Mind-Blowing Facebook Stats And What To Do With Them

CM Comment: Some more stats ... this time a glimpse into Facebook's rapid penetration of the babyboom demographic.

April 14, 2009: summarized from ClickZ -- By now, you've probably heard that Facebook has exceeded 200 million users. Clearly social media is exploding and the stats aren't just unprecedented, they're mind-blowing! To demonstrate this, I did a some stat research this weekend to share with you here.

We live in "exponential times," according to a video, "Did You Know 3.0." Consider that only took Facebook two years to get to 50 million users, compared to other media:

- Radio: 38 years
- Television: 13 years
- Internet: 4 years
- iPod: 3 years

Facebook is growing like crazy, with over 500,000 new users per day. On January 7, 2009, Zuckerberg posted on the Facebook blog that Facebook had reached 150 million users. On April 12, he posted that it had reached 200 million. That's 549,450 new users per day!

Who's behind that growth? It's not just kids! According to Inside Facebook's article, "Fastest Growing Demographic on Facebook: Women Over 55":

Baby boomers and seniors are the fastest-growing group, especially women over 55. I can attest personally, as my mother, who is over 55, is a new and avid member of Facebook. (And this is a women who once told me she "didn't need the Internet, she was fine with her AOL.")

45 percent of Facebook's U.S. audience is now 26 years old or older.

Facebook is growing in every age/gender demographic. The fastest growing segment? Women over 55, up 175.3 percent in the last 120 days.

8 percent of Facebook's users, roughly 16 million people, are over 45, and 3 percent (roughly 6 million people), are over 55. This is a huge quantity of online-savvy boomers and seniors who can be targeted with pinpoint accuracy.

In addition, according to "Facebook is Your Father's (and Mother's) Social Network" in "Wired" magazine, the biggest growth in terms of absolute new users over the last six month are people 35 to 44. Compared to September 2008, over 4 million more U.S. women aged 35 to 44 and nearly 3 million more U.S. men aged 35 to 44 used Facebook in March 2009.

Why is Facebook growing so fast with older people? Two reasons: First, for the same reason it's growing with other age groups. People want to connect with friends new and old. Second, and more important, is that people can connect and stay connected with their kids and what they're up to.

Full story at: http://tinyurl.com/dgs4rd