Forrester: Social Networking Adoption Charges Ahead, Growth Of Other Social Behaviors Slowing

Social Technographics® Data Shows Global Changes In Adoption Of Social Technologies

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--While global adoption of social networking is still on the rise, other forms of social interactions, such as content creation, experienced no substantial growth in the past year, according to Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR). “A Global Update Of Social Technographics®” is based on Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® data from more than 275,000 consumers in Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America. The report examines how consumers are engaging with social technologies using Forrester’s global Social Technographics segmentation.

“Social Technographics data can be used as a benchmark to help understand where certain social media approaches might work and where they might fail”

“Social Technographics data can be used as a benchmark to help understand where certain social media approaches might work and where they might fail,” said Forrester Research Consumer Insights Analyst Jacqueline Anderson. “For example, while almost 40 percent of metropolitan Chinese consumers can be classified as Collectors, only 10 percent in Europe are [Collectors]. Providing the Chinese consumers with tools to easily tag content would be helpful, while resources would be better spent elsewhere for European target consumers.”

Social networking continued to grow over the past year, which is one of the biggest trends seen throughout the global update. The number of people who joined social networks increased by 11 percent in Europe, 18 percent in metro China, and 11 percent in Australia. By comparison, North America saw slightly less growth, with only an 8 percent increase. On the other hand, between 2009 and 2010, no markets exhibited growth in the number of people who create social content.

“A lack of growth in social creation translates into a lack of fresh ideas, content, and perspectives,” said Anderson. “For example, one-third of online consumers in the US regularly watch user-generated videos on sites like YouTube. But, only 10 percent of US online consumers upload videos they’ve created to public sites. The traits required to create social content are unique, and at this moment, the consumer market interested in these behaviors has plateaued.”

About Consumer Technographics

Forrester Consumer Technographics® is the largest and longest-running survey of technology's impact on consumers. Since 1997, Forrester has surveyed more than 2 million households and individuals worldwide and today provides data and insights on consumers in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Marketing and strategy professionals rely on Forrester's Consumer Technographics data for unique insights into how technology affects the way consumers select, purchase, use, and communicate about products and services.

About Forrester Research

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 19 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, customer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 27 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

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