Think seniors aren’t on Facebook? You could be thinking wrong, very wrong, and it could cost you. The fastest growing demographic for Facebook and other social media: Those age 50 and over! Seniors, at the risk of sounding morbid, are changing: they’re living longer, they’re more active, and are becoming more computer literate. Here’s a few interesting statistics:
- This demographic has grown 79% since 2012.
- The 45–54 year age bracket is the fastest growing demographic on both Facebook and Google+.
- For Facebook, this group has jumped 46%.
- For Google+, 56%.
If you’re a marketer consider this, not only does this age group have 47 times the net worth of those 35 and older, but they are the fastest growing users of social media. Seniors are flocking to social media for much of the same reasons that everyone else is – to connect with friend and family, share photos and, ironically, play games. Grandparents have a fever, a fever for seeing photos of their grand kids and family members all the time, birthdays, graduations, parties, vacations etc. and the discovery of social media is the just prescription.
That being the said, the adage that social media is “just for teenagers” couldn’t be further from the truth. The numbers above certainly point to the importance of having a sound social media strategy if these age brackets fall under your target demographic. Age makes a difference in taste and interests, so if you’re focusing on younger users with your content then you could be missing an important demographic!
