With an original audience base of college students, how can one of the largest and fastest-growing Online social networks appeal to an older demographic?
Good question. It's a main concern for Facebook right now too.
A majority of older-aged professionals who are savvy in the social networking world may already have profiles on LinkedIn. Are these same people interested or apt to create profiles on sites like Facebook or MySpace, which originally appealed to a younger audience?
I do agree that they all can function as priceless marketing and professional networking tools.
Even though the majority of Facebook profile are those of college-aged users, Facebook is pushing to get those a bit older onto its network.
This may be something that will have to happen over time. But Facebook wants it to happen now. What is the cause of this this? Is it the security issue, transparency, and openness? Or is it apathy?
Facebook does indeed continue to develop its security features. But is that enough to wane the concerns of the older generations which it is wanting to target?
"Originally, Facebook enabled students to amass one undifferentiated group of friends who had unfettered access their profiles. Later it created two categories: people who could see your "limited profile" and those who could see everything about you. Then, in December, it allowed members to aggregate friends into any number of groups - family, friends from school, friends from work, non-friends who had cajoled you into "friending" them on Facebook, etc. But you couldn't do much with those groups except send them messages."
"The new controls allow you to set different levels of access to information about you for each of those groups. For instance, close friends might get to see your cellphone number, music favorites, e-mail address and embarrassing photos of you from out-of-control parties. Work colleagues, on the other hand, might only see the basics about your education and resume - name, rank, and serial number."
Is this as far as the privacy will go? Doubtful. It’s most likely that these features will continue to develop.
Data protection and information availability are two opposite goals, both of which must be available to users of such social networks as Facebook. It's the difference between what people should see and what they should not see.
Is a strict difference between these two options enough to attract an older demographic to Facebook?
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