Boomers Social Media Stats-Rocking Out on Twitter, Facebook, AARP
April 9, 2009 in Social Media Tags:

Boomers Social Media Stats-Rocking Out on Twitter, Facebook, AARP

By Barbara Rozgonyi

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Blowing off boomers as social media no-shows? Take a look at these statistics and then listen in to:

Boomers Step Into Social Media, hosted by Toby Bloomberg with guests, Des Walsh, Barbara Rozgonyi [me!] and Carlos Hernandez

Twitter Traffic Spiked by 45-54 year olds

The majority of Twitter’s roughly 10 million unique Web site visitors worldwide in February were 35 years old or older, according to comScore from an article called Twitter Older than it Looks by Alexei Oreskovic

45-54 year olds are 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter … another reason why ad agency CEOs should be on Twitter from twitter traffic explosion being led by 45-54 year olds by Michael GassBarbie turned 50 this year. Growing up, Barbie was my nickname. My cousins and my aunt still call me that.

Pew Internet Reports on Adults with Social Networking Sites

- 8% in February 2005

- 16% in August 2006

- 35% in December 2008

At this pace, over 50% of all adults will have be active on social networking sites by 2010.

Marketing to Boomers: Double Layers in One Generation

With almost 20 years between the oldest and youngest boomers, recognizing the differences in lifestyle is important. The youngest boomers, at age 44, still have six years to go before they can join AARP.

Original Baby Boomers have birthdays between 1946 and 1953 and are now 63-56. Younger boomers, also known as Generation Jones, have birthdays between 1954 and 1965 and are now 55-44.

 

With the president of the United States using social technologies for campaigning and his ongoing administration, Boomers retiring and wanting to stay in touch with their digitally expressive children and grandchildren, and with a recession causing need for all of us to connect to each other –expect an increase in social technology adoption across many generations. Jeremiah Owyang, How Baby Boomers Use Social Media

For companies wanting to reach out to the Baby Boomers online, this data shows that spending at least a portion of your budget on social applications for the group isn’t entirely a waste of time and money. The group isn’t as active online as younger generations are, but their participation levels are now moderate and increasing. ReadWriteWeb on reaching Baby Boomers online

Study: Social Networking Demographics Generation Y and Baby Boomers

According to the Consumer Electronics Usage Survey from Accenture study, baby boomers…

  • Increased reading blogs and listening to podcasts by 67% year over year; nearly 80 times faster than Gen Y (1 percent)
  • Posted a 59% increase in using social networking sites—more than 30 times faster than Gen Y (2 percent)

USA Today Reports on Boomers and Social Networking 

According to Internet monitoring site comScore

- Social networking stats: 16.5 million adults ages 55 and older engage

- Facebook is seeing the most growth among users age 30 and older

- MySpace has 6.9 million/130 million users over 55 who spend an average 204 minutes a month

- AARP.org’ s one year old social networking platform now has 350,000 users in 1,700 groups

New York Times Says Baby Boomers Are Big Social Media Consumers

more than 60 percent of baby boomers are avid consumers of social media like blogs, forums, podcasts and online videos. That’s up from roughly 40 percent a year ago

New York Times Talks About Growth in 55 Plus Users on Facebook

According to the site insidefacebook.com,

- fastest-growing user group is women 55 and over, up more than 175% since last fall

- men over 55 increased almost 138% during the same time period

Want to know more? Check out How to Reach Baby Boomers with Social Technologies, a report by Jeremiah K. Owyang from Forrester.

Are you a baby boomer? How do you use social media?

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Boomers Boast Big Social Media Stats | Wired PR Wo moderator
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[...] April 2009, I wrote about Boomers and social media stats. Because the post attracts a good bit of traffic every month, this tells me that there’s lots [...]

