Report: Four Out Of Five Americans Online Visit Social Networks
Note: If you are not into social networking for your park as yet, now is the time to start! If you missed the Social Networking 101 Webinar held in July, you can still find out how to use social networking to bring more customers to your park at the InSites Convention & Expo held November 9 – 12 in Orlando.
We'd like to officially welcome you to The Facebook Age. Now, according to a new report from Forrester Research, more than four in five U.S. online adults report using social media at least once a month, while half report participating in social networks like Facebook.
And while young people continue to march toward almost universal adoption of social applications, the most rapid growth occurred among consumers 35 and older says “Online Media Daily”.
"This means the time to build social marketing applications is now," said Forrester analyst and report author Sean Corcoran. "Interactive marketers should influence social network chatter, master social communication, and develop social assets -- even if their customers are older."
Half of online adults now belong to social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, a 46% growth rate year-over-year. Only 18% of U.S. online adults don't use social tools in 2009 -- down from 25% in 2008.
Forrester's analysis of the Social Technographics Profile of online Americans over the past three years shows that "joiners" -- the group that uses social networks -- had the most explosive growth.
Nearly one-quarter of U.S. online adults are new "creators" -- people who write blogs, upload original audio or video, or post stories online. "Easy-to-use blogging tools encouraged some less tech-savvy adults to create social content this year, but the majority of consumers are still consuming, not creating, content," said Corcoran. The critic group, meanwhile, did not grow in 2009. While more than one-third of online Americans still take part in activities like posting reviews and commenting on blogs, fewer now contribute to online forums.