Old-Timers Invade Facebook in 2009
January 15th, 2009 by Tim Allik
Is it just me, or is Facebook being invaded by the over-40 set in 2009?
My aunt, still youthful in her late 60′s, is one of the latest converts. She’s all over FB and blogging up a storm. Is it just me and my family?
It turns out it’s not just me at all. Although I prefer to operate under the delusion that I am unique, once again I am proven to be just an average guy.
Indeed, Businessweek cites a a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project that adult Internet users are joining social networks like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn at a much faster clip than teenagers these days.
“The research group found that some 35% of online adults now have at least one profile on a social networking site, more than quadruple the amount that did in February 2005, when the figure was 8%. Compared with teenagers – who flocked to these sites early on but then slowed down in adoption – the number of grown-ups jumping on the social media bandwagon has roughly doubled every 18 months over the past four years.”
This development isn’t surprising to me in the least. Older folks tend to be more socially isolated than college students — lucky youngsters who still have the opportunity to meander down the hallway and knock on the door of a friend, even if it’s 2 o’clock in the morning. At the same time, older people often have wide networks of friends and acquaintances near and far, the result of their years of life experience. So social networks provide a catalyst for interaction that is tremendously valuable for them.
The BusinessWeek article says the older demographic on social networks could serve as a boon to marketers looking to tap into “mature consumers with discretionary income.” I’m a little more skeptical about that. Efforts to coax teens and college students into parting with their money by advertising on social networks have so far been mixed at best. But the demographic shift certainly means that social networks are more valuable from a public relations perspective.
If you’re looking to communicate your company’s message and engage with your customers economically and efficiently, a presence on social networks is a must-have these days.
Now, according to the Pew report, you can be sure that there are adults out there who are eager to share in the conversation.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Marketing, online communities, Social Networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
January 24th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I see this same trend in my personal life. More and more friends, families, relatives from the boomer generation are putting up Facebook pages.