Facebook losing key demographic of 18-35 year-olds.
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 6:49AMFor some reason this wasn’t covered all that much in the media or in the industry – but its something significant and more importantly something to really think about. Facebook, the king of all social media, is starting to show a serious crack in its armor. According to InsideFacebook, in a graph released, there is a disturbing trend of facebook starting to have a negative growth in the key demographic of 18-35 year-olds. This is something very interesting, and more importantly should disturb Facebook executives enormously.
Of course Facebook is going to point out that the total positive growth was 320,000, and that they are growing in people 45+, and substantial growth in kids. However, anyone who understands the internet, growth patterns and influence patterns, will tell you that this audience growth while interesting, is not nearly as important. In advertising, the 18-35 demographic is important for a variety of reasons, and online is even more important.
First of all, the 18-35 demographic tends to be early adopters. These are the people who initially made facebook so popular. While Myspace was still signing up teenager who wanted a homepage with flashy stars and playboy bunnies, Facebook was gaining appeal to the key advertising demographics who wanted to run away from Myspace as fast as possible. Facebook provided a unique feel and importantly, at that time, a limited audience of real friends, relatives and business partners. However, something has substantially changed with Facebook that is obviously affecting how this audience views facebook.
Simply, Facebook isn’t cool or interesting anymore. Everyone is on facebook, including people you’d rather not have anything to do with. While at one time, friends were often limited to family and close friends, its slowly becoming another Myspace where guys add as many hot girls as possible to their friends list. On top of that, if you do have over a few hundred friends, you run the risk of being 
overloaded with group requests, invites to parties and given pictures of a pink dogs or multi-colored roses. It’s so large and annoying that it’s like the rest of the internet now, and you need a search engine to even navigate it.
What exactly does this mean? It means simply that the early adopters, the decision makers, the consumers that make up the audiences that advertisers want to reach are slowly becoming uninterested in Facebook. Facebook, as a service, doesn’t really provide that much. Content wise, it tends to be ridiculous comments about what people are eating, where they are going, who they slept with, and worse… more and more of the “myspace” self-shots of underwear clad girls in the mirror. Facebook is becoming… Myspace!
Thoughts?
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Reader Comments (22)
While I savor and delight in the downfall of Facebook so that all the other huslting, unimaginative, idiotic "marketers" and would-be "social media gurus" are left with dust - because you have to crawl, walk, THEN run - I find it hard to accept this post or the data without reference resources. Where did these numbers come from?
I can see that. 2 years ago I loved facebook. Then about a year ago it just started getting so complicated. All the silly facebook apps cane along and it got really annoying. now, I login once or twice a month at most.
I think this is a ridiculous assumption, if for nothing else, than to think of a topic to post a blog on. Your research is faulty, as you only track the last 31 days of growth, which as we all know is not enough of a sample size when there are far more variables to consider. Facebook is a lifestyle. 18-35ers ESP wake up, drink their coffee with facebook as their social newspaper. they use it to communicate with friends they like and people they want to spy on. If someone is spamming, there's a filter button for that. It's not growing because it's at a plateau- everyone already has facebook as you mentioned- it doesn't suggest that it's losing any loyalty or lagging in popularity because of that.
How is this a chink in Facebook's armor? They just announced over 500 million users. The idea that 18-35 year-olds are the most important demographic is ageist, rude, and old fashioned. Why is 18-35 the "key" demographic?
The fact that despite that younger users are leaving Facebook it has grown to a half a billion users shows that it is stronger than ever. Facebook's demographic is now in line with most other social networks, 30+. MySpace has a far greater percentage of younger users than Facebook.
I find a lot of social media to be less than it is cracked up to be. I use it because in this day in age, if you don't, you are lost in the internet. So, I continue to use it as a medium to market and sell.
What the others said, where did Inside Facebook get the data from? Watching my sister, who is in that age group, she's on Facebook every night, for several hours. The whole point of Facebook is that your parents being on there don't matter, as you can simply block them.
This was something I predicted last year... The social media bubble bust... The moment people get bored or realize that nobody really cares about their rants will be the moment that growth in networks like Facebook and Twitter begins to implode. This is only the beginning.
I quit Facebooking a year ago and Twitter is a big noise factory... Nobody is paying attention to anyone... They are all self centered endeavors and people are becoming bored of it.
The early adopters are, of course, the first to realize this so they are the first to go.
Charles
We faced migration like that at Fox all the time. As soon as we had a bona fide hit with the teenagers, their younger brothers and sisters would latch on and it would no longer be coo to be associated with the show.
It seems we have come 180 degrees, now it's not cool because Mom and Dad are on it.
Don't worry about facebook though, there are more adults than teens and our habits tend to last longer.
Chris
Facebook has underestimated the stupidity of their own audience. If clear rules and guidelines are not present for the masses, then how unevolved we really are becomes clearly evident.
If you will excuse me, i need to go tend to my virtual farm... and then I'm baking cookies! XOXOXO
Also find this hard to believe as most of the people I know in this age range use Facebook chat more than Twitter
18-35 might be a key demo for brand advertisers, but it doesn't mean shit for direct response advertisers. DR only cares about which demo responds to the offer. If I'm selling arthritis supplements, 18-35 isn't my market.
What I like about Facebook is the targeting. At the end of the day, it's just one out of almost hundreds of places to advertise on.
Social media jumps he shark? No doubt we will see new entrants and super specialization like any other technology adoption curve. The network effect may accelerate the process, but we've seen it over and over.
The only difference is that the key demographic has never seen it before...
Facebook sucks, and has sucked for some time now.
Social media gurus? Really? Anyone that calls themselves social media gurus need to be smacked in the face - twice. Social media is nothing new, and those that think it is only prove that they're a newbie.
Anyone else remember theglobe back in 96/97?
As the older demographic comes on to face book its less appealing to me. Now my mom has a facebook my grandma has one all my aunts and uncles have one too. Now I'm afraid to post anything on facebook and tend to untag myself from pictures. Instead of connecting with myfriends I spend time making sure they don't post some dumb on my wall that could offend my Grandma.
I hate to say it but parents and relatives may have ruined facebook. Now I use it to manage what people see about me and its not something I spend much time on anymore.
I just never got into FB. I'm on it to promote Pet News and Views, my blog. The best social media site for me is Care2.com because it focuses on causes. I focus on animals, and I love the Care2 community. I can spend a lot of time there. I also like Twitter because it's fast and fun.
Please explain:
1. What is insidefacebook.com really?
2. Where did they get these numbers?
3. Do they have numbers showing the allleged trend beyond just 31 days?
Thanks..
Between the small portion of data you base your argument on, and your many typos (is it Facebook or facebook?), I find it hard to believe your article at all. If I could accept it as true, the question you leave unanswered is "where are they going?" If they're not on Facebook, they must be somewhere--living offline isn't an option for these kids anymore. So where are they going?
I agree 100% with this post. People my age were the founding members of Facebook. We started and helped shape it. Now, more and more of my friends are quitting. I only have an active account because I control a work page through it.
As soon as high schoolers were able to friend college students, it was all downhill from there. It's not fun to be on and as soon as I can, I want to quit. Not to mention, having my mother constantly interact with my friends is annoying to say the least.
The younger demographic is already on facebook, so in my opinion growth is not a good indicator of popularity.
All I can say is "enough said". This is article took the words and feeling write out of my mouth!