Women Over the Age of 55 Are The Largest Growing Group on Facebook…
With over 200 million users Facebook’s popularity is growing most quickly among women older than 55, according to Inside Facebook, which tracks Facebook’s growth.
According to market research, there are now over 1.5 million female users older than 55 on the site – roughly a 550 percent increase over a year ago. Membership among people younger than 25 grew by less than 20 percent over the same period. The number of men over age 55 also grew dramatically, but women over 55 still outnumber men in this age group by almost two-to-one.
This is contrary to assumptions that many marketers and businesses make – that elderly people are not online and that elderly women are not involved in social media.
Why is this so important?
•senior women age 50 and older control a net worth of $19 trillion
•senior women own more than three-fourths of the nation’s financial wealth
•women control 85% of all brand purchases
A discussion with people 55 and older currently using Facebook asked why they were on Facebook. While “connecting with other people” was a response repeated over and over, this group ranging from 50 to 83-years-old seems to be enjoying all that Facebook has to offer.
My mom is 69 and joined Facebook around two years ago. I really think she’d be lost without it! She uses Facebook to keep connected with me, on the other side of the country, AND my sister, on the other side of her neighbourhood! We post pictures of her grandchildren and she gets to feel a part of our lives in a way that a telephone call doesn’t always manage to accomplish.
Reasons people 55 and older gave for being on Facebook and why they like it:
•To stay in touch with family all over the place
•Keep in touch with children
•To reconnect with people from high school and college
•To stay young
•Find it fascinating and enriching to interact with people
•Easy way to keep in touch with everyone
•Share photos
•Share silly humour and a laugh
•Promote causes they believe in
•Make new friends
•Join specific groups for interests and discussions
•It is borderless, and genders and ages mix so freely
So, next time your company is targeting an older customer, consider a Facebook Fan page! You’ll be surprised at who joins (or not!).
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It’s as basic as this…without an online presence, your business will likely be seen as non-existent. With the exception of very few, consumers turn to the internet for just about everything…including RESEARCHING your business before they pick up the phone or head out the door! Can’t afford a website? Hmmm… my only answer here is you cannot afford NOT to have a website. Your business is literally being passed by thousands of potential customers. The fact that I am even writing about this is scary but believe it or not as recently as a month ago someone said, and I quote “oh, I just don’t think it really matters that much…my business is word of mouth”. This guy is a chiropractor! Think about how many potential patients google “chiropractor” in their towns before making the call. We want to find out what type he specializes in, his hours, payment plans, location, who he is affiliated with, and so on. Even a simple website with answers to these questions puts our Doc in the game and immediately establishes credibility and accessibility. So…at the very least, consider a website as today’s business card. You just need one, whether you like it or not!