Consumer Technology

About

With the commercialization of virtual and augmented realities, the development of autonomous cars, and smart-tech creeping into our home appliances, 2016 brought what was once simply the dreams of science fiction to the forefront of technological conversations.

To gauge the social trends of 2016 and predict where consumer technology is headed in 2017, Brandwatch analyzed 7 million mentions about technology from new phone releases to the ever-growing ‘Internet-of-Things.’ In today’s technology climate, customer-centered innovation will be imperative.

Today’s Technology Consumers

Consumer electronics are so pervasive, there is virtually no demographic worth leaving untapped. However, analyzing social data reveals the relationship between brands or products and specific groups of consumers.

Generational Differences

While Millennial targeting has been a focus of consumer technology brands and consumer products as a whole, social data suggests a diversity among consumers who discuss the biggest tech releases, products, and companies online.

In fact, consumers in ‘Generation X’ tend to be significantly more vocal about home appliances, wearables, and fitness tracking technology than their younger counterparts.

Gender of Technology Audience

Conversations surrounding most tech companies are dominated by male authors. On average, a third of the conversations about consumer technology comes from women.

However, the variation of gender composition in audience participation provides insights into what types of electronics reach and prompt discussion in men and women.

Psychographics of Tech Consumers

The people discussing large technology products and brands are quite unique from consumers within other industries.

Compared to the average consumer discussing brands online, technology consumers are significantly more likely to be software developers, and significantly less likely to be interested family and parenting.

The more technologically savvy customers get, the more finding and discussing innovation in consumer electronics matters.

Understanding the savviness of today’s electronics consumer, 2017 messaging should be geared towards technological use and innovation.

Newness for the sake of novelty is not enough to excite today’s tech consumers.

Innovation on Facebook

Using Facebook content to intelligently convey products’ value is essential to social marketing. The type of content consumer technology brands share on Facebook accumulates different responses.

Unsurprisingly, the most discussed and distributed post on Facebook was a video highlighting innovative technology from 2016: Nintendo previewed their new convertible gaming console.

Innovation on Twitter

Out of all other industries, consumer tech brands produce among the most shared content on Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter is one of the most important platforms for consumer technology companies to use to market inventive developments and new products. Huge tech events surrounding product reveals and releases increase the use of adjectives related to innovation.