Social Networks Demographics

Social Network demographics can be very useful for individuals and businesses that are looking into where to focus their efforts.

MySpace

Although MySpace was not the original social network, I do give it credit for helping make social networks mainstream.

According to OperationRedState, as of May 2009, MySpace had an estimated 64 Million users.  That number is difficult to ignore.

Furthermore, 14% of the users are Hispanic - which I thought was interesting.

Facebook

In January of 2009, Facebook announced that it had exceeded 150 million users worldwide.

Almost 50% of Facebook’s users are in the 18 - 34 age bracket, although the ages that are showing the largest growth is the baby boomers.  For example, as of August 2009, people 55 years of age and older accounted for 25% of Facebook’s growth.

As of October of 2009, Facebook has 300 million users.

YouTube

YouTube gets 81 million views a month in the US alone.  The demographics of YouTube users were surprising similar to that of Facebook.  However, I haven’t heard any reports of a growing number of baby boomer users like Facebook.

An interesting fact about YouTube was that almost 50% of the website’s users did not have a college education, but high schoolers only made up about 20% of that.

Twitter

Twitter has probably seen the fastest amount of growth.  Between March and May, it was reported that Twitter doubled its users, reaching 23 million users.  Also, Twitter’s users seem to be evenly split between household income brackets.

“$0 to 30k : 22%, 30 to 60k : 28%, 60 to 100k : 23%, 100k+ : 27%”

Final Thoughts

The most interesting thing I found about social network demographics is that every site is almost split 50/50 between male and female users.

Another thing that I haven’t been able to wrap my head around yet, is that even though most social networks had a thriving population of users between the ages 18 and 34, most of the websites have not been profitable.  This seems nonsensical since that age range is typically a marketers ideal demographic.  I’m sure with Twitter’s recent 1 Billion dollar valuation and with Facebook finally earning a profit, that we are well on our way to learning how to monetize social networks.

How to Promote your Business on Social Networks

The Jim MacMillan, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Story

Over the past 2 years Jim MacMillan, a Pulitzer Prize Winning photojournalist, has gained quite a following by blogging, sharing his photos, and using social networks such as Twitter.  In that short amount of time, he has gained over 14,000 followers on Twitter and stays connected with almost 500 people on Facebook.

This type of marketing is amazing considering the organic nature of what Jim has done compared with how much money businesses are spending on social networks.  For instance,

MediaPost reported that businesses spent $2.2 billion on social-networking in 2008, nearly twice as much as they did in 2007, primarily through advertising on popular sites like MySpace and Facebook.

The reason for the shift in organic marketing is probably due to:

…entertainment used to be watching TV or buying movie tickets…That shift is a desire to connect with the artist and to support [him or her] directly.

By being connected with the brand personally, consumers often become evangilists for the brand, just like friends and family members support each other.  With over 200 million users on a social network, the numbers add up quickly and reciprocation can be amazing.

Read Jim’s Full Story at Knowledge@Wharton