Internet demographics articles

Senior Females Storm Facebook

The number of US women over age 55 using Facebook grew by 175.3% since September 2008, making mature females among the fastest growing demographic groups on the social network, according to statistics released by independent blog Inside Facebook.

The number of men over 55 also grew dramatically during the same four-month period (up 137.8%), but women over 55 still outnumber men in this age group by almost two-to-one, MarketingCharts reports.

2009 Facebook Demographics and Statistics Report: 276% Growth in 35-54 Year Old Users

In October 2007, I wrote about “Facebook Demographics Direct From Their System” that gave an account of Facebook’s demographic composition using a few statistics that might be interesting to marketers. Ten months later, we followed up with “Facebook Demographics 2008 Update - It’s Getting Older In There” which showed that the fastest growing group, the 35-54 year old segment, grew at a rate of 172.9% in that period.

Whee! New numbers on social network usage

Interesting numbers from cnet

Seismic Shift in Internet Age Mass

According to surveys through 2008 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past, and they are doing more activities online. Generation X (not Y) is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email.

Social media a great platform for healthcare

Some complimentary and reinforcing facts:

iCrossing conducted a study in January 2008, and found that the internet (59%) is the leading source (followed by doctors at 55%) used to find or access Health and Wellness Related Information in the past 12 months. And following the docs was the influence of relatives/friends/co-workers (much of which is probably accessed online).

Study finds social media equally influential to conventional outlets
Tech decision makers give user-generated sites equal importance to traditional media sources when considering tech purchases, according to a new study by Hill & Knowlton. But when it comes to establishing a company's reputation, analyst and traditional media relations are still most influential.