Where Older Adults Really Spend Time Online: Social Media Myths vs Reality | The AgeTech Podcast S5E7 with Jeff Weiss from Age of Majority
If you’re running an AgeTech startup and pouring your entire ad budget into Facebook just because someone told you “that’s where the older folks are” -this episode might save you a lot of money. I sat down with Jeff Weiss, who’s been deep in the trenches of marketing to older adults for decades, to bust some big myths and talk about what’s actually working when it comes to digital outreach. Spoiler alert: your audience is a lot more digitally savvy (and diverse!) than you think.
Catch the full conversation on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or scroll down for the transcript (auto-generated, so pardon any oddities – the bots are still learning!)
Keren Etkin: Jeff, welcome back to the show.
Jeff Weiss: thank you. I love being on with you and, and love that, that people are, are watching and listening to us always find our discussions interesting. So thanks for having me.
Keren Etkin: Thank you for joining. So, um, first of all, the previous episode was fascinating. I mean, even I learned a bunch of new, new stuff from it and I keep quoting uh, our conversation. I want, before we dive into the results or the outcomes from this report, I wanted to ask you, what were the motivations for doing this survey or doing this research?
Because you surveyed over 1600 people, which is quite a lot of people. So what was the
Jeff Weiss: question. I
Keren Etkin: Uh,
Jeff Weiss: good question. First is I, I run a PR communications, uh, agency outta Toronto that, that I also oversee. And I’ve got a team that runs that. And a lot of work they do is around influencer marketing. And most of our clients on that business are. Food brands, health and beauty, things like that. And of the time when they’re doing influencer marketing, working with content creators, they’re kind of, you know, targeting younger adults to their twenties or thirties. I remember a years ago, uh, you know, was different agencies represent influencers.
And, uh, I walked in in a meeting. I said, just outta curiosity, how many, how many content creators do you represent that are over 50? What do you think their answer was? Zero. Crazy and that was the first kinda reason why, huh? You know, another example where, where older adults are being ignored. And then the second reason is that we always get our clients and people I talk to who are asking, how do I best reach older adults?
You know, do I try Facebook? Do I do, do I advertise on tv, radio if I’ve got the money And, um, I know the efficiency of influencer marketing. In general, and we wanted to see if that was true for adults, 55 and older. So that’s what motivated our research. And we thought instead of just talking to people 55 and older, we have to see kind of the differences by age group.
And that’s why we went all the way from 18 plus. We were able to split things out by
Keren Etkin: So first of all, it is shocking that no one thinks that there are 50 plus or 60 plus year old influencers because first of all, I know that they exist. And also some of the content creators that I follow the various platform are over the age of 60.
And I find their content fascinating and refreshing for a lot of different reasons. So the fact that older influencers exist is one thing that people aren’t aware of. And I think the other thing that you found during this research is that older adults themselves follow influencers online, right?
Jeff Weiss: Yes, yes, for sure. Yeah, I didn’t, we didn’t really specific, you know, they prefer to be called Content creators, right? We call them influencers ’cause that’s what they’re doing, but they’re like, no, I’m a content creator. Which is, which is what they’re doing. Right? And There are some very popular content creators who are older.
them more kind of in the fashion and beauty area, sometimes in fitness and things like Um, And then some, some of them have big followings followed by younger people but more because they’re, they’re cute. You know, you’ve got someone’s grandmother who’s Italian who’s cooking or meatballs and that. Um, But then you’ve got a lot of other ones um, we’ll call it more serious content. And those are the ones Uh, where there’s a real big opportunity. There’s a bunch out there. But you know, for us it was like are older adults even following influencers. ’cause we weren’t sure.
We’ve done some research in the past, we haven’t done it for a couple years. So it’s Like things are progressed so far. Are older adults following influencers and, and who are they following? What ages are they following? We got some interesting there. Um, And then what are they kind of doing with that information? Um, And it was, it was fascinating. It kind of surprised us in many ways.
Keren Etkin: So how, how do older adults define it? I mean,they don’t necessarily think that they are following influencers. What do they call these people?
Jeff Weiss: we, we, yeah, because, you know, influence is more marketing speak. Um, So we call them influencers. So I can’t remember exactly how we phrased the question, but it was about people? who you follow, who you don’t know. They could be celebrities or experts in certain areas. ’cause that’s how, that’s how individuals, age, um, think of them Um, So that’s, that’s kind of how we defined it instead of, are you following influencers And Yeah. people don’t really look at it that way.
Keren Etkin: And did you go into their motivations for following people they don’t know?
