Forrester Research Identifies New Segment of Web Users: Conversationalists

If you’re an avid Facebook user, you may have noticed an interesting development. Over the last year or so, the number of older users (older being a subjective term referring to users 35 and up) has increased dramatically on Facebook. We first wrote about this development over the summer, and it hasn’t stopped since. In fact, it this increase of older users that has helped propel Facebook to its current gargantuan size, more than 350 million users worldwide.

It’s not just Facebook that’s seen an explosion of older users either. Across the board, social media websites are seeing an increase in the number of older users. What’s more, they are not only signing up for the sites, but actively participating in conversations and creating new content. Of course, “participating” can mean a lot of things. Are you participating if you’re on Twitter, but only follow and don’t tweet? What if you leave comments on blogs, but don’t have a blog yourself?

Recently, Forrester Research created a pretty cool graphic that visualizes web users as rungs of a ladder. In analyzing this new wave of older social media users, they came up with a new category: Conversationalists. Conversationalists are social media users who use social networking websites to have, well, you know, conversations. Forrester deemed an individual a conversationalist if they posted an update to a social networking website or shared a Twitter update at least once a week. Some of the other categories on the list include Creator (that’s me), Critic, and Spectator.

Where do you fall on the Internet usage ladder?

Truthfully, my Internet behavior would place me on multiple rungs of the ladder, and, increasingly, I would say that’s the case with the majority of web users. As people become more and more aware that their actions online have consequences in the real world, we are seeing an increase the number of people who actively focus on personal branding and reputation management. If Forrester releases another version of this graphic next year, I’m willing to bet that the number of creators will rise substantially.

For more analysis of Forrester’s findings, check out this article from the Wall Street Journal as well as Liz Gannes’ excellent coverage at GigaOm.