Did you know that there are currently 39 million people aged 65 and older using Facebook, Twitter, and Skype, making them the fastest growing age demographic on these sites?
According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, “the 74-plus demographic is the fastest growing demographic among social networks.”
But many businesses may overlook this growing audience. Here are some great insights from Forbes about why you don’t want to be missing out:
Though Madison Avenue largely forgets seniors in general, they are now a demographic grossly overlooked on social media. Those 65 years and older are changing: they are living longer, are more active, and becoming increasingly literate online.
Not only does this age group have 47x the net worth of households headed by those 35 and older (according to AdAge), but they are now the fastest growing users of social media. These days, they don’t just have an email account, but they are searching on Google GOOG -0.83%, browsing Facebook FB -0.27% newsfeeds, and watching YouTube—sometimes from their iPad. According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, “the 74-plus demographic is the fastest growing demographic among social networks.” There are currently 39 million people aged 65 and older using Facebook, Twitter, and Skype, making them the fastest growing age demographic on these sites.
While people are starting to notice more and more grandparents on their Facebook accounts, the figures are actually much greater. According to an All Assisted Living Homes 2010 report, 11% of Facebook users are seniors. These 14.8 million users represent a 1,448% yearly growth in this demographic. More and more classes are being held to train senior citizens how to use online tools like Facebook, and 1 in 5 of these users will log on for an hour any given day. The Pew Research found that 13% of adults 50 years and older are already using Twitter and estimate this figure to only continue rising.
Read the rest of this report here.