Jeff Weiss: Yes,
yes, did. Um, just looking at some of our numbers um, The motivations are in, in terms of, you know, what areas? they’re looking at, which we thought was interesting and, you know, news, current events was, was number one, food and beverage number two. Interesting. ’cause people are interested in Um, Entertainment, travel and then and um, kind of medicine. Those I’m talking about specifically for older adults. Those are the, The areas and then the reasons why.
the
factors why they were following these, Um, The first one, this, this is different. by age group, but relevant content,
is content relevant, to them.
You know, why bother? They have to be relatable. So someone has to be, it’s like, I can relate to this person what they’re saying, what they’re talking about, the content they’re creating, and then their character. They Don’t wanna follow. people that,
you know, maybe don’t have the same values as an example as they do, right?
They wanna Follow. people with, with So, um, Those are the kind of the, the, some of the key motivators or factors in terms of, of who they’re following and why they’re following them.
Keren Etkin: And what percentage of the people that they were following are like people that they discovered through traditional media versus people that just came on their timeline and they thought hmm I want to follow this person
Jeff Weiss: I don’t know the answer to that specific question. I don’t think who asked that. But um, um, how are they hearing um, or where did, how, how did they hear about the, these content creators or where do they find And, uh, recommendations from friends and family, which is pretty similar across kind of all age groups.
first one. Um, And then people search for experts. And, uh, people, uh, older adults, it’s like they’re interested in something. They’re going online like who’s an expert in this, whatever this area might be, and then content that, that friends tag them in. So, you know, people tend to hang out with, with, with, you know, people have similar interests to things like that.
And it’s like, Hey, my friend, my friend Keren might be interested in this. I’ll tag Keren and boom, I’ll lock that. It’s like, yeah, I’ve gotta follow this person. who’s a content creator who’s influencing.
Keren Etkin: That is fascinating. And wonder, there are obviously different types of platforms on which follow influencers. there a difference in the platform type in which of like, the type of influencers they follow or the type of they’re looking for to consume in each of these platforms
Jeff Weiss: it’s really interesting ’cause you know, firstly, you know, the myth still exists. Like, oh, older people aren’t using technology, which I don’t understand. ’cause you talk to people, you know, it might be against someone not ping on younger people, but somebody who’s 30 and you know, their parents are 60 and their parents are like active, they’re on social media.
But when you talk about older adults, it’s like. They don’t even think of their parents. Right. Or even grandparents are active. So, you know, you’ve got, you’ve got almost everyone over 55 who’s, who’s using social media platforms, 95%. So it’s like basically everyone. um, but they’re using a wide variety of platforms and, and you know, that’s increased. We know Facebook and YouTube have been number one and two for years, but then you’ve got, you know, you’ve got um. all the other platforms, Instagram, LinkedIn, uh, x, formerly Twitter, of course, TikTok, you’ve got 20% using. So people are using a wide variety of platforms, but they’re using these platforms for different means, right? And we’ve had clients we’ve worked with, particularly the startups. It’s like, oh, I know older people are on Facebook, so I’m gonna advertise on Facebook and I’m gonna get all these customers. Well, Facebook. The number one reason people use Facebook is to stay in touch with others. They’re not looking for product information or recommendations or to buy products.
They’re looking to stay in touch. So you can spend a lot of money reaching, you know, trying to reach people, but the reality is that’s not why they’re on, on Facebook. Um, Versus other platforms where, you know, Pinterest for uh, has the highest when you look at, at, you know.
People looking for helpful information or tips about products. Pinterest has the highest number. 69% of people on, on Pinterest, older adults are, are looking for information, right? YouTube’s next to Um, And that, you know, same um, uh, product information or special offers. Facebook isn’t high.
You’ve got other platforms like Pinterest and YouTube that are higher. So you know, I think older adults in general are using different platforms, but they’re using for different ways and you really have to, one of the key things for marketing folks, business folks, is you have to understand what is your objective that you’re trying to achieve through using these content creators to influence others?
Is it to raise awareness because you can raise awareness. Better on some platforms or others? Are you trying to change opinions or you’re trying to drive product sales? So there’s all these factors involved. It’s not as easy as kind of the highest reach is through Facebook, so I’m gonna there. Um, And it might be even more So, um, there’s all these different variables that come into play, which makes it, which makes it tricky to kind of figure out what to do. But if you can figure it out, then it can be really effective in terms of reaching and
Keren Etkin: Absolutely. I, I read somewhere that in this day and age, a brand has to have like 11 touch points with a consumer before they make a purchase. So how many of those touch points today could be influenced by these influencers or, or may, how many of them are like touch points with the brand itself
Jeff Weiss: Oh, that’s a good question. I, and I really think it depends on the brand and, and kind of how they’re, they’re um, and the type of content, content they’re creating. um, you know, when I, again, when I. talked about why, you know, people are following others, unless the Content is relevant to them and relatable, um, people aren’t gonna follow it.
