There has been a long standing stigma that social media networking is a young person’s game. For marketers, baby boomers aren’t usually the ideal audience when it comes to generating content and advertising on social platforms. However, in a recent study conducted by DMN3, which surveyed 1,000 people aged 60 to 69, the results showed that over 80% of baby boomers belonged to at least one social media networking site.
It’s Still All About Facebook
In the study conducted by DMN3, Facebook was the by far the most popular social media networking site, with 82.3% of respondents stating they were active users. The next closest platforms were LinkedIn (35.2%), Pinterest (32.2%) and Google + (32.2%) with only 9% of those surveyed reporting using Instagram.
Baby Boomers Take Action
Older adults who are active on social media don’t just browse, “like”, “share”, and “comment”. In fact, Boomers on social media networking sites were 58.3% more likely to visit a company website, 57.2% more likely to continue searching for that topic on a search engine and 41.7% likely to visit a retailer or store (Source: DMN3).
Gender Targeting
Consider curating your social media content to target more women. Female baby boomers were 26% more likely to share content more than once a day as compared to their male counterparts. (Source: Digital Trends)
Interested in a content strategy that is guaranteed to capture and engage qualified prospects? Schedule a call with one of our marketing experts.
Be Relevant and Get Deep
Baby Boomers are 19% more likely to share content compared to any other generation. However, they don’t share content with the expectation of changing minds. In fact, only 10% of Baby Boomers say they share content to educate their network. They want to share meaningful and relevant content on social networking sites with like-minded individuals, who will take more time to digest and understand the information. There still exists a significant opportunity to curate information to target older adults’ interest. According to the Television Bureau of Advertising, only 11.9% of Boomers who belong to a social media site thought the content was relevant to them (Source: DMN3).
Make sure that the content you are creating is relevant to current topics that are of interest to older adults. Drop the slang and dive in to deeper content with more lengthy, explanatory videos and copy.
Focus On Positivity
When designing a social media page or choosing graphics, consider images that drive positive emotional responses: holding hands, a smiling face, an active and fun lifestyle. According to 3M Corporation, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Research from inbound marketing software company Hubspot showed that photos and posts on Facebook that include strong visuals generate 53% more likes than text-based posts (Source: DMN3).
According to a report by Curata, nearly 70% of marketers don’t have a consistent content strategy. Yet, according to Social Media Examiner, 81%+ of marketers found that increased traffic occurred with as little as 6 hours per week invested in social media marketing.
Baby boomers are among the most active groups on social media which presents an immense opportunity for your organization if your content strategy is carefully planned, structured, and executed. If you need assistance with creating a content strategy that’ll capture and engage leads, contact our marketing experts.
