Almost everyone, Grandma included, is on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or some other social network. Our society has quickly become one that is constantly posting pictures, updating statuses, and sending each other messages through online social sites. But who’s really doing this, and on which sites?  Let’s take a look at a few of the bigger social networks and see who the users really are.

Facebook

If you’re like me, you probably think it’s the younger generations who dominate Facebook.  Talk to parents and they will tell you that they either already have a kid on Facebook or they have one who wants to get on Facebook.  But we are wrong.  The largest group of Facebook users, coming in at just over 30% is the 45-54 year olds. And, the second largest group is 35-44 year olds, who account for about 22% of all Facebook users.  Where’s are all the teens you ask?  Not on Facebook as you can see from the graph below.

Facebook’s User Base by Age (Percentage)

Source: http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-media-stats/2012-social-network-analysis-report/

Twitter

Twitter is no longer Facebook’s little brother. Celebrities, journalists, politicians and other public figures have made Twitter the go-to place for quick, 140 character in length, news bites and the rest of the world seems to have caught on and signed-up. Like Facebook, Twitter has a similar demographic split, about 60%-40% on the side of female.  Age wise though, 25-35 year olds make up the largest segment, with about 24% of the user base, but not by much because 35-44s and 45-54s are not far behind at 23% each.

LinkedIn

It probably won’t come as a surprise that this social media site, focusing on professional networking, is the most popular with 35-54 year olds accounting for 62% of the users. LinkedIn also appears to be the most gender neutral social site, being used by males and females at an equal rate.

Pinterest

The social bookmarking site where users collect and share photos of their favorite events, interests and hobbies is one of the fastest growing social networks online and is the third-largest social network behind only Facebook and Twitter. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest is dominated by 25 to 54 year olds, who all together account for about 75% of all users. And, what may be even more surprising is that women account for almost 80% of all users!

Tumblr

Tumblr may not been nearly as large as the other social sites it terms of its size of user base, but it continues to grow in popularity.  As a highly addictive picture sharing network, it has proven to be the most popular with females who make up roughly 60% of all users.  A notable difference from the other platforms mentioned, is with the 18-25 year old segment.  They are tied with the 25-34 age group, each accounting for 23% of all users, suggesting that Tumblr is preferred most by the younger generations.

So What?!

All this data is great! We as marketers love data, but we also know that it’s not very helpful unless the data is meaningful. So what does all this data mean? Well for marketers there are some quite obvious conclusions to be made from these stats, and it all comes down to better targeting. If your audience is primarily female and your product or service lends itself to visual marketing then Pinterest would seem to be an obvious choice to consider if you have not already done so. On the other hand, if you are looking to collect highly qualified leads you may decide against using Pinterest or Facebook and may decide to invest more of your marketing spend in LinkedIn. Knowing where your target market is spending the majority of their time is key, so before you jump on the next social bandwagon just because “everyone is doing it”, make sure you identify who your target market is and which platforms they are using.

Below you’ll find a couple of handy graphs that have the full break down of these social sites plus a number of other popular social media networks. The first one has a break out of the age groups while the second looks at the gender distribution.