The meat of your message, the tools, and the tactics you use to reach your audience should always depend on who you audience is. Now, in the digital age, its more important than ever to have a solid understanding of your customers. All the hot platforms (social media, digital advertising, search engine optimization, corporate blogging, etc.) will do you no good if your customers aren’t active or effected by those mediums.

If you have a good understanding of your target audience, if you really know your customers, the next step is drilling down and understanding the “technographics” of your audience. Understanding how your audience uses technology will help you evaluate what the tools and tactics for communication will successful. Drilling down and figuring out how your audience adapts to technology will help define the digital tools that will work best for your target.

Forrester Research’s Groudswell has developed the “Consumer Profile Tool”, which can be used to develop a snapshot of the adoption levels of varying demographics. This provides a quick evaluation of the “technographic profile” of your customers. Select your basic demographics, and get some insight on how that demographic operates online.