a book I am reading...

For a part of my social media class we are reading Groundswell a book about how the Internet is changing the way we consumer products, services, and how to market to these people.

As a part of this reading my professor wanted us to analyze the different between age groups and their place on the social technology ladder.

For example 80% of people between the ages of 18-24 [my age group] consider themselves Spectators of this social media revolution. People who have profiles [Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace], but do not actively participate in the features of the page on a daily basis. However, 74% of this age group defines themselves as Joiners. This is people who are using the main features of these sites, and also joining more sites or actively reading blogs or Tweets. The numbers here are all above the overall average, even including the most active in the social media ladder - the Creators.

So I decided to take this opportunity to test my interest in an older generation...these people are who, I think, are using a lot of these foodie sites that I keep looking into. I was curious where they stand in comparison to my generation. So I looked at people between the ages of 35-44. The profiler clearly shows that this generations is not as active in social media as the first, but the thng I find most interesting is that 71% are Spectators. This is important to my interest in how people communicate about food through social media, because this is a main target of people...and they aren't all INACTIVE. Further, this generation of people are above the average in almost all of the "rungs" of the ladder. This proves to me that people, no matter the age, are not denying the social media evolution. Instead they are embracing it benefits!


This is a really great book, and a really cool profile thing to play with. Check it out and see where you stand. http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html

Cheers!