Nearly three years ago, Forrester Research released a study of Social Media where they grouped Internet users into six segments of social media usage, dubbed Social Technographic Profiles. These six profiles – Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators, and Inactives, became widely used in the industry to describe the behaviors of consumers in social media, and to help inform corporate social media strategies.

This week, Forrester announced a new segment to be added to the Social Technographics Profiles – the Conversationalists. Conversationalists are social media users who update their status on Twitter or a social networking site (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) at least once a week. They are less involved than Creators, who write blogs, create content, or publish websites. But they are more expressive than Critics who simply post reviews, comment on others’ blogs, or contribute to forums.

The newly updated Forrester Social Technographics Ladder (Note: Segments are not mutually exclusive, therefore the percentages do not add up to 100%).

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Industry vet and popular Web Strategy blogger Jeremiah Owyang announced his departure from Forrester Research last week – and he has now confirmed he’ll be joining fellow former Forrester alum Charlene Li at Altimeter Group, a firm that provides strategic advice on how companies can tap into emerging technologies to address pressing business issues.

In light of the news, we’ve asked Jeremiah a few questions about his next move.

[360i]: Why make this move now?

[Jeremiah Owyang]: Being an industry analyst provided a unique opportunity to assess the direction of the market. It’s clear to me where the direction the industry is headed – companies need an on-boarding process for any new technology that’s coming –not just social.

[360i]: How do you anticipate working with agencies?

[JO]: What makes Altimeter different is that we want to work with a variety of implementers – agency, technology and thought leaders – to assemble the right team for companies. Currently, Altimeter is already working with agencies; in fact two clients are agencies and benefit from market visibility, education and introducing her to the right folks in the space. One of the great opportunities for agencies to work with us is that we can introduce them to a wider array of folks they may not have already known.

[360i]: How will this affect your blogging?

[JO]: I love blogging, it’s a great way for me to share – and learn from commenters. I’m going to have more time to focus on blogging, and plan to explore how social evolves to the real world with location aware social networks and devices.

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Facebook’s self-service ads aren’t the best option for major branding initiatives, but they can go a long way for targeted campaigns (image via Flickr).

The self-service ad model may not be the secret to Facebook’s future fortunes, but it presents marketers with some largely untapped opportunities for reaching the most precisely targeted audiences online.

If you talk to Facebook’s users about advertising, you’ll hear a number of criticisms. Some say it’s brash or irrelevant. Many others don’t notice it at all. I’d expect many consumers wouldn’t even think of the best ads as advertising, such as those ads for TV show or movie premieres on the homepage where you RSVP if you’re going. Some of the worst problems with the site’s advertising have been minimized, such as those in my musings last summer on Facebook’s ‘Jewhavioral’ targeting and overly personal weight loss ads.

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Forrester’s report cites brands that put down the megaphone and sparked dialogue with their audience (Image via ABC).

Forrester’s Sean Corcoran recently authored an article for interactive marketing professionals called “Using Social Applications in Ad Campaigns: How Marketers Can Move from Broadcast to Dialogue.” 360i and client H&R Block were cited in the report as an example for how marketers can use campaigns to build long-term channels.

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Forrester’s Marketing Forum offered a bunch of thought-provoking subjects we’ll probably be chewing on for awhile. One that should spark more conversation is the Starbucks and Blast Radius presentation on the (STARBUCKS) RED holiday campaign that melded the complementary hobbies of caffeination and philanthropy.

The presentation referenced how Starbucks considered paid media (search engine marketing, display media, offline media buys, etc) and earned media (blog posts, comments, video uploads – exposures that aren’t bought directly) (see our coverage of Fred Wilson’s Ad Age presentation on earned media earlier this month). There was a third bucket included here: owned media – all of the assets that the marketer owns that can be used in a campaign, from websites to brick and mortar locations. (Here’s coverage of the presentation.)

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360i’s live in the front row of Forrester’s Marketing Forum, so we’ll share some highlights of the coverage here (some more rambling, messier, but detailed notes are at my own blog).

Forrester Principal Analyst Shar VanBoskirk set the stage with an energetic presentation about risk taking. I had talked with Shar about this last month, when she asked some bloggers for feedback on her idea for the keynote, and surprisingly the feedback I gave (which she kindly credited) inspired a lot of her discussion.

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Paying the hand that blogs (hpebley3via Flickr).

Forrester Research published a report discussing the value in paying bloggers to talk about your brand. According to the story, the time to use “sponsored conversations” is when the brand can’t interest bloggers without additional incentive. Marketers considering this approach may want to ask themselves: Would the blogger inherently write about it editorially because it provides value to the readership? If you can’t get your product on the radar with bloggers, it might be worthwhile to rethink your product strategy and pitch when approaching the blogger. Why should they discuss your brand and product? What would be of interest to their readers? Read the full article