Demographics of social network users

What fascinating research. Interested in social networks? Then this is a report from Pew Internet is a must for you to download.

Clearly it shows a close correlation between age and use of “social networking sites”. In future Pew should take a broader view of what constitutes a social networking site. Currently it only counts the generic sites (MySpace, Facebook, Linkedin, Yahoo, Bebo, Classmates.com…) What about company sites that embed social networking? This is the future of social networking.

Leaving that to one side, it is interesting to see that inverse relationship between use and education. It is not an exact match and maybe it reflects the age factor?

The bottom line for marketers is that if you want to target the poorer end of society then social networks are where you should be spending your bucks. Mmmm. Maybe that is not a good selling message? Dick Stroud