Data: B2B Buyers and Technology Decision Makers use Social Technologies

Social Technographics of Technology Decision Makers

You’ve heard of demographics (who people are) and psychographics (what they care about) but now, you must be aware of technographics (how people use technologies)

Forrester is known for it’s success with our consumer social technographics, how buyers use social media in their lives. Just this Monday, we released information on the B2B side, technology buyers and folks often within the enterprise lead by Oliver Young, and Laura Ramos (read their take)

I’m going to quote Josh who notes the following from the data:

Some highlights from this research (start by looking at the right two columns):

  • 91% of these technology decision-makers were Spectators — the highest number I’ve ever seen in a Social Technographics Profile. This means you can count on the fact that your buyers are reading blogs, watching user generated video, and participating in other social media. Note that 69% of them said they were using this technology for business purposes.
  • Only 5% are non-participants (Inactives).
  • 55% of these decision-makers were in social networks (Joiners) — despite as mature businesspeople and not college students, you’d think they’d be participating a lot less.
  • 43% are creating media (blogs, uploading videos or articles, etc.) and 58% are Critics, reacting to content they see in social formats. Again the numbers are very high compared to other groups we’ve surveyed, and again the level of participation for business purposes is also very high

    • The Social Technographics® Of Business Buyers

    Above: Oliver Young has created a slideshare deck, thumb through it to learn more.

    If your boss isn’t sure if social media is right for you, forward them this data and check out the full report, or download a free copy after registration.

    Data is a powerful tool (more than a panel of ‘social media gurus’) so use it to make business decisions –go beyond gut instincts and opinions.

    17 Replies to “Data: B2B Buyers and Technology Decision Makers use Social Technologies”

    1. Thanks for sharing these insights – as a Director of Marketing for a professional services firm, I’ve had to do a significant amount of re-thinking lately about the relationship between corporate branding and personal branding, paticulalry in regard to allocation of ever diminishing resources. Your information is driving me to the conclusion that it’s time to devote a lot more time, attention and resources to using social media as a business development tool.

    2. Douglas White – it’s interesting that you asked that question, because it is something Oliver and Laura (I worked with them on this project) were also very focused on. The underlying research breaks each category down by specific activity so the data can target it more closely than these broad buckets.

      The specific questions we asked are given on slide 8 of the embedded presentation. I hope that helps.

    4. Social media platforms are not only for the communicators but also for the business professionals. With the platforms business can communicate with the customers and can know their opinion.

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