Forrester’s Social Technographics
Charlene Li has just published her Social Technographics report for Forrester. It states that many companies see social media as a set of features that they should be incrementally adding to their consumer offerings. Charlene sees a different view (that makes obvious sense I might add) that companies should not just wade in and start adding features without first considering what it is they are seeking to achieve. By understanding what their customers do, and the varying levels of possible social participation, you can set a more effective strategy for social engagement. Obviously the strategy is what then drives the product features.
One of the findings mirrors past figures that I have stated, that is that 13% of US Online adults are ‘creators’ meaning they actually contribute to the user-generated-content (be it blogs, YouTube, MySpace, etc). I have previously quoted 10%. Prior to Forrester’s ‘ladder’ of engagement, we’ve used a simplistic 10:90 ratio of contributors (publishers) to 90 just viewers (consumers). (though by being a publisher you are also a consumer, so i guess you’d have to correctly state that as 10:110). The research breaks down that binary view into a bit more granularity.
Here as an except is her illustration showing 6 levels of engagement.