Technographics. Forrester’s Ladder just got a new Rung.

Januar 19th, 2010 • Comments Reports, Social, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Adaptation Marketing, Conversationalist, Diagram, Forrester, Groundswell, Model, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Strategy, Technographics, Tool, Tools, Twitter

In 2007 Forrester’s Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff introduced the world to the Groundswell model. It has become something like a standard (if there is one) in Social strategies, summarizing data-based strategies for companies that want to harness the power of social technologies. One key aspect of it was the Social Technographics Ladder that profiled users from all over the world according to their level of tech-savvyness in the social realm (plus, they offer a handy online tool too).

No doubt, the Technographics Ladder was a great first model to profile overlapping customer groups and their ability to move in the social space. And – what I liked most about it – Forrester fed it with up-to-date data to turn it into a valuable model for marketers. Nevertheless there were too few rungs on the ladder. We understood that there are Inactives, Spectators, Joiners, Critics and Creators…but something was missing.

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Foursquare. Seven days in Frankfurt.

November 27th, 2009 • Comments Allgemein
Tags: Android, Apps, Cool, Foursquare, Germany, Gowalla, GPS, Ideas, iPhone, Local, Location, Mobile, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Tool

Today’s topic may not be completely new for my American readers but probably for some of those from Germany. On November 19th the third wave of cities for Foursquare has launched. Among them now my hometown Frankfurt in Germany as well as about 50 new cities worldwide. It’s been around in a lot of bigger cities for quite some time. In Germany it’s now live in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Frankfurt. Zurich and Vienna are Foursquare cities in Switzerland and Austria.

So what is Foursquare? Basically it’s a local location based social network (I will use this word in the presence of my granny in the next couple of days). That means: You download a client to your iPhone or Android phone, connect with some friends and start your day in the city.

The big difference to…let’s say Facebook…is, it only works in specific cities (well…yet)  and it’s all about exploring and recommending locations and events. Let’s say for example, you know this fantastic little bar around the corner and you think the White Russian there deserves a little more attention – then you simply locate your favourite nightly hangout via GPS (or start a new venue) and leave a shout to all other Foursquare users in the area to make them try the White Russian here.

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