently, in regards to an article written by Seigfried-Spellar & Lankfordlurkersare viewed both negatively and positively although in many communities they are still considered as free riders (2018). They take without giving back hence perceived as a drain on the public goods. Besides that new social media users are encouraged to lurk so that they can understand the community’s social norms, learn more about the community culture and familiarize themselves with the key community members. Researchers have found that reading, moderating web forums and contributing are driven by different motivations. Contributors and moderators are majorly motivated by the need and duty to be attached while for lurkers, they are motivated by the fact that the community is the only place that provides a certain type of content. Mo and Coulson in their research found that on an online support group of HIV/AIDS, lurkers were not different from posters in terms of loneliness, depression, self-efficacy, and care. Some people view lurking positively. In a study that addressed lurkers in E-learning, scholars found that lurking is helpful in online participation courses. Students claimed that the reason why they lurk before posting anything were to acquire certain knowledge about the topic and discover a conversation to participate in.

 2.5LinkedIn and Social Media Lurkers

LinkedIn was established to create a website in which members with common professional interests could establish networks with each other. For example, a person with a LinkedIn account who deals with medicine could establish connections with other doctors out there. LinkedIn simply links like-minded individuals. It is also advantageous as employers can use these accounts to locate individuals who could work in their corporations. LinkedIn was developed in 2003 and since then, the white-collar business world has been revolutionized. LinkedIn users are first required to create a profile, find people who share the same career or professional interests and then connect with other users by joining groups that are relevant to an individual’s profession. The creation of LinkedIn had a substantial impact on the entire process of social networking as it created a platform that would allow individuals to not only interact socially but also share career knowledge that would build on their professional lives (Utz, 2016). LinkedIn was the pioneer professional networking site at an era when there was low penetration of the internet on the various regions of the globe. LinkedIn influenced technology and led to the introduction of handheld devices that were internet enabled. However, this has also seen the rise in the number of Lurkers mainly because most groups have become inactive. As a result, not many people are encouraged to share. People learn to depend on the skills and knowledge that they possess.

2.6Triggers of Social Media Lurkers

 

Different factors in the community influence the looking behavior of that community. According to Goriunova, the level and amount of looking in a community are related to the size of the community, the amount of traffic in the community, and the topic of the community (2017). The nature of the topic might be the cause of the difference in the number of lurker’s numbers. Besides, the number of community members can also be the cause of the amount of lurking in that community. Lurkers are less satisfied and feel less belonging to a community, unlike regular contributors. They are mostly predisposed to not contributing because they lack the feeling of belonging and satisfaction.

2.6.1 Converting Lurkers into Active Social Media Users

Cranefield, Yoong, & Huff define delurking as the transfer of individuals from passive participators to active participators (2015). In a series of research investigating how new social media users familiarize themselves and learn the habits and rules of being a good social media user in four types of groups, that’s political issues, technical groups, health support, and hobby. Edelmann found practical evidence that group membership claims were well received by community members. (2017). According to them, group-oriented membership claims involve the new users introducing themselves to the online community by talking about their activities and experience in learning about the community.

Some researchers have identified positive connections between social and cultural capital and de-lurking. While others have discovered psychological ways to overcome the hindrances to online participation, Wellman &Gulia conducted a study on movie lens to investigate ways to increase low online contribution rates in communities (2018). They discovered that participants showed a high likelihood of rating movies when the ratings were important to people who liked the same type of movies than when the ratings were important to participants who disliked the same movie. Given the findings, designers can create a subtle and interconnected message to increase motivation by using  the information about the benefits of contributions. Another way of converting lurkers into active users is by posting contests, where the first posters owned a prize hence a helpful mechanism to promote social media active participation.

  2.7 Conceptual Framework

According to Aichner and Jacob (2015), there exists a solid connection between the participation in the various social media sites and the process of gathering information and viable knowledge. Figure1 below shows the conceptual framework that was used to guide the process of data collection in the research.

Barriers Online

Communications

Motivation

Social media Activity

Social media

 

Benefits Types of Users Types eg LinkedIn

The principal goal of the study was to analyse the process through which lurkers on social media can be transformed into active users. Therefore, the literature review search began with the analysis of social media before narrowing down to specific users and types as demonstrated in the figure above. Under the concept of social media, pieces of study that explore the various types of social media, users, and the importance of online communities were examined. The literature search further extended to the concept of social media activity and examined the motivations and benefits of being active on these platforms. Additionally, the literature search emphasised on the evaluation of barriers to social media activity that prompted the evaluation of the triggers for lurking. The focus of the literature search and review was on LinkedIn as an instrumental platform where different professionals can unite and discuss the dynamics of their careers and other interests. Therefore, under the concept of linked in, the search emphasised on exploring the ninety percent of the users of the social network site (the lurkers)and focused on responding to the main research question that was: “How can lurkers on social media be transformed to active online community participants or users?” The conceptual framework guided the process of evaluating literature as per the “empirical framework” section presented below.

