Online engagement

This chart shows the level of participation among American adults who go online. Most people are still passive, either lurking or not even checking out blogs, podcasts, social networks, and the like. They might be considered the traditional music audience -- those who are content to be entertained rather than wanting to be part of the show.

Micro Persuasion: The Participation Ladder and Its Impact on Marketing and PR

Here's more about the report that generated the Participation Ladder.

Groundswell (Incorporating Charlene Li's Blog): Forrester’s new Social Technographics report: "Many companies approach social computing as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed – a blog here, a podcast there – to achieve a marketing goal. But a more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for. Forrester categorizes social computing behaviors into a ladder with six levels of participation; we use the term 'Social Technographics' to describe analyzing a population according to its participation in these levels. Brands, Web sites, and any other company pursuing social technologies should analyze their customers' Social Technographics first, and then create a social strategy based on that profile."