The following article Boomers Rapid Users of Social Media via Smartphones states that Baby Boomers are not the technology unsavvy users that we think of them as. According to the article Neilson released the 3rd quarter report on social media and discovered that twice as many 55+ users are accessing social media from their phones than they were this time last year.
I have a few thoughts on this… First of all they really make these numbers seem important by stating it as a 109% increase. When in reality the report states that “Over Twice as Many People Aged 55+ Visit Social Networking Sites on Their Mobile Phones than Last Year”. This could simply mean that 5 people aged 55+ were accessing sites like LinkdIn and Facebook last year and this year 27.25 of this same demographic are. Not so monumental when you put it that way is it?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that this doesn’t mean big things for marketers, I just think it’s important to really put this statistic into perspective. To me the way this article is written it sounds like every Baby Boomer in America has logged onto Twitter this year, plus some. But then we’d be getting into a whole discussion regarding the undead and I don’t think that’s a demographic anyone is ready to deal with at the moment.
I digress.
The increase in usage by older generations is a movement that I think has been happening for quite a while. I asked via Facebook and received 25 responses from various people regarding who they thought still wasn’t using a computer in any capacity. Basically, the very old and that’s it. The problem is, we are thinking of the Baby Boomers as these elderly people who still have issues using smartphones. Those generations are passing away. Baby Boomers are our parents and not as elderly as we imagine them to be. Barack Obama, Madonna, Steve Jobs (rest in peace) are all Baby Boomers.
“78 million Americans who were 50 or older as of 2001 controlled 67% of the country’s wealth, or $28 trillion.” (U.S. Census and Federal Reserve)
This important fact along with the notion that Baby Boomers are not as dumb as some are lead to believe should be in the forefront of every marketers mind when creating campaigns based in social media settings. They need to remember that this audience is listening and willing to participate in these campaigns (not just younger, hipper tech savvy users) and that they are an important and contributing member of the web 2.0 community. Brands that Boomers are loyal to should also keep this information in mind and bring themselves onto the internet as their audiences are already there. The playing field for marketing to consumers has leveled just a little more erasing age demographics and more businesses should be focusing on interests since campaigns no longer have to follow traditional, expensive media avenues in order to reach audiences.
Excellent catch on the statistics. They can be very misleading, as you pointed out. The article also did not point out which sites they were visiting. Does texting the grandchild count as much as Facebook notifications being pushed out to their smartphone?
Hello Jen,
Absolutely–numbers can be skewed for sure. I also did a little unofficial number crunching of my own for my own FB purposes and most of my new friends from the past year are–Baby Boomers. My moms sisters got on and then her brothers and then my Grandma signed up and my dad sent his first text—-and pigs do indeed fly. Just kidding, but wow–the Boomers are not as old as we think–my husband is one! Marketers have paid attention to the Boomers offline and now they will need to do the same with mobile campaigns. People still rule. The brand is what we all say it is. Gotta love the Groundswell!
Leslie