Blogs, podcasts, and other Social Computing technologies have seen a rapid adoption — 22% of adults now read blogs at least monthly, and 19% are members of a social networking site. Even more amazingly, almost one-third of all youth publish a blog at least weekly, and 41% of youth visit a social networking site daily.

Forrester categorizes Social Computing behaviors into a ladder with six levels of participation; we use the term Social Technographics® to describe a population according to its participation in these levels. Brands, Web sites, and any other companies pursuing social technologies should analyze their customers' Social Technographics® first and then create a social strategy based on this profile.

While the rapid adoption of Social Computing technologies is encouraging, they don’t give companies an idea of which technologies, if any, they should use for marketing purposes. Based on our experience, many interactive marketing professionals don’t know where to begin when it comes to Social Computing because:

• They do not know exactly how their customers use social technologies
• They do not have experience with the effectiveness of user-generated content
• They are perplexed by a constantly evolving Social Computing environment

Forrester can help you overcome all of these challenges by leveraging our proprietary Social Technographics data and collection of best practices on marketing with social technologies.

Forrester's Social Technographics enables you to make smarter marketing decisions with social technologies by:

• Analyzing the Social Computing behaviors of your target audience
• Categorizing Social Computing behaviors and activities
• Delivering best practices and recommendations

Our objective and data-driven profiles provide actionable recommendations for improvements of your customers' Social Computing behavior. Best practices in your industry and across other industries, coupled with analyst recommendations, will help you create a coherent approach.