Home Based Business - Defining Social Networking Ten Years Later

Take yourself back ten years to the year 2000. If you owned a home based business back in the year 2000, and someone approached you and told you that you should be engaging in social networking, what would you have thought that they were referring to? My guess, is that you would have assumed that they were suggesting that you physically attend social business gatherings so that you can network with other business owners whose businesses might compliment that of your own.

It is clear that ten years ago, Social networking would have not meant the same as it does today. Facebook,Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and many other sites have become household names as their growth has exploded. In fact, Facebook recently reach the 350 million subscribers, and has overtaken MySpace as the biggest social networking website. I know that seams hard to believe, but yes, there are now more people on Facebook than there are in the entire United States of America. It was also reported that Youtube, the leader in online videos, served over 100 million videos a day in the month of January 2009 just from its US viewers. That number is extremely difficult to fathom, however, it is accurate. Twitter, a new comer on the block, has also grown exponentially. What is the world coming to?

To me, the story is the demographic which experienced such growth. Facebook had a 276% growth in the age group 35-54 in 2009 alone. That is not to say that there are more people 35 plus on Facebook than under 35 because that is just not the case. In fact, 18 million of the 20 million US citizens on Facebook fall into that 35 and under crowed. However, the growth in that 35+ is exploding and most likely will continue in the future.

What is different about Twitter, is that their primarily users are within the 35 and up age group. In fact, this group makes up to 66% of the usage of Twitter. This means that many of these users who have come onto the Internet for the first time have also started using Twitter. Conversely, YouTube is more balanced. About 52% of the users on YouTube are 35 and under and 48% are 35+. YouTube also has a higher demographic of males as compared to Facebook, which has a higher demographic of females.

As a home based business owner, this means that there are going to be more and more people who are coming online in the 35 and up age group. The 35 and up age group is also the age group who has more money to spend because they are more established. Therefore, we as marketers should focus more on this age demographic to bring them into our business. At the same time, this age group is the least educated in basic computer skills, let alone social networking.

As you can see, with this kind of growth, there is much more to come in the future. I truly believe that this is a perfect storm for someone who can take the right approach. Understanding the demographics of those who are using the social networks will help the marketer better market their products and sevices. The growth could be even more explosive if the correct approach is used and is easy to use and focuses on education and training.

Bottom line is the future looks very good for this industry. Especially for those of you who utilize social networking for your home based business.

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