Forrester colleagues Laura Ramos and Oliver Young have posted some initial conclusions from the big "Social Technographics" survey for this year, which details how social media inform and influence people buying technology. You can read about the survey on Oliver’s blog and Laura’s blog.

Needless to say, this is fascinating stuff. The survey looks at each kind of online behavior (content creation, critiquing content, joining groups, etc.), and then tells you how much people in different segments of the population engage in these behaviors. Here’s an example:

For product marketers, these data tell you how to reach your target audience. For product managers, the same information is critical for tapping social media as a new source of requirements data.

Here are a couple of important links:

[Cross-posted at The Heretech.]