facebook-and-teens-2014-data-compressor

Facebook Teen Usage Data 2014

Great news, we can all stop panicking, teens still use Facebook!

Forrester Research conducted a survey of 4,517 young adults aged between 12 to 17. Results as follows

  • 75% U.S. youth use Facebook.
  • 28% say they use it “all the time.”

Another study by Niche was also revealing when it came to teenagers habits on Facebook.  They found that 87% Of Teens Still Use Facebook.  In a survey of 7,000 teens 87% of the respondents used Facebook at least occasionally. Sixty-one percent of use Facebook daily, including 47% who use it “a few times a day.”

Why do teens leave Facebook

Trends, new shiny apps and new ways of interacting have caused teens to stray and try new things, but it seems they are still connected.  Without any scientific basis, my gut feeling is that younger people left Facebook for a few reasons

  • Their parents – everyone’s parents came onto Facebook, and the last thing you want as a teen is your parents snooping on your every move, and misinterpreting every post, and even worse commenting on yours or your friends posts!  I feel this is one of the main reasons teens looked elsewhere.
  • Photos and employment – Again a couple of years ago it seemed every week people were talking about how your social media profiles now play a part in the recruitment process.
  • Advertising – Millenials and Gen Z are really turned off and quite blind to traditional forms of banner advertising so as Facebook increased that side of its business teens reacted.
  • Trends – most teens are in the early adopters end of the bell curve. They like to explore new apps and tend to go with the flow on current trends so it is no wonder they will experiment, however Facebook is still probably the place where they can still connect with the majority of their friends and family in one place.

Future of Facebook and Teens

Facebook’s acquisitions make sense if you think about it as a conveyor belt of engagement and monthly active use. What’s app is popular with younger teens and young adults, Facebook has a high popularity with people from 13-40 and even our grand parents seem to be on there now.  Silver surfers are Facebook’s largest growing demographic in western markets.  Instagram seems to bridge the early teens up to mid 30’s.

Ad models are quite mature on Facebook and have they are now gearing up to dominate the mobile ad space as well as on platform. Instagram have now rolled out their ad model, it won’t be too long before what’s app follows suit. Meaning if you want to target youth markets then Facebook and it’s portfolio of companies is the perfect place to reach them– for now anyway.