It is enough to get one thinking. Are the age groups 50 plus likely to catch up to the younger generation in their use of social media?
Up until now it has been a young persons game. Generation X and Y lead the way in use of social media channels. They are not just spectactors, but active contributors who use the services in their daily lives. While the daily usage of the younger generation is perhaps a given have we been neglecting the 50 plus?
The study conducted by Pew Internet concluded a 88% growth in social media usage in the age group of 55-64. Yet a more staggering growth was seen in the 65 plus age group with a 100% growth in the last year.
Until now many firms in the Dutch marketplace have been slowly adapting social media strategies. A common assumption has been that only selected customer segments are demanding social media; this new insight from Pew Internet would challenge these assumptions.
While the local adaption rate towards social media channels is extremely difficult to predict Dutch organizations should keep their eyes and ears open to what is happening in North America. Valuable insights to changing customer behaviour can be observed and translated to local Dutch marketplace allowing us the advantage of learning from their experiences.
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Interesting thoughts Angela. One thing is definitely for sure, as the social media savvy 30 and 40-somethings get older and move into the 50+ bracket, and the general ageing of the population continues, this 50+ group will become relatively more important for companies to engage with by using social media.
Perhaps a more important consideration, and one you justly pointed to, is how this age group uses social media, and which types of sites are most often used. Reaching your target audience via those social media channels is of course a valuable objective, however the true value of social media is in engaging with your customers. According to the Forrester Technographics study , the % of conversationalists and critics (i.e. the ones that actually post updates on social networking sites and comment and contribute to blogs) drops gradually as the age of the group increases. These types of customers are central to the success of any social networking site, since its success depends on the level of interaction and/or collaboration with customers. A large follower group, which is predominantly inactive, might be nice for your stats, but won’t move you any closer to your objectives. More importantly, this group will soon die off as they will see that there is no customer participation.
Another consideration when selecting the social networking platforms to target the 50+ group, is which platform they are actually on. Whereas you can be pretty sure the younger Dutch customer will have either a Facebook or Hyves account, this becomes less relevant as a social site as the group becomes older. Instead, LinkedIn gains in (relative) relevancy.
It would be interesting to see whether current 30-50 year olds will continue to use the same social media platforms as they do now, and the same number of networks, or if they will become more selective in which channels they are active as they progress to the 50+ bracket. Will they go the way of their parents spent relatively more time on professional networking sites such as LinkedIn, or will they have become so familiar with Facebook that this group will spent most of their social time there? Or will Facebook ultimately replace LinkedIn altogether, as Facebook might add features targeted to a professional audience? What if Facebook offers the possibility to ‘segment’ your ‘friends’ into private and business?
http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2010/01/conversationalists-get-onto-the-ladder.html