Today, Forrester Research Inc.,(Nasdaq: FORR) unveils Peer Influence Analysis, an analytical framework designed to help marketers reach a critical segment of social media influencers and scale their word-of-mouth marketing efforts. Peer Influence Analysis gives marketing and strategy professionals insight into the demographics and behaviors of what Forrester calls Mass Influencers — the army of social influencers who generate the majority of impressions and opinions about a company’s products and services. Forrester estimates that in 2009, these Mass Influencers were responsible for more than 500 billion consumer-generated brand impressions. Peer Influence Analysis is grounded in Forrester’s Consumer Technographics®, which surveys more than 250,000 consumers worldwide each year about how technology affects the way they select, purchase, use, and communicate about products and services.

In the new report “Peer Influence Analysis,” Forrester estimates that these Mass Influencers, who make up just 16 percent of all online Americans, are responsible for 80 percent of the brand impressions in online social settings.

“Social media has created a new type of influencer — one defined not merely by number of friends or frequency of dialogue but by both,” said Forrester Research Senior Analyst Augie Ray. “Brands can succeed with Mass Influencers by creating programs that energize large numbers of these enthusiasts. The challenge is that marketers do not and cannot know the identity of the vast majority of their Mass Influencers. Thus, they need ways to reach them en masse, not individually.”

“The power of Peer Influence Analysis is that it arms marketers with knowledge about the Mass Influencers in their specific markets so that they can devise the right word-of-mouth strategies,” said Forrester Senior Vice President, Idea Development, and Groundswell co-author Josh Bernoff. “Because our ongoing Technographics data service collects data on Mass Influencers in more than 30 product categories, we can perform a peer influence analysis for almost any industry or demographic or behavioral category.”

Forrester reports on the topic of peer influence include “Peer Influence Analysis,” by Augie Ray and Josh Bernoff, and “Tapping The Entire Online Peer Influence Pyramid,” by Augie Ray.To learn more about how Forrester can analyze the peer influence data for your company’s products and services, go to http://www.forrester.com/piaconsultingdata.

Augie Ray and Josh Bernoff will be presenting more about Peer Influence Analysis at the Forrester Marketing Forum 2010, April 22-23, 2010 in Los Angeles.

About Consumer Technographics®

Forrester Consumer Technographics is the largest and longest-running survey of technology’s effect on consumers. Since 1997, Forrester has surveyed more than 2 million households and individuals worldwide and today provides data and insights on consumers in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Marketing and strategy professionals rely on Forrester’s Consumer Technographics data for unique insights into how technology affects the way consumers select, purchase, use, and communicate about products and services. For more information, visit www.forrester.com/consumertechno.