Back in August, we wrote a blog post about our internal discussions on the book, Groundswell, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research. In particular, we blogged about the Social Technographics ladder, a tool that breaks online users into groups based on their participation online.
Groundswell categorizes users by their general online activity and participation in social media. While our “RD2 book club” ceased after reading Groundswell due to our hectic schedules, we still refer to Groundswell’s Social Technographics Ladder when we think about our clients and how they can engage their customers.
Two weeks ago, Groundswell released the “Technographics Profile Tool” on their website. Forrester surveyed thousands of customers, gathering data to develop a tool that helps companies learn more about what their target audiences are doing online.
Selecting from age ranges, a list of countries, and gender, companies can build a technographics profile tailored to their user demographics, displaying the percentage of the selected demographic that are in each Social Technographics group – Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators, or Inactives.
Using resources such as the Technographics Profile Tool and learning how your target audience is interacting with social media will give you insight on how to develop the most effective and engaging application to reach your audience.
Check it out for yourself to see how your target audience is participating online, or have fun and do some experimenting with various demographics!