At almost every event or discussion on social media, there’s a naysayer that only millenials, those under 30 consume social media. They dismiss this conversational form as something that their target market doesn’t use. Ironically, they are missing the boat as older generations are using social media.
Perhaps the best example of this is who is creating content. Technorati released the first part of its State of the Blogosphere report yesterday. It’s so funny to see their statistics, which prominently feature the millenial stats. Yet, when you delve into the numbers you can see some interesting breakdowns favoring Gen X and Baby Boomers.
Consider that 50% of bloggers are 35 and older, and 42% are between the ages of 35-54. Those are some pretty strong statistics demonstrating that millenial bloggers are getting outpaced by older generations.
In the U.S., 34% of bloggers are 25-34, and 37% are 35-49. So the older trend is even more pervasive in the United States.
The Technorati report is just the harbinger of a growing trend that usage statistics and surveys will continue confirming. Generation X and increasingly Baby Boomers are online. Communicators who dismiss these powerful media consumers as traditional media only do so at their own peril.
I’m so glad you said this. I believe social media is more of an attitude than an age. I know Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers who have fully embraced it, and Millenials who don’t know what it’s all about. I taught seven Millenials how to blog this summer! For sure, the balance is on the younger side. But from everything I’ve read, social networks and blogging in particular are being taken up by women 40+…and who doesn’t watch (and love?) online video? And my 70 year old mom is on Facebook! She loves it.