Technology Adoption Affects Social Computing Adoption And Brand Affinity

To better understand the effect of technology adoption on marketing, Forrester segmented online consumers into three groups: Early Adopters, Mainstream Consumers, and Sidelined Citizens. Early Adopters lead the way in terms of Social Computing adoption and participation; marketing investments in them will pay greater dividends, as these users have greater affinity to brands and are more likely to become active brand advocates through their use of Social Computing technologies. But don't count Mainstream Consumers and Sidelined Citizens out — they still have significant social influence that savvy marketers can tap, especially on social networking sites they frequent.