Anderson Analytics has a social network typing tool. Essentially it’s a few questions that type users and then place them on a graphic of how social networks are being used relative to concerns with using them. As noted in the post on Mashable, the report intended to track behaviors, lifestyle interests, spending habits and income levels of the users. If you take the survey you can find your own social media user ‘type’ (me, I’m a ‘fun seeker’ but am assured I’m on my way to being a social media maven. I’m told that I’m part of a pool that averages 29 years).
But what caught my eye on the survey was the list of interests that respondents are asked to identify the frequency with which they seek information online, that included national news, sports and dating, was parenting. Is parenting a category of information used to place people into types, or is it additional information gleaned from the survey that is used in their marketing reports? Probably the latter because there’s no indication in the description of users about interests from that list of 9.
Parents use social media but their responses to the questions on the survey that would type them as users probably have more to do with how much the use of SNS for business purposes (e.g., marketing themselves, networking) and/or for social purposes, and their time and interest in use of technology – as it does for everyone else. Where the parenting piece probably enters is the use of SNS to make contact with other parents they already know (social) or meet others to exchange information about parenting and/or be social (these are not the same thing and can exist separately).
iParent 