Reaching Old Folks on MySpace
According to the September 4th issue of Fortune,
The MySpace user base is changing. Some 87% of users today are 18 or older; 52% are 35 or older, according to comScore.
The research is quite a contrast from the teenie-bopper stereotypes that is typically assumed to make up the over 100 million MySpace users. Although MySpace has its share of negatives, some ministries are learning how to use the social network to reach new people. However, the ministries doing so seem to be youth groups or college & career groups like previously mentioned Guts Church (Tulsa, OK). Yet the above statistics clearly show that roughly 52 million users are over 35 years old. Yes, there are some ministries catering to this demographic on MySpace, but there is still a huge vacancy in the opportunity to reach them.
Keep in mind that MySpace is not just for teenagers and college students. People from every background use MySpace including the people that your niche of ministry is trying to reach. This does not necessarily mean that your area of ministry should create a MySpace page, but you should at least consider it weigh the pros and cons of if doing so will help you accomplish your ministry’s mission and reach more people. The article also states, “On a typical day, (MySpace) signs up 230,000 - roughly the population of Scottsdale.” For now, MySpace looks like it is here to stay.
On a side note: If you MySpace, be sure to visit ChurchRelevance.com’s profile.
Special thanks to Mark Vanderbeeken for highlighting the article on MarketingProfs:DailyFix.
Ann Handley Said,
September 24, 2006 @ 9:14 pm
I was amazed by that stat, too. Puts MySpace in a whole new light, doesn’t it?
Thanks for picking up Mark’s post!
nathan. Said,
September 25, 2006 @ 11:18 pm
I posted this already over at ChurchMarketingSucks but I think it applies here too”
I think its healthy to be a little skeptical about the new MySpace stats about aging, depending on how the numbers were collected.
People can create their profile to say whatever they want, including their age. For example, I have friends that put “87 years old” or “99 years old” on their profile when they are closer to 25.
Now, MySpace could have polled an appropriate random sample of users off-line to get their real information, but for some reason I doubt thats what we’re talking about in this case.
Kent Shaffer Said,
September 26, 2006 @ 12:49 am
Nathan,
As with any research, it probably has it’s flaws. However, even if only 10% not 52% of their users are over 35 years old, that is still 10 million users. The point is not in the hard numbers but in the fact that MySpace and social networks in general are being used by everyone not just teenagers. And that presents possible opportunities for certain ministries to be able to reach people through this new channel of contact.
-Kent
Greg Atkinson Said,
September 27, 2006 @ 12:03 am
Myspace is a networking machine. I love it! I met Kent and thus Bombay Creative and Church Relevance (this blog) via Myspace. I’ve now hired Kent twice to work on two different websites. I would have never come across him without Myspace.
Robyn Tippins Said,
September 27, 2006 @ 8:38 pm
I tell you, I wonder how much the fact that 1. there are thousands of fake profiles from search and affiliate marketers (they run bots all day managing them) and 2. up until this time last year MySpace youngsters had to lie to join and they almost always chose 99 years old to cover it (so their friends and propective friends would see it was a lie) skews the age.
Have you seen ForeverGeek’s debunking of their 112M members? Their estimate is around 43M. The data is not perfect, but I’d say it’s loads more accurate.