35+ year-old users dominating social networks?
Read or listen to only mainstream media and one could feel snug thinking that online social networks are the realm of youth, of those in search of the trends yet to come. But something is happening to upset this misconception. The online world is aging, gracefully, or else oldsters are thinking younger.
According to comScore Media Metrix, oldsters between the ages of 35 to 54 now account for a little over 40 percent of the MySpace membership, which is a 10-percent increase in just the past year. And in the currently more-trendy Facebook, the percentage of member who are teenagers has dropped in half, now making up just 12 percent of users.
The data is solid. A significant amount of the explosive growth in these two communities has been due to old people, anyone older than 35. Another relevant statistic that marketers are only now beginning to embrace: The number of Internet users who are older than 55 is roughly the same as those who are between 18 and 34, claims Nielsen/NetRatings. In the UK alone, reports Hitwise, the percentage of users older than 55 using online social networks increased from 9.3 percent to 15.3 percent between 2006 and 2007.
These older online community users are not only embedding themselves in mass-appeal sites like Facebook or MySpace, they are providing the foundations for the niche, or vertical, markets.
In the US, venture capitalists in Silicon Valley are substantively investing in online communities for those over 40. Why?
Social capital.
Relevant online and offline, social capital is the commitment of the new user to develop and establish their presence within a community and the development of a binding network of relationships. Once this social capital has been committed to a specific network, the reluctance to engage another community, and expend the energy to start over, becomes greater. Studies suggest that as one becomes older, one becomes more selective as to where one commits social capital. Users entering middle age, or already there, tend to value their online interactions in more substantive ways than much younger users. They show strong motivation to stick with a particular online community over the long-term. Relevance and utility, in addition to the add-value lure of niche communities, make this demographic compelling for marketers.
To conclude from the 2008 Digital Outlook Report by Avenue A Razorfish: “The authority of our friends and family is not new, it’s just that our inner circle of trusted advisors has been digitized… and it is this shift in how we interact with each other that has enabled the shift in authority. The Internet — specifically social media such as blogs, reviews, and social networking sites — has enhanced the voice of the average person and allowed us to connect with one another more often, more conveniently, and in a digital environment where we can take immediate action based on our advisor’s feedback.”
Lorenzo Benazzo
