Why Social Media Influencers Can Help You Engage Older Adults

by Jeff Weiss

As the old saying goes, “The only thing constant is change”. And having worked in the marketing world for 40 years, I can attest to the truth of this statement.

“Back in the day”, the primary focus of marketers was generating reach and frequency — how many (of your target consumer’s) eyeballs could you reach and how many times could you reach them. You had relatively few options to get these jobs done and those with healthy budgets could create out-of-the box TV spots that would surely change the world and drive more people to buy your product.

Life was so much easier back then. While outputs such as reach and frequency could be bought and measured, the true impact of your marketing efforts were somewhat nebulous. Determining which tactics drove specific sales was the holy grail as it was difficult to isolate the effectiveness of different touchpoints along the consumer journey. Building brand equity was also a valued goal seen as critical for the long-term success of your business.

Fast forward to today when the primary focus is on driving immediate sales—brand equity be damned! And measuring the impact of your marketing efforts and budgets has taken on greater importance, particularly at the C-Suite level. One of the (perhaps unintended) consequences of this focus is that a substantial amount of dollars is being spent on digital efforts since tracking the impact of these tactics is much easier to do compared to traditional marketing efforts.

Perhaps the biggest winners in the digital space — beyond Google and Meta — have been online influencers who are creating and sharing content across multiple social channels and areas of interest. The growth of influencer marketing has been significant as highlighted by the following points:

There are an estimated 127 million influencers worldwide
It is estimated that influencer marketing is close to a $30 billion industry
12 million Americans are pursuing full-time careers as influencers with a focus on building their personal brand, shaping public opinion, cultural trends and consumer behaviors
57% of Gen Z’s in America would like to be a social media influencer; 53% describe it as a reputable career choice
The average age of (currently) successful global influencers is 27

The last point is of particular interest (at least to me) as the world of influencers is largely seen as a young person’s game. Gen Z, in particular, has grown up in a largely digital world so it’s no wonder that the influential people they tend to follow outside of their friends and family are sharing their content online. Online influencers essentially represent the evolution of the influencers who older adults used to follow before the internet was even around. For the most part they just followed their influencers on television, in newspapers or other print media.

Given our focus on understanding and marketing to adults 55+, we’ve often wondered what impact online influencers were having on this older demographic, driven by two underlying questions. First, are older adults really following and engaging with influencers or is this strictly a younger person’s pursuit. And second, are there older influencers who are garnering enough followers to make them relevant?

To answer the first question, we recently undertook a survey with adults 18+ to explore their overall usage of social media platforms and to examine the impact online influencers are having on their lives, especially related to the marketing of products and services. Our findings further debunked the stereotype that older adults are technologically challenged and averse, with more than 95% using social media platforms and more than 60% of them following social media influencers.

Diving in deeper we found that older adults are using different social platforms for different reasons. For example:

91% of those using Facebook are staying in touch with specific people
62% of those on YouTube are using the platform to get helpful information and tips
57% of those on Pinterest are looking for product information, recommendations and offers

The findings also showed that the overall popularity of a social platform does not necessarily correlate with its use for following influencers. For example, despite the high overall usage of Facebook among older adults, only 40% of those on Facebook are using it to follow influencers. In comparison, 64% of older adults on X (formerly Twitter) are following influencers, although only 25% of adults 55+ overall are using this platform.

Our research also probed the impact influencers are having on an older adult’s consumer journey, from awareness all the way through to product purchase. Overall, the numbers clearly indicate that online influencers, particularly older ones, are having a positive impact for brands who choose to work with them to create and amplify relatable content that appeals to the 55+ audience. The full report is available now.

If you are interested in effectively (and cost-effectively) reaching and engaging with older adults, reach out to me at jeff@ageofmajority.com and I can share a more detailed overview of the opportunity and how we can potentially help you unlock this largely untapped (and measureable) marketing opportunity.