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  • Age Doesn’t Matter (Really!) in Social Media

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    Posted on January 25, 2010 at 10:22 am



    No, I’m not writing about the 47-year old man leering after teenage girls on Facebook. Forrester Research, a respected source of online research, just published a study this week about the new demographics of social media (“Introducing The New Social Technographics”). While their report focuses on a newly defined technographic segment—the Conversationalists (which, BTW, are folks who update their status on a social network at least once a week)—there are very salient and updated demographics on who is using social media today.

    Did you know that 83% of Americans use online social networks? Recent figures released on eMarketer show that 33.6% of all Americans are active on Facebook monthly. It’s not just college students who are online—37% of those active Facebook users are over the age of 34.

    Forrester also reported that “Older adults have begun to adopt social networks at a much more rapid pace. Age had historically been the best predictor for whether people participate in social activities. The younger the age, the more likely they will participate. This is not the case any longer.”

    If you had any doubts that YOUR clients were online much less using social networks, think again. And look for our study coming out shortly, Finding and Working with Professionals on the Web. You can email us at gbmarketing@gbltd.com and we’ll send you a copy when the report is released.

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    Comments

    Comment from Rich Reilly January 25, 2010 at 10:39 am

    Perhaps 83% of Americans use social media networks…but I’ll bet half of those are like my Mom…i.e. someone who is on Facebook but rarely if ever uses it because – as she so eloquently puts it “… I have too much trouble connecting to my modem and getting “in line” on the “InterWeb”

    Uh-huh…still has an old VCR that blinks 12:00, 12:00, 12:00 24/7 too.

    Comment from Burkey Belser January 25, 2010 at 8:12 pm

    You are probably right, Rich (Hi!). Your “microphone reporting” is pretty funny. Still I believe my generation (your mom’s) are kicking up more interest than just dust. Nothing is more important to Boomers than relevance. The question I jotted down on the back of an envelope last week was, “Retirement is not an option. Relevance is. How we ‘retire’ is related directly to how relevant we wish to remain.” Personally, I’m juiced about the InterWeb and going in line, if I could just get my skates laced up. Honey!!

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Brand Thinkers

Gayatri Bhalla

Gayatri Bhalla, Principal of Interactive Marketing, has over a dozen years of experience in the interactive marketing and strategy disciplines. She brings a depth of understanding and experience with new media platforms and knows how to marry marketing with meaningful technologies.

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