So, if a brand is, is trying to get their branded message across, and that’s what, you know, the content is around. It’s not gonna work, right? So there’s this fine line in working with content creators and we do it, you know, every day where. Ultimately, you have to let them run with kind of their, their brand and the type of content they, they cr they create.
But the key is kinda weaving in the brand messages so that it’s authentic and real and relatable to people. So, you know, people are on social media every day. They’re on these platforms every day. And, know, uh, if, if the the content is relatable, then they’re gonna be seeing that content on a, on a regular basis.
Right. So I out don’t how many out of those 11 touch points. I don’t know how many are gonna be through content creators,
Keren Etkin: That actually leads me to my next question. I think of them. Areas AgeTech startups struggle with sometimes due to budget constraints is marketing. And I think there’s a real opportunity for startups to work with micro influencers, so people who don’t have millions of followers, so it doesn’t cost millions of dollars to work with them. But they still have a decent following and it’s highly targeted. So like what’s your advice for startups who want to leverage this
Jeff Weiss: Yeah, that’s a really great question. There are different, I, I don’t get into this in the report, but there are different types of, of um, from kind of the, the nano influencers to the micro to the to celebrity. So if you wanna work with Taylor Swift as an example, not a good example for this, the older demographic, but it’s gonna cost you millions of dollars, right?
And you’re gonna get. High awareness, but again, it, it’s about what your objective is. Because generally the smaller the following that a content creator has, the higher engagement they’re gonna have. And you know, so you might have, you know, I don’t know what average engagement rates are across the influence world.
It’s maybe two point a half, 3%. If you’re working with a smaller influencer, it could be eight, 10% engagement. Right. Which can mean different things. So for startups Yeah. Who don’t have a lot of money. You know, and basically what I tell ’em from an overall marketing? point of view is the narrower you can be in your approach to test things out.
Because it’s all about, you know, test things out, what works, put more money behind it and expand. It’s not working, move on to something else. So for someone starting out, you know, I would, I would ideally kind of, if you can pick a geographic area, great. If not though, then, then pick influencers who have, you know, it could be 10,000, 20,000 followers, whatever the Um, Who have really high engagement rates. And, and make sure that the people that they’re reaching are really your core target group. And there’s, there are, are um, kind of applications out there now where you can really dive into who’s following these different influencers and you can do other research to get to that.
So, you know, kind of throw some money. It, it doesn’t have to be a lot of money. It could be, you know, there’s different pieces when it comes to working with, with content creators, but you might hit ’em a thousand dollars, a few thousand dollars to create, you know, a few different segments. And put that out there and see how it works.
And if it works, then great. Expand. If it’s not working with them, try other influencers. But you do not have to have big budgets to kind of get going on this to see how effective it can be.
Keren Etkin: That’s that you can like run a small targeted experiment with a small budget of only thousand dollars, give or take to work the “smaller” influencers
and what would you recommend startups who like, want to go down that path, but they’re not quite sure, like they don’t even know where to find
influencers
Jeff Weiss: ideally they work with a company like ours to find them, right? From my point of view. But if not, then, and you know, again, there are tools out there, but you have to pay, I, I’m not sure the, the dynamics of paying, but otherwise going on to, if it’s Instagram, for example, you’re looking at and, and, and searching for.
People who are kind of the type of content creators that you think might work for your brand and then just kind of searching from them? people like them or whatever, and Uh, You know that that’s just time. That doesn’t cost any money. That’s the easiest thing to do. We use kind of a platform that allows you to kind of be more specific on who you target and it, you know, pull up people and then, you know, how many followers do they have, what platforms are they on, what engagement rates do they have?
You know, how many people do they engage with and so on and so forth. What other brands they work with, the type of content they produce. So if you don’t have budgets for that, then it’s just spending time doing your own research and look at some of their posts and see what they’re posting about. Are they, are they working with any brands to, and how they integrating those messages.
Right? And could, could you see your brand being fitting and integrating with kind of their content and, uh, and their messaging?
