Facebook Is For Your Dad?
I wrote this title, then realised it was rather presumptive of me about those who read the Altogether Blog… of course, Facebook could be for YOU (if you’re over 34)
Ad Rants reported in July that 40 percent of Facebook’s audience is now over the age of 34, following the lifting of membership restrictions in September.
This isn’t massively surprising… it’s what I thought Murdoch was going to do with MySpace - turn it into a Reader’s Digest type online book/bridge/tennis club thing to connect America’s Mid-West and WASP communities. Facebook was protected initially by .edu addresses in the US, and .ac.uk in the UK but is now home to the masses (that’s only natural - just because you’ve left university doesn’t mean you want to lose touch with that girl/boy you never hooked up with, right?). The problem is that the masses they’ve opened up to are… well… much older masses, according to new figures from comScore.
Since September 06, membership has jumped 89 percent from 14 million to 26.6 million as of May. Fully 10.4 million members are 35 or older. Though that’s a significant shift, and the biggest growth came from the 25-34 set which jumped 181 percent and the 12-17 set which jumped 149 percent.
Ad Rants - being the smart people they are - thought about this. I came to similar questions too: What percentage of these “older” users might actually be marketers?
Caveats aside (such as turning off and invading the world created by “real” users) we know that the opportunity is there, the audience is there; we know that MySpace blazed a trail (or should that be trial?) and mistakes can and have been learned from; it’s only natural that we’re all jumping headfirst into the new promised land of audience engagement and brand positioning.
I certainly did!
But mind you, I fall firmly into the 25-34 set, and not the 10.4m 35+, thank you very much! So, just remember to join in on their terms not yours…
