Why Assume Only Screenagers Use Facebook?

Oprah Winfrey, Pope Benedictus XVI and Barack Obama all have YouTube channels. Can somebody please explain me why so many marketers still assume that Facebook would only be used by screenagers?

Are these marketers lead by their assumptions or by their media agencies? I understand that the media landscape has changed pretty fast for some old skool marketers.

And, we all might not have predicted it years ago, you may not even like it, but there’s a growing chance that your grandparents are now on Facebook too.

New data from Pew/Internet shows that over one-third of adults have an online social networking profile, an increase of 400 percent since 2005.

In a recent study by Pew / Internet (view full free report) it is shown that over one-third (35%) of all adults online have a profile on a social networking site. This number is a 4-fold increase from the same study conducted in 2005.

Of course, when you break the adult demographics out more, there is a direct correlation between age and social media usage:

75% of online adults 18-24 have a profile on a social network site
57% of online adults 25-34 have a profile on a social network site
30% of online adults 35-44 have a profile on a social network site
19% of online adults 45-54 have a profile on a social network site
10% of online adults 55-64 have a profile on a social network site
7% of online adults 65+ have a profile on a social network site

Escape your assumptions and the truth will set you free. If Oprah, the Pope and Obama Can: You Can Too!

Source: MGH Word of Mouth