Social media is not child’s play. That’s the central message of a new Forrester Research report that shows adults using social networking sites in big numbers. Some of the report’s findings:

• A third of adults post at least once a week to social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
• A quarter of adults publish a blog and upload video/audio they created.
• Nearly 60% maintain a profile on a social networking site.
• 70% Read blogs, tweets and watch UGC video.

On Groundswell, one of the Forrester blogs, Josh Bernoff suggests three ways you can use the data:

• Convince your boss this stuff is for real, and that if you haven’t jumped on it, you’re late
• Profile your customer base, and see what they’re ready for, before planning a project to reach out to them. (After all, People is the first step in the POST process.)
• Segment your audience; build different strategies for different segments. (Social is so prevalent now that a single approach for your company is probably too broad.)

Don’t write off the importance of social media, especially at the local level. Those small numbers of Twitter followers you see each have an average following of 126 users. When you multiply the number of your users times 126, you get a big number of people who can retweet your stuff.

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