A lot of my clients believe that building visibility online via social media is a blanket approach but this is not true. Just as in traditional marketing, you need to define and target your audience with relevant messages and you need to know where to find them.
Take baby boomers for example. They are just one of the most sought after social networking groups. If the baby boomers all got together on a single issue they could topple the government and their spending power is growing, not depreciating. They are a unique group as are many others online eg: Teenagers, Moms, Sports fanatics, investors.
The point is, you need to know them. WHere are they spending their time online, which sites are they active on and what behaviour to they exhibit? How are they using social media sites?
Nielsens state that more than 5.5 hours were spent on social networking sites by global consumers in December 2009 against the 3 hours spent by them in December 2008. That is a whopping 82% increase of time in just one year!
Getting to know your target market is key to any successful marketing campaign and social networking is no different. Pew Research Centre tells us that nearly 72% of teens use social networking sites compared to 40% of adults which is expected. The difference is that the teens are more inclined to use MySpace, less likely to have a LinkedIn profile and actively participate on Facebook (71%).
WHat’s interesting to me is that 75% of the global adult and older generation use Facebook as well.
Funnily enough it seems that teens are not drawn to Twitter in quite the same way as they are Facebook or MySpace and of those who do use it 13% are high school girls and only 7% boys.
EMarketer tells us that 46% of Boomers have a social network profile compared to 30% (Deloitte) in 2007 – so it’s catching on! Baby Boomers usage of FaceBook has increased 107% from 2008 to 2009 with 90% of those aged between 63 – 75 years old having an active profile. Twitter activity in the Boomer category jumped 714% from 2008 to 2009!
Baby Boomers use social networking to achieve lifestyle objectives such longevity and health as well as keeping in touch with fragmented families and friends.
Knowing the stats on the spending power of this group I’d advise all my clients seeking consumers in this sector to invest heavily in social media this year.
Get networking. Get a blog. Create a hub around your product or service and support it with the social marketing necessary to get your message out there.
If you need help….. contact me.
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