Comments on: Older users becoming dominant on Facebook

By: Twitted by ruicamarinha

Twitted by ruicamarinha — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 04:42:41 +0000

[...] This post was Twitted by ruicamarinha [...]

By: Footprints (10.07.09) | Chris Deary

Footprints (10.07.09) | Chris Deary — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:31:45 +0000

[...] Older users becoming dominant on Facebook [...]

By: Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach

Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:43:13 +0000

It seems that many of my compatriots (I’m in my 40s) are more vocal than my other connections (20-somethings from my dojo). It doesn’t surprise me.

By: Charlie Osmond

Charlie Osmond — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:50:15 +0000

Good point Lisa,
The headline is misleading.

I think the main point still carries through – any assumption that Facebook is for “the young” is unfounded. But giving the stats in this way feels a little disingenuous.

The annoying thing is that for 3 years, this is how all facebook age related stats have been researched and reported.

*Marigo – Thank you for the comment. I agree in part. For many products age is not a meaningful segmentation variable. I guess it’s prominance, even when less meaningful, comes from being highly actionable. As a result it does often deserve recognition when planning media spend.

Charlie

By: Lisa W

Lisa W — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:39:03 +0000

It’s a tad misleading to say 35-54 year olds are the largest group on Facebook, given that the age ranges are not consistent: if you look at 18-34 year olds, they still make up 50.3% of users (and that’s STILL a narrower age band than the sweeping 35-54 year olds).

Given that the older groups are growing off a smaller base, it makes sense that their growth rates are so much stronger as well.

I think what’s most impressive is the 25-34 year band grew by 61% across the period from an already strong base.