In a recent report released by Reality Digital, the latest demographic data concerning social media usage indicates the increased usage of social media networks as a marketing tool.
Based on research conducted by Pew Internet and American Life’s daily tracking survey, the October 2009 report indicates that U.S users of the leading social networks, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Facebook have seen an aging trend in demographics.
The median age of Twitter users remained firm at 31 between May 2008 and May 2009, while both MySpace and LinkedIn saw a one-year age drop year-over-year from 27 to 26 and 40 to 39, respectively. The most dramatic change however, comes via Facebook users. In May of 2008, the majority of Facebook users were aged 26. One year later, that demographic has shot up to 33 years old in May 2009.
Rob Proctor, Head of EMEA, Reality Digital said: “The marked increase in the median age of Facebook users is significant and represents a further maturation of the sector, which is now being wholeheartedly embraced by marketers. Naturally, the increase in users has not passed marketers by and as a result there has been a significant development in terms of content. Where, with a younger demographic certain types of lightweight content proliferated, the maturation of the sector has witnessed an evolution of content, with considerably more practical usage that appeals to a broader, less niche audience.”
And while this report primarily focuses on marketers, some direct correlations of the overall demographic research can be applied to gaming on social networking platforms. Over the past year, we’ve seen a massive interest in and activity of gaming on social networks. If common wisdom says that games are for kids, then this aging study of social networking users flies directly in the face of this supposition. It’s hardly a coincidence that as social networking users skew upwards in the age trend, social gaming, and the associated monetization, have risen almost on par.
The average 26-year-old Facebook gamer is most probably much more concerned with how rent will be paid that month, rather than his status in a social game (at least from a microtransaction perspective). However, the average 33 year old, with credit card in hand, most probably has a bit more money to throw around and make a microtransaction purchase here or there.
A final interesting data proposition put forth by the study indicates that the number of users that say that use social media sites to share updates has risen to 19 percent, up from 11 percent from December 2008. Again, this is pure marketing data, but the question remains to be asked – does social gaming have something to do with this? As more and more users play more and more games, with the associated ‘status updates’ that are posted to players feeds, the question is – who’s driving who’s growth?