2.8 Summary

The number of persons using social media platforms has substantially increased over the past decade owing to rapid technological advancement. According to Drucker (2017), an internet explosion occurred in the 21st century’s dawning years whereby every individual aspired to possess a device that could allow them to access the internet. The consequence of the explosion was the rise of social media platforms that served diverse functions and development of various habits among users on internet sites. On reviewing the triggers of social media lurkers, it’s clear that the community is one of the main contributors.  Social media lurkers are among the many depressed and less motivated of the population.

 3.0 Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction

The chapter answers three key questions in terms of the research methodology which include, what is the philosophical stance that guides the development of knowledge in this research, what research methods are selected to collect and analyse data to address the research questions, and how research methods are operationalised with an appropriate research design for conducting fieldwork and empirical investigation.

To answer the above three listed questions, this chapter is structured as follows: Section 3.2 identifies the philosophical stance of this research approach to guide the development of knowledge. Section 3.3, develops the research technique to provide an overview of the research intends to gain access to data. Section 3.4, explains the data collection method. Section 3.5 explains the data analysis method. Section 3.6 identifies ethical and professional issues related to the research. Section 3.7 concludes this chapter by summarising the research limitations.

3.2 Research approach

The research is based on the inductive research approach. The inductive research is based on interpretivism research philosophy to generate a theory by identifying patterns that emerge from social phenomena with qualitative data. Interprevists assert that reality can only be fully understood through individual intervention and interpretation of that reality (Fletcher’s, 2017). The overall strategy for the research is to understand the underlying opinions, motivations, and reasons regarding social media lurking by carrying out qualitative research.

3.3 Research technique

The research is based on primary research processes through interviews. The target group for the research was 51 undergraduate student volunteers (32 females and 19 males). Also, include 20 students from the minority groups and 30 from the majority groups. 2 universities were the target field for the interview. With one majored in e-learning and another in on-campus learning. Questions outlining the research questions were laid down using both the how and why format and also open questions. Besides, a recording app was installed on the researcher’s phone to record the respondent’s response. Their administrations were contacted and club representatives to grant permission for the interview process.

After several negotiations with the university administration and school clubs, the two universities agreed for the research process to take place at their schools. Each school had two diverse clubs that agreed to participate with 51 undergraduate student volunteers.

3.4 Data collection

Data collection involved a semi-structured interview process. At the initial stage, a meeting was carried out with the respondents. Each student was given the interview questions that required further research before the interview process. They were also informed that they will be notified by email or phone of their assigned time for the interviews.

According to Paine, A Semi-structured design should “have a number of interview questions prepared in advance, but such questions are designed to be sufficiently open that subsequent questions cannot be planned but must be improvised in a careful and theorising way” Interview guidance in this research is produced based on the research questions and conceptual framework(2015).  By using this interview guidance, interviewees had a week to gather information to enable them to answer the questions. Besides, the design is also used to allow the author to control the pace of the interviews to prevent the interviewee from giving too much irrelevant information.

Participants were randomly assigned to the time for the interview which took two days. During the interview, all the participants arrived on time and those that were carried through phone calls were all successful. All their response was recorded.

3.5 Data Analysis

Thematic and content analysis is the central approach to data analysis. The analysis process involved, familiarising with the data, assigning of preliminary codes to enable the easy description of the content, identifying patterns and themes in the codes and reviewing them, and lastly defining and naming the analysis of the themes (Sutton & Austin, 2015).

Data familiarising involved transcription of the recordings and taking notes. The second was assigning the codes, the codes were assigned according to the research questions. Which include, the barriers faced by people perceiving to be active, participation risks, the involvement of the environment in social media participation, the motivation to become an active participant, triggers that cause social media lurking and finally online community success in achieving their stated purpose. The third was identifying patterns and themes in the codes. In this research, the pattern was that all the codes content leads to the online community having the most impact on social media lurking and participation.

3.6 Ethical and professional issues.

Gustafsson suggest that researchers should take ethical considerations into account in the research process. It is suggested that thorough ethical consideration makes respondents more cooperative (2017). This research takes three steps to address ethical concerns. First, a formal statement of the research objective, the research process and the interview process are sent to interviewees with the aim of informing them that all data collected are only used for research purposes and will be securely stored under the relevant confidentiality regulations. Second, during the interviews, all interviewees are notified again within the interview process, and data collection is based solely on the respondent’s willingness to participate. All interviewees can withdraw from the study during and after the investigation process. In such a case the relevant interview data will be deleted. Third, during and after the interview process, the private information of all interviewees will be protected and will not be disclosed to third parties.

3.7 Limitations

Limitations involved in using a qualitative research technique include, the high volume of data makes interpretation and data analysis time consuming, difficult in characterising findings and lastly access to biased information and opinions.

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Pls refer to ‘Dissertation_structure’ from the attachments file for more details ‘