A story published today in the Pierre Capital Journal interviewed 9 Clouds about the recent article by Muhammad Saleem in Mashable that notes South Dakota has the highest per capita use of Facebook.

As we noted in the story, Facebook isn’t just for kids any more. In fact, according to Istrategylabs.com, the fastest growing demographic group on Facebook is 55 and older, growing at an astonishing rate of 922% in the past year. This is much higher than the 328% growth of 35-54 year olds or the 127% of 25-34 year olds. Check out all the stats on their graph below.

Essentially, what we are seeing is a breakdown of resistance. As noted in the Capital Journal story, years ago we vowed that we would never carry a phone around with us at all times and ALWAYS be in touch. Well, how did that work out for you? I remember my sophomore year of college when “The Facebook” landed at Luther College and we received an email from the administration saying they could not get a hold of “Mark Zuckerberg” and could not verify the safety of giving our information to the site. Looks like Luther College has changed their tune with over 3500 fans on their page.

While older generations may have been slower to droptheir resistance to this new technology, they are now embracing it wholeheartedly, primarily because it is the same thing they have always done: sharing information, photos, stories and meeting people. The only change now is the tool they use to do it with. It is the same with business. Businesses are accustomed to talking to customers, asking them how their day was and showing them the newest products and recommendations. It is these same techniques that businesses can utilize online. Expect businesses to continue dropping their resistance as already demonstrated by over 60% of businesses increasing social media marketing efforts in the past year. This strategy only makes sense as customers continue to move online.

Facebook's growing, especially among older generations

Tags: adoption, business, Facebook, pierre, resistence, Social Media, south dakota, techniques, technology