Social Media and Social Network Segmentation
Are you working on a Social Media Strategy/Social Network Strategy for your company and wondering where to focus your resources? If so, looking at use of social network by age may be a good place to begin (see chart below).
Some surprising findings are that MySpace is still very popular among a younger demographic (age 15-17). Facebook has significant penetration now among a wide age range. Many among those 45+ are being enticed to join the network to keep in touch with their children and grand children.
LinkedIn of course is key if your strategy is B-B. But what about Twitter? Should you ignore it because of the lower penetration rates?
The answer is, it depends. If you were to base your decision solely on penetration rates among your demographic of interest you may be tempted to prioritize Twitter less. However, according to our research it’s not about the number of Twitter users as much as who they are. Twitter users are more likely to have a larger social media foot print (blog etc.) and may therefore be very important to a viral/social media campaign.
A social media strategy needs to view each of these networks as concentric circles, and realize that not all social network users are represent equal opportunities. The best way to begin a social media strategy is to look at your target customers and understand which segments are more or less attractive.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.tomhcanderson.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
8 responses so far ↓
1 Tom H C Anderson // Aug 27, 2009 at 3:31 pm
This article is also interesting RE Facebook vs MySpace:
http://www.insights-qualitativos.com/2009/08/myspace-hits-facebook-with-ilike-app.html
2 Tom H C Anderson // Aug 27, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Another one on soaring age of SNS use:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Facebook-Twitter-Other-Social-Network-Use-Soaring-in-Users-Aged-35-220114/?kc=rss
Kind of old news though, LOL
3 Social Network Penetration by Age and Gender // Aug 28, 2009 at 9:23 am
[...] Tom H. C. Anderson RSS Social Media Strategy- Should Marketers Ignore Twitter? [...]
4 Alberto Stracuzzi // Aug 28, 2009 at 10:24 am
Interesting… really interesting. As a lot of further matters, data are able to unmount legends are rising around SN…
Thanks to share this information.
5 Art // Aug 28, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Great stats on penetration by age demo.
It would be interesting to see the top 3 reasons why someone joins myspace versus facebook, and attitudes and usage by demo group. You touched on it briefly regarding grandparents for picture sharing.
Keep up the good work. It will soon become an advertising driven model potentially.
6 Social Media Strategies » Blog Archive » Article of Interest: Should Marketers Ignore Twitter? // Aug 29, 2009 at 11:54 am
[...] about the demographics of various social media and the perceived value of the contacts made there. Take a look here: Should Marketers Ignore Twitter? Share and [...]
7 Radiance D. Medanat // Aug 29, 2009 at 11:56 am
Just blogged about this article. Very interesting! Thanks.
8 Radiance // Aug 30, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Tweeted this article. Very interesting.Thanks.
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