Do You Watch or Do You Do?

Forrester’s recent Social Technographics study provides an illuminating snapshot into what motivates online users. It’s easy to see why this has direct implications to the importance of blogs and the viral impact they have when it comes to companies that seek to promote ideas, products and/or services.

The Forrester Report segments the online audience into different strata termed a “ladder of participation” with rungs at the top end of the ladder representing a higher level of participation. To my surprise, "Inactives" are by far the dominant group (52%). They're followed by Spectators, Joiners, Collectors, Critics and lastly Creators.

Personally, I suppose I have been slowly climbing the ladder—which is odd since I am definitely and elevator or escalator kind of gal. However, with the conception of “The Assignment” it seems that I have finally made it to the top, the desirable 13% of US online adult consumers who are "Creators" meaning that I have “posted to a blog, updated a Web page, or uploaded video they created within the last month.”

Like in Chutes and Ladders, I think I fall through the “Critic” and “Collector” rung, I don’t really post reviews or tag anything. And only because I enjoy keeping in touch with my International friends, did I opt to join any social networks—I’ll admit I don’t have a MySpace page and I am proud of it. I must confess to reading reviews fanatically though, as well as a set staple of blogs for fun and for education everyday, and I am starting to enjoy You Tube a whole lot more. Yes, I am spend most of my precious free time firmly planted as a “Spectator” and I can’t get enough.

This chart above really delves into people’s true level of engagement with the web and subsequently its impact on PR and marketing. Considering all the articles out there about social networking sites and the rate at which blogs seem to grow and the importance of quick adaptation, perhaps we have all been too concerned over the smallest part of the ladder? This report seems to contradict everything we’ve heard lately and illustrates that the largest part of the ladder is comprised of who have no desire to participate.

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s recently published report has very important implications for corporations that are turning online messaging merely into a to-do list of technologies, and checking list items off one-by-one—including blogging, regardless of the audience it reaches or doesn’t reach. For many companies, the approach seems to have been to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

It’s the “what’s hot?” approach. If corporate blogging is mentioned as the latest thing, a slew of new corporate blogs appears. Product placement remains key, but now it’s how to get a popular blogger to mention it and then hope, fingers crossed, that it catches on. And companies seem to be excusing themselves, since we’ve heard time and again, online is the perfect market to test. I don’t believe that just because testing is available and easier to implement and there are emerging measures, try everything.

I believe that the key is to apply the IMC customer focus—focus on your audience and develop the right kind of communication strategy towards your core online customer depending on what you discover. STP (segment, targeting and positioning) is key, especially in an online environment. Send the right message the right way to the right target customer. If you do anything but, it may end up costing you your business and you won’t even know why. In addition to figuring out which social strategies to use first, Li suggests that the next logical step is to encourage your user to “climb up,” from being a “Spectator” to becoming more engaged.

Assignment: What about you? Where do you fall on the “Ladder of Participation”?