People over the age of 65 are adopting Facebook faster than any other age group.

Social media is for young people.  Right?  Well yes but they are not the only ones.   Older people are becoming frequent users of social media.  At alarming rates.

People over 65 are the fastest growing demographic users of Facebook with over 6.5 million joining in May of 2010 alone.  And that is three times more than May of 2009.

Also surprising is the fact that the fastest growing demo on Match.com is adults over 50.  Now a total of over 4 million.  Men over 55 who have become members of Facebook since last fall has increased 138% and women over 55 has increased 175% over the same period.  And overall, 47% of 50-64 year-olds are using social media.  An 88% growth in the past year.

So what does this mean for healthcare marketers?  Social media is not just for the young.  Those older people, boomers, senior citizens who are frequent users of our healthcare system are very active on social media.  And the numbers continue to grow.  Exponentially.  Our paradigm about social networking needs to change to include older adults in our social media strategies.   Social media is beginning to show it’s age.  A much older age.