Wow, that's a mouthful huh?  Ok, so let me explain…

The follow/follower model in social technologies creates self-organizing communities where those who "follow" someone or something are publicly stating a preference or interest in what that person says/does or what that brand provides.  This is not limited to Twitter but also applies to Facebook fan pages, LinkedIn company pages, etc.

Psychographics are "attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles" and cut across traditional demographic segments (industry, role, geography, etc.). 

Reaching a target segment based on psychographic attributes can be tricky as that is not what the traditional marketing playbook is designed to support.  The key is to identify where those with these attributes gather, share, and collaborate with each other and then to engage in a way that utilizes the same attributes.  In other words, don't be stupid once you identify who you want to reach and engage with shallow ads, cheesy promotions, etc.  Know your audience and what makes them tick – that is why you are doing psychographic segmenting in the first place.

So back to the title of this post and "self-organizing psychographic market segments" for a moment.  Let's say you have a productivity product that will completely revolutionize task management – the "next generation to do list."  That's awesome.  Who uses "to do lists?"  Well, just about eveyrbody so demographic segmentation will not be overly effective.

Try this – go to Twitter search and identify a few folks who talk about productivity, discuss workplace efficiency, or preach David Allen's getting things done (GTD) gospel.  How?  Start with searching on #gtd, #productivity, and #work and see where that takes you. 

Using David Allen as an example, he has over 1.3 million Twitter followers who cut across demographic segments but who have self-organized around an influencer and possess the psychographic attributes you are seeking.

This is, of course, only the beginning of the process with reach and engagement being the next and more quantifiable activity.  A topic for another post.

Hope this is helpful and happy to discuss further.  Email me, leave a comment below, or reach me on Twitter @ReplyToAll.

Photo from Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/florianpainke/4500254335/