Forrester on Social Technographics

Forrester's Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff just released an interesting report around social computing. She reminds us how "many companies approach social computing as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed – a blog here, a podcast there – to achieve a marketing goal."

More on the report and their viewpoint summed up here: "A more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for. Forrester categorizes social computing behaviors into a ladder with six levels of participation; using the term "Social Technographics" to describe analyzing a population according to its participation in these levels.

Brands, websites, and any other company pursuing social technologies should analyze their customers' Social Technographics first, and then create a social strategy based on that profile."

Exactly right. See their ladder below that lists the six different categories of participation.