Social media has become a rising phenomenon in Web2.0 with three main contenders fighting it out for control of an endless stream of internet users. MySpace, FaceBook and Twitter are all reaching for the brass ring but as each evolves around it’s users, a trend is emerging that has the lines between each drawn by generation rather than assimilation.
I’m probably not the first to say that MySpace has been becoming more and more geared towards the teen, pre-teen and tweens. There’s nothing wrong with that. These days, every age group is a target marketing demographic. Outside of band and musician profiles, the only people over the age of twenty spending any significant on MySpace are probably marketing to the demographic. As for being over thirty and on MySpace, that’s just creepy.
FaceBook is MySpace’s older sibling who has grown up and went off to college. When I was in college, away from my family for the first time, I felt so mature and wise but when I look back now I realize how niave I was. I thought I was grown up enough to handle my own life but at the same time I didn’t want to give up my relationship with skateboards, videogames and keg parties at the frat house. That’s how Facebook strikes me. A thin veil of maturity covering a postpubescent explosion of hormones that are constantly at war like little angels and devils on your shoulder telling you what to do.
I have experimented with both MySpace and FaceBook in the past. As an ex-musician, MySpace helped me re-connect with some friends and bandmates from the past but within a few weeks I realized why I’d lost contact with them in the first place. Some thing are better off left remembered - just like my account on MySpace which has laid dormant for two years now. With FaceBook, by the time I managed to get through the grueling signup process, I’d already lost interest - I have no desire to connect with people from college or high school I never really liked in the first place.
When I joined Twitter back in 2007, it was amazing how many people were already embracing it as a revolutionary tool for communication. I remember thinking Twitter was completely useless and Twitter’s public timeline reminded me of a crowded chat room where trying to follow a conversation was nearly impossible. I toyed around with Twitter for a few days and then gave up interest out of boredom. It wasn’t until a year later when I decided to give Twitter another try that I started seeing some possibilities.
One thing I’ve noticed about Twitter is that it is being used by an overwhelming number of professionals who are old enough to be the parents or even grandparents of their MySpace and FaceBook counterparts. Could it be that Twitter is intentionally tapping into a more mature demographic or is the demographic embracing Twitter as a means for communication? I believe it’s the latter. I’ll explain why.
Twitter’s obvious appeal to professionals lies in the ability to control incoming information streams by following key people in specific industries. While Twitter might not be useful for for somebody like Joe the Plumber’s information gathering needs, it is extremely useful for bloggers, journalists, writers, news media and many other industries who currently rely on feed readers to stay informed. Twitter taps them into a continual stream where they can pan for gold. For knowledgable prospectors, Twitter is a goldmine that never stops producing.
It’s not about how many people are following you, it’s about how many “quality” people you are following. If done properly you can refine Twitter content streams into your own personal two-way information system where you are taking in information while disseminating and aggregating information of your own to interested parties. If you take Seth Godin’s concept of Permission Marketing
I think this is why Twitter appeals to me more than MySpace or FaceBook and I’m sure many other professional adults who have been searching for a relatively spam free information system where you can control everything from your exposure to the community, interaction with the community and most importantly, input from the community.
Interesting outlook. Really, I feel as though it depends on what market you are in. Internet Marketers are loving Twitter right now (as well as facebook when it comes to PPC). But, I’d imagine that professional skateboarders and things are probably less likely to be found on Twitter as they are to some of the other social platforms. Thats just a guess though.
You’re right, internet marketers are the loving Twitter.
One thing I would like to clarify about this article is that I believe age as a demographic is relatively flexible because there are always 18yo’s who are more mature than some people in their 50’s. There’s also a clear division between people who are using computers and the internet to further their career or earnings as opposed to people who use the internet primarily to socalize.
You’ve posed a good question, and I think your descriptions of MySpace vs FaceBook are spot on. However, I think LinkedIn is “the place” for professional connections. It is more difficult to fake one’s credentials there, and since there’s no place for goofy applications, the result is a much more professional atmosphere.
Twitter is more like a huge cocktail party than a professional meeting place, although one can certainly utilize it in the manner you have described.
Good blog post, by the way. I enjoyed it.
I was going to say “what about LinkedIn” but Janelle beat me to it.
Thanks for the comments Janelle and Mary. @Janelle, I like the analogy of Twitter as a huge cocktail party. Spot on with that one. I was going to mention LinkedIn because I use both LinkedIn and Plaxo to connect with people I’ve worked for/with in the past but the idea for this article came up when I was trying to show my Myspace/Facebook addicted friend how Twitter was useful and he said “Twitter is for old people” ;-)
I was originally going to title the article “Does Twitter Attract an Older Crowd Than MySpace or FaceBook” but I wasn’t sure how people would react to the word “older” !!
OMG, now I’ve gone and done it. Google Adsense ads are showing “selling to Seniors” and “Free Boomer Newsletter”…
I guess you are right about the more professional are using Twitter. And because it is fast to “push” your marketing to people, it is better that e.g. MySpace.
