Almost 1 in 5 Brits has made a purchase based on a product being endorsed by someone on social according to recent figures. And that’s across all age ranges and demographics. When we hone in just on younger people the figure rises. A third of those aged 16 to 34 have bought a product after seeing someone else endorse it on social and a quarter after seeing a celeb do so.
For this reason and so many others, ignoring social as a part of your marketing strategy is pretty unfeasible. But what if you target an older demographic than the late teens and twenties?
Does it still matter?
The short answer is yes. And we’ve looked at some recent social media usage statistics to pick apart the most popular social media platform by age group in the UK.
Social Media Use by Age in the UK
Across all age groups it is Instagram or Facebook that is the most popular platform in the UK.
| Age Group | % who use Facebook at least monthly | % who use Instagram at least monthly |
| 16 – 24 | 49.07% | 56.51% |
| 25 – 34 | 58.07% | 54.35% |
| 35 – 44 | 70.57% | 50.32% |
| 45 – 54 | 69.94% | 38.39% |
| 55+ | 62.06% | 21.12% |
For 16 to 24s, it’s Instagram while all other age groups lean to Facebook. But we can see how close it is for the 35 to 44s.
The Tiktok Wildcard
The figures also showed that for the youngest demographic in the study, they use Tiktok almost as much as Instagram. Tiktok is significantly less popular with older people than Facebook is but the gap is closing on the youngest demographic.
Where should you focus your social media efforts?
It depends. That good old answer. But it really does. It’s not just the age of your target audience but their interests and demographics too. And it depends on whether you’re planning on advertising or simply creating content and engaging. It also depends on what form of content. Do you plan to create video? Or not?
So, a couple of resources below to help you find your audience and their interests:
- Facebook Audience Insights: helps you understand what your audience is interested in based on tonnes and tonnes of Facebook data. Whether you plan to advertise specifically on Facebook or not, this is highly valuable.
- Running surveys amongst your customers to find out which platforms they’re using
In all, whether you’re paid advertising or simply investing resource into your organic presence, do your research first, find out where your audience is and tailor your plan accordingly.
And yes, even if your audience is the over 55s, social media is something to consider.