Being digitally savvy

Only 7 percent of Angelenos fall into that category, far fewer than the 12 percent in Austin, Texas, according to a new Scarborough Research report. To give you an idea, Vegas, Sacramento and San Diego were near the top of the rankings, at 10 percent; Green Bay, Wisc. was dead last, at 1 percent. The national average was 6 percent. So what does it take to be a digitally savvy consumer? Scarborough identifies 18 areas that cover high tech products and usage. To make the grade, you must check off at least eight of them.

PRODUCTS
--PDA
--Digital Video Recorder
--Satellite radio
--Voice over IP
--MP3 player
--HDTV

INTERNET USAGE
--Online banking
--Read or contribute to blogs
--Gaming
--Download podcasts
--Download audio
--Download video
--Instant messages

CELL PHONE USAGE
--Download ring tones/video games
--Email
--Messaging (instant, picture of text)
--Stream video
--Other Internet

A relatively small urban market like Austin tends to fare better than, say, Los Angeles or even SF. "Everybody thinks San Francisco should be No. 1, but we measure the designated market area, a rather large geography defined by Nielsen Media Research," Gary Meo, senior VP-print and digital media services at Scarborough Research, told Ad Age. "So with San Francisco we're not just talking about Silicon Valley. It also includes the East Bay, Santa Clara County and up north as far as Sonoma County." Vegas does well because so many folks use cell phones and have broadband access.

What else does the Scarborough report say about the digitally savvy? Members of this segment are most likely to be men between the ages of 25 and 34. They are also likely to be affluent, with 57% living in a household that earns more than $75,000 a year, and well-educated, with 36% having earned a college degree or higher, as opposed to 24% of the total population. And the cohort is more likely to be Asian or U.S.-born Hispanic. Digitally savvy folks also tend to be entrepreneurial, as they're more likely to be self-employed, work at home or own a small business compared to the general population.

Here's the Scarborough report.