Youth Like Video, Adults Like Photo’s; Social Media Age Differences

The under 25 age group prefers video and adults like photographs better our research finds. Using our monitoring tool and looking at average ages in Social Media profiles, plus language analysis, we wanted to know if video as a medium was popular in the same way across all age groups. Obviously it isn’t. Why? Understanding such preferences can help marketers understand what medium works better for different age groups.

We were somewhat surprised by this finding, given the popularity of video sharing services such as YouTube and MetaCafe. Our findings showed that the older the person, the less likely they are to create and share video. Watching video online is more level across age groups. Of the profiles analyzed we found that less than 10% of those over 35 were likely to create and share their own videos while 40% of those under 30 were likely to create and share a video. Once we go under 20 we see that there is an 80% chance a user will create and share their own video.

When it comes to photos, the over 30 set are more likely to post to photo sharing sites like Flickr or PhotoBucket, while the under 30 groups  are more likely to restrict photo uploading and sharing to their social networks. This is not entirely surprising to most I would suspect, but validating as well.

The over 30 age groups however, will share and watch online video almost on a par with the under 30 segments.