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Joel Owen moderator
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my grandfather is also a baby boomer and he is also a war veteran:-'

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James Thomas moderator
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My grandpa is also a Baby Boomer and we love him a lot.-:~

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paniAwant moderator
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Hi all, i hope to join the discussion soon hopefully i can participate in some lively discussions here! looking forward to talking to you all. :) [IMG - http://www.trueimagehost.com/1/m/47xFMd46ie7B/blank.gif[/IMG -

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Use tr.im To Monitor Result to your Landing Pages moderator
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[...] Boomers Social Media Stats-Rocking Out on Twitter, Facebook, AARP (barbararozgonyi-wiredprworks.com) [...]

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Gordon Scott Edwards moderator
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I am 65 years-old, so I am just ahead of the boomers. I recently published a book (Internet Safari, Finding Love Online at 65) and my publisher is having me learn about social media as the preferred way of marketing books there days. I had never thought I would be interested in Facebook or Twitter, but now they are becoming daily realities. Look what online dating can lead to.

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aarp car insurance moderator
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I got aarp car insurance discounts by finding an ad on a social website. I'm 55 and I twitter to my daughter in Texas. I live in Ohio. Pretty neat.

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cheap baby stroller moderator
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good info...thanks n keep posting!!!

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Martin Diano moderator
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Your post is spot on about the use of social media among boomers. Our new @BoomerAuthority initiative is taking hold as is the Boomer Authority community of experts who support the initiative. Terrific job of research and great stats.

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Baby Boomers, Social Networking and Competitive Ad moderator
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[...] Together with Carlos, Barbara Rozgonyi has writtena a great post that list great sources to show why social media is spreading like fire among baby boomers. Highly recommedned for more reading on the subject. [...]

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Your Grandma is On the Internet | Getting to the N moderator
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[...] Read more about their findings here and when you want to talk about how your business could benefit from a thoughtful, carefully crafted social media plan, get in touch with me. [...]

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Jason moderator
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I just started blogging last week and really using my twitter account. It's sad because my generation is supposed to be the most tech savvy. In reality, a lot of my friends don't know anything about the great blogs and web apps out there. I find a lot of young entrepreneur bloggers at viralogy It's a blog ranking website that definitely worth checking out

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carol stanley moderator
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anytime you do something you enjoy and it is legal and does not cost dollars it is good. Facebook is a great place to find people, share ideas and even learn new things.

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James moderator
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As an almost 55 year old boomer, I blog, tweet, microblog, read, write, buy and shop, pay bills, and more online. I also have an active vocational and social life in the real world, in which I find these technologies as enhancements to, not replacements for, social living. I also watch streaming or recorded video, produce video, and recently had a blog article that got nearly 33000 visitors over a 30 hour period. The vast majority of my music comes from Internet sources. I used the Internet to research my doctoral dissertation, use Skype and VoIP, and have had a website since 1994, when it was hosted on an FTP server. In some ways, the Internet is to me now like television was when I was growing up: it is everywhere and everyone uses it. Fantastically easy to use applications, like iMovie, are to social web users what the printing press was for Europe: these applications are simultaneously liberating the creativity of multiple generations. I understand the Internet to be a complex set of interconnected technologies and devices that not only has the potential to revolutionize society, but is already transforming vast sectors of the population's thinking, doing, and living. Any traditional media that is not fully interactive, like broadcast television or plain old telephone service (POTS) or printed newspapers, is starting to radically change or they are disappearing altogether, as in the recent newspaper closings. The social web of interconnected things is already here. We are only beginning to appreciate it.

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Carlos R. Hernandez moderator
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Dear ChicagoBookBabe, You go girl! Love the attitude to learn new things, and maybe one day you will come to like Twitter. P.S. I just tweeted about you so I bet it will inspire someone else. Carlos R. Hernandez's last blog post..Sharing with your Clients: DPM for Social Media

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ChicagoBookBabe moderator
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I'm 62 and started a blog on a topic I enjoy because I couldn't afford to continue taking classes. I was enrolled in college and going for my BA, a dream I've had for 40 years.Figured I could use the blog as a way to encourage myself to keep studying and reading. It worked. The social sites are a great way to interact with people who have a similar interest - no matter what age. They also help me to stay a bit more current on trends and new tech. Just learning to use Facebook, but think Twitter is a total waste. Anyway, no one should count out the boomers. They might be surprised at what we are doing and what we can do!

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