Raise your hand if you participate in social networking

In this fast-paced networked society that we now live in, it seems as though you are a lost soul if you are not participating in one way or another.

Just in case you thought that only teenagers and people with ample time on their hands participate, you are wrong. In fact, Forrester recently published a report that explains that buyers in the business-to-business sector are one of the most active groups of people when it comes to social participation.

Josh Bernoff, an active blogger on The Groundswell, published a few important nuggets from the report that everyone should take note of. In The Social Technographics of Business Buyers, a recent Forrester Research study that surveyed more than 1,200 business technology buyers, found that they exceed all previous benchmarks for social participation. Based on methods and tools that Forrester created and uses such as the POST method and the Social Technographics Profile, it is able to ask how people participate in various social technologies and whether they use them to make buying decisions.



Specifically for this chart, which examines the social technology profile for business technology buyers, the results indicate that the audience is involved and engaged in the social networking space. The key points are that 91% were Spectators, 55% were joiners in social networks, 43% are creating media and 58% are critics.

What does this information mean and why is it useful to companies and marketers? Ultimately, it means that these businesspeople are participating by reading blogs, watching user generated videos, joining social network groups, commenting on articles, uploading content and videos, and so on. So companies and marketers must be aware of the levels of audience participation and knowledgeable about what activities work best in order to reach a specific segment or audience. Participating in social networks is not just for teenagers and college students. Mature businesspeople and decision makers are using social technologies and they will continue to do so in the future.

For more information about what these terms mean or to see what your customers, family or friends social profiles are check out Forrester’s Social Technology Profile Tool. This is a free tool that allows you to see how participation varies among different groups of consumers around the world. Ultimately, this information can be used as a guide to figure out what kind of relationship is best to build with customers or the end users.