I missed this a couple of weeks ago and wanted to get it up on the site as a reference point. Forrester released their Third Annual Technographics Profile and the data points of a broadly evolving series of social interactions across social media.
The eye-catching headline is that four out of five adults online in the US are active in social media.
A more significant development is the growth of what Forrester calls Spectators and Joiners. The early adopters of social media were content-creators; the late adopters, who will drive the ultimate character of social behavior online, are more passive, according to the Forrester taxonomy.
As I’ve pointed out before, I believe that Forrester’s segmentation of consumers misses a key activity: Sharing. The Joiners are likely leveraging Facebook’s social operating system to post photos, comment, play games and share information. These are highly social activities, which are distinct from the intentional process of composing and creating content (such as this blog, for instance.)
The Social Technographics Ladder is included below for reference.
