What are we all doing online?

There seems to be some questions about what people are doing online.  I thought I would share some slides from a presentation we put together for a client last year .  Even through the client's core target was an older demo, we felt that social media was appropriate and provided an exciting avenue for them to pursue.  

Firstly we wanted to establish that social media participation can be many things.  It is not all about FB and liking!  I could vomit every time i hear about someone wanting to pursue a SM strategy.  And and and we think a FB Fan Page would be awesome.  Why? 

There is so much you can do.  You need to be creative and brave.  A good place to start is with some research.

Source: Nielsen Online Consumer Generated Media Report 2008-09: Separating Hype from Reality.  


We started looking at how their demo 45+ Males engaged with others and how much effort they where likely to exert... "what can we get them to do".

As per data bellow we can see that they where definitely active on social media and their participation levels was growing fast (mostly as viewers) albeit from a low base.   Realistically getting them to post an image of them selves pulling a face was unrealistic, but they are reading and gathering information.

 

Source: Nielsen Online Consumer Generated Media Report 2008-09: Separating Hype from Reality. 


Of course the obvious step was to identify what they do in the social space.   The fact that they are spectators drove the strategy to be about putting info out there (seeding conversation) for them to stumble upon. 

Anyhow this post is about some of the data that can help drive your strategy. My personal tips are make it easy to participate, inclusive not exclusive and make it fun or provide some sort of value for their contribution. Be relevant not boring :-o

Source:  Forrester Research Consumer Technographics Data, Part of Forresters Groundswell Content