Demographics to die for

I stumbled upon these great infographs by @TweetSmarter that show exactly how all-encompassing Facebook and Twitter is today. But the thing that stands out the most is how great the social media demographics are.

We all know young people use Facebook and Twitter but as these graphs show, the majority of users are young, upwardly mobile, have cash to burn, educated, travelled and revisit the sites everyday. That's a brand manager's wet dream, so why aren't companies taking the social media experience by the horns?

Of course some are, but as this recent study indicates the biggest brands in the world are pretty much ignoring Facebook. Most don't communicate with their followers, most do not allow followers to comment and most do nothing more than paste a few offers and logos onto their page.

The problem is this demographic is to die for, but it's also the demographic marketeers are most scared of. The report indicates that less than a quarter of measured consumer communications through social media with big brands are positive. Many are questions, many are complaints and many are just not information the brand is interested in.

Seems to me brands need to man up. This isn't the world of smug Don Drapers anymore, the consumer can and will answer back. They are smart, they are savvy and they are taking control. Brands have two options - keep doing what they are doing and wait for this pesky social media trend to finish (tip: it isn't going to, sorry) or they can wake up to a new world where you communicate with the little people or suffer.