In 2007 a friend told me about this fairly new service called Facebook. It seemed interesting so I joined. I also had to join my university network as this was a prerequisite to use the service. Indeed, at the beginning my few Facebook friends were peers. Little by little more friends joined as they found Facebook and joining became simpler. Now, almost ten years later, most of my Facebook connections still are pretty much same age as me, but I think the majority is older than me. Especially my middle-aged family members and acquaintances have taken over my Facebook newsfeed.
Statistics show that this is a common trend: in the US less than two-fifths of Facebook’s adult user base is aged 18 to 34, whereas Facebook is the most popular social media platform among social media users aged 65+.
In recent years relatively biggest increase of the Facebook use has taken place among people over 40 years. Social media specialist Harri Pönkä calls Facebook “the social media platform for adults of all ages”, since although users under 20 still are the most active group, quantitatively there are more elders than them.
I find this development quite interesting from the content marketing point of view. Social media hasn’t been the preferred communication media for consumers born before 1981, as shown in this chart. Nevertheless, it’s obvious that there has been a shift towards social media use in older generations.
This proves the importance of target group analysis. Of course there are other demographics to be considered besides age, but age is one of the most important. When you know which social media platforms the adolescence uses and which ones are preferred by adults, it’s a lot easier to decide where to market your content and how to market it. Of course it’s also useful to realize that even the baby boomers can be approached through content marketing.
Nice that you brought this fact up! Social media platforms / Hangout places used to be for teenagers- young adults (Anyone else remember ii2 or Irc-galleria?) And I think all of us can see the change happening. Even the grandmom's are using Facebook. And they should use it, think about it, aged people usually live alone and feel them selves lonely. Sometimes familymembers have hard time to find time to visit grandparents.With social media grannie can stay in touch with family, or at least feel connected, when reading Facebook walls. I also agree with Kia, that you need to know where your target market hangs out and even the baby boomers are at the internet. This was interesting reading!
VastaaPoistaSuch a good text Kia! I don't want to share my crazy party photos etc. to Facebook anymore because even my grandfather is there (he is 85 years old..). About two years ago anybody "adult" haven't Instagram account, now things have changed. Still, I think that social media channels is for everyone and after all.. It's a great thing!
VastaaPoistaThis is a really good text and really good subject too. I think your writing really gives me an answer that I have wondered for quite long time. I have been wondering that why do I have different commercials on the Facebook pages than my friend has, who is almost ten years younger me. I guess it is because I was born before 1981 and commercials that I get are for much older people. My parents or grandparents are not in the social media and I think it is really good thing. Would not like here any moral lectures at this age of mine ;)
VastaaPoistaI think social media is ONE good way to do marketing. What would happen if one day technology would die and we were at the very first step like in the ice-ages?
Thanks for blogging about this subject! I was born in 1988 and I used to update my Facebook account a lot but during these past couple of years more and more my older relatives have joined there and I didn't feel so comfortable being on Facebook anymore. I decided to go for Instagram and Snapchat :) In my opinion it's quite shocking to see your older family members posting something that you would never post yourself. So far Facebook has showed me some marketing that is suitable for people who are at my age category. Sometimes I have even found great companies I had never heard of before and now I'm their customer. Only time will tell us if younger people give up on Facebook in the future..
VastaaPoistaI was just wondering how many over 40 years olds there are in social media when I was going through the material in the second chapter. So thank you for bringing this up!
VastaaPoistaI think that in the future there will be even larger percentage of older people because for example when we are "the older" Facebook and internet aren't new things what they are for example to my grandparents who have never used a computer.
Excellent topic and point of view. I'm 42 and have seen us elderly people taking over the Facebook & younger generations fleeing to e.g. instant messaging (WhatsApps) and video streaming (Snapchats)... :-) Interesting to see, if wearables will go mainstream in coming years, is e.g. voice messages coming back? Or what is new method of communicating, do you know "Yo-app"? :-)
VastaaPoistaThank you all for the comments! Development is developing at such a rapid speed it gets quite difficult to stay aware of all the existing social media platforms and apps. For example the "Yo app" - never had heard of that one before :D
VastaaPoistaIs the "Yo-app" taking over the instant messaging, WhatsApp, Snapchat etc. now? This is interesting to see how it develops every day even more faster...
VastaaPoistaThis is actually quite interesting how much it can affect when older people join social media. My parents don't use social media, but a lot of my friends' parents do, and quite often it feels awkward to post something they can also see. I have kinda drifted away from facebook. I use it mostly to keep in touch with some people with whom I don't talk in whatsapp for some reason.
VastaaPoistaThis is very interesting topic. I like that you told us about your and your friends' experiences with Facebook. When I joined Facebook there were almost no "old people" there. It is interesting to think how they suddenly took over Facebook.
VastaaPoistaThis is very interesting topic. I like that you told us about your and your friends' experiences with Facebook. When I joined Facebook there were almost no "old people" there. It is interesting to think how they suddenly took over Facebook.
VastaaPoista