Analyst group Forrester Research has updated its infamous Technographics ladder, which highlights key consumer groups depending on online habits and behaviour in the social space.

Part of the company’s Groundswell project (the best-selling book based on various reports produced by Forrester), the updated version of the graph now includes ‘conversationalists’. Co-authors Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li describe this new super-social group as containing people that update some form of social network at least once a week, accounting for 33% of the online population.

The new report contains a few results that may surprise some, with conversationalists being mainly female and 70% aged 30 or older (though it’s worth noting that the data is US only, and that under 18’s weren’t included in the 10,000 participants). Forrester’s surveys also “indicate that there are actually even more people conversing this way through Facebook”, instead of network of the moment, Twitter.

2010’s update also shows a certain amount of growth within the uptake of social media across the board, with almost 60% of Internet users visiting social networking sites or maintain profiles. Around 25% actually get involved in publishing blogs, video or other creative content – but that number is increasing slowly, rising to 24% from 18% two years ago.

The original objective for the ladder was to help profile Internet user activity within social realms like blogs, forums, wikis, RSS and networking sites, but it is broadly used by digital agencies, social media consultants during consumer profiling, ahead of creating an online strategy. It’s not exactly a game-changer, but provides solid evidence when pitching or trying to secure senior buy-in to invest in online activity.