The changing demographics of Facebook and what that means for public relations and marketing professionals using the platform.

Apr 22

Facebook Trends Series #1: Changing Demographics of Facebook

by Nicole Landguth
Category: Best Practices, Digital Influence, Research & Insights

demographics

As a follow up to our recent webinar, Facebook Bootcamp for PR, you’ll see five blog posts in the coming weeks exploring the five trends set out in our presentation. Let’s start with the changing demographics of Facebook and what they mean for public relations and marketing professionals using Facebook.

You may have read the headlines recently that women 55+ are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook. In fact, according to the demographic data aggregated at AllFacebook.com, there was 142 percent growth in this age group between February and April 2009. This is a powerful statistic which changes the way we have to think about the “average” Facebook user.

Facebook campaigns can still target and engage some of these newer demographics, it just takes a different strategic approach and an understanding of how your target audience is using Facebook. In this CNN article they interview several older Facebook users who use the site frequently to share and keep in touch with family and friends; it is not the social hub of their universe like it might be for a college student.

Do you know how many friends the average Facebook user has? According to Facebook’s statistics the answer is 120. Now, purely for my discussion here, I’ll let you know I have 852 Facebook friends; but I also know people who count friends in the 1,000s. My mom, on the other hand, is in the 55+ demographic (just going to leave it at that) and she has five Facebook friends: me, my brother, and her three siblings. When you’re looking at an average user can you really compare the two of us? Hardly- neither of us is average but we both love using Facebook.

Here are some ideas of engaging these emerging demographics until they become power users:

Start asking how your customers are using Facebook in your demographic research or your customer surveys.
Add Facebook Connect to your own site and allow users to bring their Facebook identity with them to your space.
Tie Facebook brandpages or events to other social media engagements, such as micro-contests on blogs or offline blogger events.
Offer Facebook interactions that mimic offline interactions: sending a branded gift on your son’s birthday may be more intuitive than using a mobile application.
Use targeted advertising to let them know about your services and how it connects to their Facebook presence. This means using text and visuals that spell out clearly what you are offering in plain English.

It would be great to get more input from personal experiences so please share!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 5:30 pm and is filed under Best Practices, Digital Influence, Research & Insights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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TAGS: Tags: age, demographics, Facebook, social media

5 Responses to “Facebook Trends Series #1: Changing Demographics of Facebook”

alex Says:
April 25th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
These numbers are pretty interesting. I definitely see a big opportunity here for brands that target the mentioned age group (women 55+). The rational for me would be that because this users have very few friends on facebook a brand or company would develop engaging activities to get their attention in facebook and be “one of the first” to connect with them through the social media.
atul chatterjee Says:
May 9th, 2009 at 3:46 am
The above 55 age group is using it as a way of keeping contact with others. Whether they are using it as a way of making more friends remains to be seen.
Is there any way of deriving ethnic information?
Adam Faragalli Says:
May 14th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Look, let’s get serious here! The days of Facebook.com and most all social networks directed towards a standard audience are no longer just for the younger generations. Although, as a college student, I have been a part of Facebook since it began, signing up only two months after it was launched. I do agree it has taken some time to catch on; the reality is that it has become saturated and used by much older generations. For example, my entire family is on Facebook, mom, dad, grandma, cousins, etc. It has allowed us to communicate much more, even when many of them live in England or Spain.

As a marker, it is time to place social networks in the forefront of our strategies. I am still perplexed when I hear older PR professionals say they are fearful of these networks. I say, wise up, implement consistent and planned strategies to engage and reach these people where they live online and your company, service, or brand will reap the benefits. Traditional mediums still serve there purpose, but without the power of building strategies online and maximizing the Google engine, ultimately your traditional PR strategies will continue to bring in less results.
MySpace is Top Ranking Social Media Site When Ranked by Video Streams « Online Video « Group 8020 Says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
[...] If you’re targeting women age 55 and older you’ll want to look at Facebook which reported 142% growth in this age group between February 2009 and April 2009, as Nicole Landguth blogged in Changing Demographics of Facebook. [...]
r4 ds Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 1:25 am
Tradition mediums still serve their purpose, but they could not fine their proper solution. If they are using different technology then are awake their benefit and drawback.