There's been a common misconception for quite sometime that social networks were only filled with teens and young adults, and although this still applies for some very youth focused networks like Habbo, the reality is social network use is now mainstream.
Inside Facebook 's latest data reveals some fascinating details about the Facebook's user base. For example the number of US users over the age of 35 has double in the last 60 days, women over 55 years of age are the fastest growing demographic in the last 90 days, and the 26-44 year old age group now account for 41% of Facebook's audience.
Facebook is just one of many social networks undergoing comparable demographic shifts. We're living in an age where social networking and social media destinations site are big business and are easily as recognizable as major portals of five years ago. The concept of "social functionality" is being built or has already been built into most major sites and this trend will only continue as social networks de-centralize through tools like Facebook Connect.
What does all of this mean for marketers?
In a nut shell over 25's are now open game on Facebook and not only are they are there in numbers but there substantially more comfortable with living in a socially networked online world.
I don't think the marketing world has caught up and there's a huge opportunity for brands to leapfrog their competition in this space.
If you look at the types of applications, groups, and friend pages that are being created in the social networking space they have a tendency to be focused on youth. There's a fairly wide gap in quality apps, groups or destinations that have been created by brands, as opposed to user generated, that are focused on subjects, needs, or desires that the over 25 age group have.
A quick word to the wise - if you represent an adult focused brand either internally or as an agency - you might want to look for user generated success stories first and participate in their success as opposed to starting from scratch. I think Coca-Cola hit the nail on the head recently. They leveraged the success of their existing fan base. They brought some of their best advocates and brought them even closer to their cause and inevitably made them fanatical advocates.
These kinds of shifts are not without repercussions. Our teenage kids and young adult children probably don't want their parents watching witch boys or girls leave messages on their page, show up in photos with them, or even seeing if they're answers on some kind of "booze" app. Facebook has made some admirable attempts to allow us to isolate our friends into different groups to stop attrition and allow people to decide which information they share with which friends, but I don't think this is going to be enough to stop youth from seeking out a new place to hang out in the virtual space.
The important thing to note though is that unlike a couple of years ago I don't think youth leaving a social network is a sign of the end. Social networks are now mainstream enough to survive without being the next exciting thing (at least for a while).