Over 50s more likely to use mobile social networking than young

The over 50s are more likely to start using social networking sites on their mobiles than younger audiences, and they’re significantly wealthier than the youth market.

The research, reported in Marketing Week comes from Kantar Media’s TGI MobiLens survey, and it makes very interesting reading, especially if you’re thinking about exploiting mobile in your business. The survey highlights just how potentially lucrative the over 50’s are, and that aiming for the big volume youth market, may actually be less lucrative than going for the over 50s.

The survey found that the around 400,000 British adults over 50 use social networking sites on the move, a 52% increase on last year, while the number of mobile social networkers under 30 rose by just 48%.

The over 50s who access blogs, social networking or content sharing sites on their mobiles are also around three times more likely to earn £50,000 or more than other adult mobile-owners. They are also 45% more likely to be educated to degree level.

Additionally the over 50s mobile social networking market is 85% more likely to have spent £2,500 or more on holidays in the last year and 64% more likely to have four or more credit or debit cards compared to all mobile-owning adults.

Kantar Media TGI director Daniel Flynn says: “Many brands are focusing on younger demographics, but marketers would be sensible to focus on more mature mobile social networkers as well.”

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