New social media user types unveiled

by Hayley Pinkerfield, Revolution UK 28-Jun-07, 11:50

LONDON - Forrester Research has unveiled a new method of categorising consumers based on how they use social media, finding that UK users are mainly networkers.

European online consumers are broken down into those who publish (9 per cent), comment (18 per cent), network (1 per cent), gather information (12 per cent), listen (49 per cent) and ignore all these activities (41 per cent). UK users are mainly networkers who prefer to visit social media sites and make occasional comments. French users are most likely to read blogs and reviews, while the Dutch are by far the most active users, publishing the most blogs and web pages. The Spanish like to comment and Italians gather information, while Germans are inclined to ignore most social media.

The ‘Social Technographics' study, revealed at Commission Junction University, is the latest attempting to better understand social media consumption. The industry also learnt that social network users have little loyalty to sites such as MySpace and Facebook, as nearly half have profiles on multiple sites. This is according to a report by market research firm Parks Associates. Networking sites are also split along socio-economic divides, according to University of Berkeley research released this week.

Sarah Gavin, global communications director, Bebo, said: "While we don't share our data, we talk to our advertisers about user demographic and target on that basis. Using Bebo is a lifestyle choice, and our users represent a cross-section of society from every walk of life."