Social Media Marketing to Baby Boomers… Don’t Sleep on Their Influence and Power!
I once saw a tweet that read, "If you're over 40 and on Twitter I don't know why you are here." I would question that if you're over 40 and NOT on Twitter or at least on Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube I don't know what you are doing... period. Social networking is not just child's play anymore. Don't let your marketing campaigns count out the Boomers. There are plenty of them and plenty of them are online!
I'm toward the tail end of that Baby Boomer spectrum (some don't even consider me a Boomer) and while I haven't hit 50 years old yet I am often one of the more "seasoned" social media folks in the room. What I bring to the table is over 20 years of mass communications experience and using social media is just another way to communicate ideas. The social networking portion of it builds community. You can to recognize that there are communities of all ages. If there is a need, if there is a need, there will be an audience for it and you can use social media marketing to reach many of them in ways never done before!
Facebook is not just for kids anymore, nor is LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube or the many other popular social media platforms and services. As today's Pew Research Center study entitled "Older Adults and Social Media" concludes, "Social networking use among those ages 50 and older nearly doubled over the past year." In fact, the fastest growing demographic of social networking users consists of Baby Boomers ages 50 to 64. Nearly half (47 percent) of internet users ages 50-64 and about one in four (26 percent) users age 65 and older now use social networking sites, according to the study.
If your business or marketing department has dismissed Facebook and other social networking venues or social media platforms as digital playgrounds for indolent teenagers and twenty-somethings, this Pew Research Center study should be the blaring wake-up call to get you thinking otherwise.
More and more older adults are spending increasing amounts of time on the internet and on social media sites in particular. As you might suspect, they are connecting with old friends, keeping in touch with family members, building personal and professional networks to help find jobs and advance careers, and managing their daily communications. And wherever your company's targeted demographic or secondary market is spending increasing amounts of time, you should be shifting increasing focus on your marketing efforts.
Even if you have a well-established social media presence, this recent study serves to increase awareness of the potential demographic you're reaching via social media. As a result, you may want to revisit your messaging, so it resonates beyond the younger set and has more of cross-generational appeal. In other words, language like "Hey, check this out" or "You guys are gonna love this" might not be your best play.
12 Comments
My agency specializes in markting to Baby Boomers, Silent Generation and beyond. We’re wrapping up a national study on the attitudes of 40+ mature Americans towards social media. Since you’re a “seasoned” social media user, perhaps you’ll share your thoughts?
The link is http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/233384/40-plus-social-media.
(We especially welcome responses from non-social media users! Feel free to email to your favorite 40+ers.) Thanks!
Danielle, thanks for taking the survey- Much appreciated.
(Oh, and I have a million ways to avoid saying “old.” grin!)
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