The Truth about Social Media Demographics
There are a million excuses why some small businesses still refuse to use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools. One of the big ones is that social media is mostly for young people, and that the age group doesn’t match your target market - this is baloney (or bologna if you prefer).
This new study by Pingdom shows us that the average social media user is 35-44; so don’t confuse social media with the high school crowd. Potential B2B and B2C customers are online doing market research about you and are consulting social media as their trusted word of mouth resource. I was not surprised by this. I have attended quite a few social media meetups in the Phoenix, AZ area including Mashable and SMAZ, and the 35-44 demographic fits very closely to the crowd of people that I networked with. In fact, I would say that the groups were actually composed of an older crowd.
If you want a younger audience, the social network Bebo has 44% of its members under 17 years old. For an older crowd, classmates.com is the best choice with about 8% being over 65 and 78% being 35 or older.
This article is a reminder that you should never discount social media for your marketing strategy; it could be your best source of new leads and customers if you are on the right social network promoting the right message. You may not only find new customers here, but because social media is a trusted “word of mouth” environment, you may end up finding your most supportive and lucrative customers ever.