Technographics, Socialgraphics, Mobilegraphics… Oh My!

The world of communication has forever changed. Along with the shift in communications we are also seeing a shift in the way we as marketers must engage with our customers. The methods of mass communication by defining large markets through demographics, geographics, psychographics and consumer behavior have proven to become too generic for the new, empowered, overly-communicated consumer. By wanting to be engaged as individuals, consumers are demanding better understanding on a personal level. To become better marketers and continue to provide content and products that consumers will want to integrate into their lifestyle, we need to dig deeper and better define our consumers and what goes on in their personal, daily lifestyles.

One major factor attributing to the shift in communication is the shift to a more digital world. Enhancements in Web 2.0 technologies, mobile devices, and real-time information have created a more engaged customer. Therefore to better understand our customers and their digital behaviors, we need to add a few more definitional parameters; Technographics, Socialgraphics, and Mobilegraphics.

Technographics: The understanding of how a user interacts with technology, what technologies they interact with, and the involvement level of these interactions.

Socialgraphics: The understanding of how social the user is. What platforms they use; how often; what is their influence within their network; who are the people that influence them; what content do they share, interact with, and find beneficial; what are their affinity connections?

Mobilegraphics: As an extension of technographics and socialgraphics, we need to look at how users gather information on the go. Does our customer use a smartphone; do they email from their phones; do they use social apps on their phones; does their phone have internet connectivity; how often do they interact with their devices; etc?

When creating any type of integrated marketing campaign in today’s world, we need to really drill down and understand how our customers utilize the digital world in their daily lives. By defining our customers with these additional parameters, we will have a better holistic view of the individual within our smaller niches markets, forever enhancing our communications’ effectiveness.