The results are in for the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s survey of 2,253 adults: validating what we have seen in the workplace, adoption of social media is soaring with one third (35%) of American adult internet users having created a profile on an online social network. This is four times as many as three years ago. The results break out by age in the following manner:
- 75% of online adults 18-24 have a profile on a social network
- 57% of online adults 25-34 have a profile on a social network
- 30% of online adults 35-44 have one
- 19% of online 45 to 54 year olds have a profile
- 10% of online 55 to 64 year olds have a profile
- 7% of online adults 65 and older have a profile
Now consider when these social networking tools were introduced and their number of registered users to date:
- MySpace
2003
250 million registered users - Facebook
2004
150 million active users - Classmates.com
1995
50 million registered users - LinkedIn
2003
30 million registered users - Plaxo
2002
20 million registered users
It’s about as addictive a method of communicating as I have ever seen. Last week I gave a session on this topic at ASTD and here were some of the questions posed by our audience of soon-to-be adopters of social media in the learning department:
How do I build the case for using social media within my company?
What about issues of privacy and security?
What type of metrics should I focus on?
Some thoughts that were addressed during the session:
- Is your CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) using socials media with customers? If yes what has been your company’s experience?
- Are your competitors using social media either internally or externally? What has been their experience with this?
- What types of pilots can the learning/HR department sponsor?
Send me your comments!
[tags]Social Media, Social Computing, Millennials, Chief Learning Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Pew Research[/tags]
Hi Jeanne; I always love your thoughts. In this case, I think social media will catch on at various speeds for companies (and when I think they will be adopted):
HR will use it to do background checks on candidates (now-12 months)
Sales and marketing will use it to get in with clients and prospects (now – 18 months)
Others will use it as to benchmark and find resources, especially LinkedIn and Plaxo (now – 18 months)
Learning and development will use it to get buzz about new efforts and initiatives (now – 24 months)
Senior leaders will have someone who works for them use it to get a feel as to what their employees are thinking (12 – 36 months).
Check out my new learning blog at hprager.wordpress.com.
Howard Prager
Director, Lake Forest Corporate Education.