It’s not just young people
by Michael HoffmanWednesday, September 12th, 2007
There is an assumption among our clients that the whole issue of online video and social media marketing is all about young people. While it is true that the younger generations tend to be early adopters of new technology, the internet has become a central part of communications and commerce for every demographic group.
In today’s New York Times there is a story about how the venture capital community is heavily backing social networking sites that are reaching out to baby boomers. “Facebook with wrinkles” they call it.
Social networking has so far focused mainly on businesspeople and young people because they are tech-savvy and are treasured by Madison Avenue.
But there are 78 million boomers — roughly three times the number of teenagers — and most of them are Internet users who learned computer skills in the workplace. Indeed, the number of Internet users who are older than 55 is roughly the same as those who are aged 18 to 34, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, a market research firm.
Last year, Nielsen/NetRatings did a study and found that a third of YouTube’s audience is over 45. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s only gone up in the past year.
An organizational investment into high quality and portable video messages, combined with an ongoing investment in social media marketing will pay off, increasingly across all the demographic segments of your supporters.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Hello Michael:
Great website and critically important job you are doing to educate nonprofits…the newer fundraisers anxious to get into the eConnecting need the perspective and us older folks need to understand more so we can integrate it’s potential with what we already know works. Citing these sources and adding your professional perspective is so helpful.
I’ve cited you, your company and website on a Best Practices: Marketing the Message Forum I had created on www.SustainableNonprofit.org where we are trying to help nonprofits cope with a full range of sustainability issues. I invite you to visit and help as well.
Best wishes….
September 16th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Great article. Also note, WSJ reports 33% of Facebook users are 35-54.