What different generations use Facebook for
Inside Facebook has reproduced this emarketer chart showing what different generations use Facebook and other networks for. No huge surprises, but it’s worth noting anyway.
It confirms that older users have been going onto Facebook to keep in touch with family (51% for the oldest age group compared to 27% for the youngest), and that older users more often than not come on board because someone suggested they do so (60%).
By contrast, younger users sign up to Facebook for the simple reason that they know that it’s there and that their friends are already using it. 10% of baby boomers use social networks to look for jobs with the overwhelming majority (73% to 13%) being present on Facebook rather than LinkedIn.
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That's right Martin – the chart above summarises all networks, and I should definitely clarify that.
However the second chart from the original piece (which I didn't reproduce) shows that of Boomers who are on social networks 73% are on Facebook and only 13% on LinkedIn.
For the oldest age group, it's 90% / 4% so an even starker difference.
Actually having thought about it some more, I'm surprised the overall (including younger groups) job stats on Facebook aren't higher, given the number of professional groups that exist on there.
The original article stresses these numbers are aggregates of all the social networks, not just Facebook. I'm wondering if the "Job Searching" bump is more about LinkedIn than Facebook. When my baby boomer older brother was hit by a mass layoff in December, he joined LinkedIn, his first and only social network. He's got almost twice as many LinkedIn contacts than I do, which makes me think his professional network relies on it more than mine. We're twelve years apart, so he's a solid boomer, I'm a solid Gen X'er.