Social Media takeover continues in 2009.. Now with ladders!

This year's Forrester report is out on social media.

Findings we know: We're all online, and social media's here to stay.
New things: Very specific facts from Forrester, and a nice visualisation.  Yes please, we like visuals.

Cleverly putting people into "social technographic profiles", or as we know it 'a ladder', using the same diagram, over three years it's easy to look at the three diagrams and find the changes over time.

Revealing what we already guessed: at least four out of five Americans are online, creating or participating in, or reading some form of social content, say formal findings by Forrester.

The important bits are that at least four out of five Americans are active in creating or participating in social content AND similarly completely inactive users are a shrinking kind down from 44% to 18%.  Whilst this might seem obvious, remember this is a survey of all age-groups and therefore a conclusion that might not be so obvious.

Interestingly, creator content hasn't changed.  This is genuinely interesting, referring specifically to bloggers, site builders, and youtube-style uploaders.  The report makes a key point: whilst sites may be making it increasingly easy to add your own content, it's "temperament not technology" that leads to people creating media.

Social networkers dubbed as "joiners" numbers have risen.  Exploded in fact - as have "spectators".  Joiner doesn't refer to Facebook stalking as it might suggest, but blog readers, podcast listeners, video watchers, and other non-involved activities such as reading online forums.  They might not be talking to the other people making and watching it, but they're a massive party watching it.

Essentially the Forrester report says we've all become a little less passive and disinterested - and social media's not a fad.