From 4 July to 4 Aug 2009, Facebook experienced a 25% increment in the age 55+ users segment. That equates to a total growth of 513.7% in the last 6 months!
This report done by istrategylabs via Facebook Social Ads data confirms that Facebook has successfully gotten the attention of mature users.
Key take-aways:
1) The 55+ demographic is still growing fastest at 24.9%
2) Facebook user growth was 8% over the past month in the US
3) A full 40.2% of Facebook users are 35+
4) Washington, DC saw the strongest growth among major metros at a 30.5% – Hola Federales!
Questions to ponder on
What has caused the boom in the 55+ users figures? Does this translate to a evolution in Facebook usage patterns and purpose? What impact does this have on marketers?
If the older age groups are growing at such an amazing speed, we worry that this growth would soon be (or are already) eating into the younger age groups. We can perfectly understand why teens don’t tweet on Twitter, and if Faceboook usage purpose is going to be influenced by the extrinsic motives of the adults, we might see the same phenomenon happening on Facebook as well.