I’ve just signed up for Twitter a week ago… I just don’t get it… is there anything to it beyond status updates?
Twitter is an excellent and great way to keep people up-to-date with what you are up to, and what you are doing between your emails and blog posts. Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.
For me Twitter became much more interesting and useful when I started to follow some of the leaders in the areas related to my work.
I’ve found great new forums, good blog posts, and interesting articles that I might never would have seen otherwise. I’ve answered a few questions and seen others get quick answers to their questions.
Now, I understand Twitter better.
I find that my Twitter “followers” aren’t really following “me” at all like they do on Facebook. They are following a number, if you know what I mean. It’s been kind of frustrating for me. I don’t expect many to be following me but it’s too bad I can’t get a bite on a link or blog post after a day or two.
Twitter, and even more so, LinkedIn, appeal to a more professional demographic, as you put it; it’s obvious to me when I see the bio’s and sites of the people that are following me.
The interface makes it much more simple to remove someone if you discover that they are essentially spamming the network with their offers.
I was thinking the same thing myself as I was looking through who I am following on Twitter.
Twitter is more spam free from my view. Facebook and myspace are also good, but twitter has more exposure as compared with both of them. Twitter is used by people of all ages if we see the demographic graph. Thanks for the post :)
According to my perception, twitter is much better than facebook, as it has many interesting features compared with other two social networking sites.
“Does Twitter Appeal to a More Professional Demographic Than MySpace or FaceBook?” —-of course its better than other 2,its features r extra-odinary!
you have a good question there, personally i think twitter is getting more and more famous, i have just joined twitter and finding it to be a great place. It gonna get high in competition.
@talwinder—yes “twitter” is best from both others but in this matter ,it “matters” for what purpose it is used?,rest depends on user’s knowledge
@solid snake–
it’s just amatter of time
whts help you? people commented only afer their usage?
nielsen.com just released some new dempographics on Twiiter. This is what they had to say :
Twitterers (a.k.a. Tweeters) are not primarily teens or college students as you might expect. In fact, in February the largest age group on Twitter was 35-49; with nearly 3 million unique visitors, comprising almost 42 percent of the site’s audience. We found that the majority of people visit Twitter.com while at work, with 62 percent of the combo unique audience accessing the site from work only versus 35 percent that accessed it from home only.
@SIRIUS-BLACK
“face-book” is for beginners to use,
“my-space” is for above beginners although,
“TWITTER” ISFOR “PRO-FESS-IONALS”
I think Twitter definitely has a leg up for business compared to a site such as Linked-in. The community aspect is what is compelling.
I find Twitter to be a very useful tool and is becoming much more popular these days. I use it all the time and find it to be helpful.
My twitter competition is attracting people from divers backgrounds. I think as twitter matures it will see the same effect as Facebook that it attracts people from every section of society. I think this will happen faster then it did for Facebook.
Murray
it is good definate age group thats sure
If twitter is what’s new, then what’s next? I mean this is getting ridiculous. When people tell me they send me an email and I check my email and tell them they haven’t, they explain oh “I messaged you on Facebook.” Really?? Not only will my unborn children have to learn multiple foreign languages to compete, they’ll have to learn this crap too. I really do wonder what’s next though. lol.
Like alot of people on here I struggled to see the point of twitter in the past. I think thats always the intial first impression.
But once you get people following you and your following them you see that it can actually br very versatile and powerful, yes there is people that say things like im off to the toilet or off to get a drink-which to be honest were not really interested in but then out of the blue they will deliver a mindblowing story or news item they “just came across” while browsing the web then this goes viral throughout twitter.
I like to think of it as “online life” it gives the intangible internet a grounding towards reality.
I love Twitter. One group I find not mentioned is sports fanatics using Twitter. I chat with a lot of people about my passion, soccer every day and get some good links from people there.
I don’t think the sign up process for facebook is tough?It’s just depends on what type of information you would like it to be displayed.Twitter is the gold mine now.Many people does marketing through that source!
What I like about Twitter is there is a whole range of users on the site - from business and musicians to the average Joe. It’s - in a way - a meeting place for all such users.
That said, it provides a great way to get the word out for businesses. In a few seconds, hundreds or even thousands of people could have your status update.
YOU ARE SUCH AN ONLINE-MARKETER”WHEN YOU ARE INVOLVED IN TWITTER STUFF”$
I think you are right. and must say that your observation is very good. more important is to get assciated with a few quality people than with a thousand people. twitter definitely has lot of proffessionals attached.
Hm… I don’t think that twitter can be compared with facebook or myspace. It is completely different service which has slightly other features.
However, I agree twitter=professionals, myspace(facebook)=users
I would not compare the three services against eachother, but rather look at twitter, facebook, myspace and other social communities as an opportunity to promote affiliate marketing products to 3 different audiences.