European social networking report

By applying its Social Technographics segmentation model to the interactions of more than 13,000 European online adults, Forrester Research has revealed  the differences in the depth of consumers’ commitment to social technologies.

Forrester’s Social Technographics provides a comparable benchmark for marketers to use to evaluate consumers’ engagement with social technologies. T

he method profiles consumers along six levels of participation, from complete lack of interaction up to heavy engagement in original content creation:

Creators – Only 10 percent of online Europeans create content with social technologies.

Critics – 19 percent of online Europeans participate in activities such as posting on other people’s blogs or writing product reviews.

Collectors – Only 9 percent of online Europeans enjoy cataloguing and organizing Web content.

Joiners – 13 percent of online Europeans participate in social networks.

Spectators – 40 percent of online Europeans view and read social media content.

Inactives – 53 percent of online Europeans don’t engage with social technologies in any way.

“If your consumers aren't reading blogs or using RSS, and won't be for the next three years, then these social technologies don't call for significant investments,” writes Rebecca Jennings, Forrester senior analyst and lead author of the report. "Instead, focus on experimental spending to interact with the small percentage of your audience that is engaged, even if competitors appear to be investing heavily. It's not about which companies can get the most advanced social technologies up and running first — it's about achieving worthwhile engagement with your target audience.”

At a country level, the survey revealed considerable differences in adoption across Europe. Key findings include:

UK consumers like networking, but the French don't. In the UK, 21 percent of the online population participates in social networks, compared with 13 percent in Europe as a whole. However, in France, only four percent of the online population belongs to this group.

Dutch users are the most creative and Germans the least. In the Netherlands, 17 percent of online consumers create social media content, considerably more than the European average. At eight percent, online Germans have the smallest percentage of Creators, but they are more engaged than average.

Southern Europeans are less interested in social technologies overall. In Spain, online consumers are less active in all types of social activities, with just over one-third as many Joiners as is typical in Europe. Italians demonstrate a higher willingness than average to be Creators but are significantly less likely to be Collectors.

Sweden has the most active audience. Around 60 percent of online Swedes engage in some sort of social technology, even if it's just reading a forum, making Sweden the most active European country. Swedes are especially overrepresented in the Collector category, and the country has almost double the European average of Joiners.

An abstract of the report, “European Social Technographics Revealed,” and biography of the author is available at: http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44854