Keren Etkin: And that feels like generally good advice. If you wanna engage with an influencer, you do wanna follow them for a while to see that their brand and your brand are aligned. ’cause you definitely don’t want to have someone feature your product or company a way that might
embarrass you
Jeff Weiss: And most of the content creators are, they’re very particular about, they’re not just gonna work with anyone. ’cause hey, you know, throw some money at me if they don’t think the fit is there. Or if the values aren’t there, for example, they’re not gonna work with you. So, you know, once you, you, you, you think, Hey, these people, this individual might be a good fit.
And then you reach out to them and you have the discussion, right, kind of what, um, what it might work, what it’s gonna cost, the timing. Making sure that the content they’re creating is gonna work for you, versus, Hey, create something. We’ll take whatever you get. You know, ultimately they’ve got, they’re the ones creating the content and you don’t want to script it ’cause that’s what what they do but making sure that they’re going to put your brand. and your products in the right light in terms of the messages you’re trying to get across.
Keren Etkin: Exactly. So if it’s if it’s a prankster influencer and your product is about incontinence, maybe it’s not the best fit
Jeff Weiss: Yes. Yes. And the other thing to The type of, of, of content creators you wanna work with. And, uh, uh, so for example, we did a, a program um, uh, sells product. It’s, it’s a brand and it’s about, it’s a, it’s a supplement for joint pain and it’s a, a great product. And, you know, there are, I guess, influencers out there who are probably talking specifically about joint pain, but I can’t name them any.
So we worked with two different influencer, one male, one female. Who were in their kind of forties and fifties who were trainers and they worked out a lot. And they just talked about, you know, for, uh, And they target more older, more older adults. It’s like working in that product into, naturally into kind of the work they do.
Right. And it’s like, oh. You know, there’s likely, as you get older, particularly, you’re gonna have pain and joint pain, and there are a bunch of things you can do, including I use this product here, which really, really helps after using, right? So you have to think about the, the type of, of content creators where you can fit. your brand and your messaging in, in a natural way, versus being very specific about what your product does.
Keren Etkin: Absolutely. Absolutely. And does is does sending your product to content creators who, who are your target audience and just hoping that they use it, does that still work
Jeff Weiss: Uh, it it used to work a lot more. You know, you still, every once in a while you hear, oh, you know, Jennifer Aniston uses this product, so she loves it as she’s been promoting it. That doesn’t happen that often. It can, there’s no harm in, in doing that. But again, you know. For these content creators, and there’s millions of them.
It’s a huge, um, kind of, of, of segment. Now, I can’t remember how many millions there are around the globe, and, and a lot of them are, this is how they make their income. So you can send them product and it’s like, thanks very much, But. are they gonna write about it and do content it? Maybe not, right? And it, part of it depends on what your product is and how valuable it is. If you’ve got something that’s worth, you know, a few thousand dollars, whatever, you might be able to convince them to, to create content because you’re giving it to them for free. But again, these, this is, you know, how people make their livelihood, So, um, they’re gonna look for, for some type of compensation in some form or fashion.
Keren Etkin: Absolutely. But if anyone watching wants to send me a Tesla,
Jeff Weiss: You sure you wanna Tesla? Are you sure you wanna Tesla? Now
Keren Etkin: No, not at all.
Jeff Weiss: things,
Keren Etkin: I don’t have anywhere to charge, charge it. That’s,
Jeff Weiss: one of the things we kind of touched on a little bit, one of the fascinating things that we found, I don’t know, it’s much of a surprise, is we asked. Again, these are adults, 18 plus, we ask everyone what do they think the, the average age was of the influencers that they follow. And it really, there’s a real high correlation between the age of the person who’s, who’s, you know, following someone versus, and the age of the influencers. So with people 55 and older, what’s the number here? 52%. Of, of people 55 and older are following content creators who are 51 and older, right? So people tend to follow people who are similar in their age group. It doesn’t mean that that older individuals don’t follow younger ones and vice versa. But you tend to follow people more in your age group again, ’cause that’s that relatability and they’re likely talking about and creating content that’s more interesting to you because they’re dealing with some of the things, same things that you’re doing right.
Keren Etkin: Absolutely. You have to like, you want people to be relatable. I think that’s like probably the number one thing that makes people follow some, someone versus unfollow someone
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I have to say a little aside, my, my wife. is, uh, getting close to 70. She’s not here. I can say that she’s older um, you know, she’s very much into her health and wellness. And every day or second day, there’s, there’s a package being delivered for some new supplement or product that she, that she has seen or heard about, largely uh, a content creator who she’s following.
Jeff Weiss: It’s like. These products that we have. It’s And um, but, you know, a great example where, you know, an older adult who’s being totally influenced more by that than anything else. And for her, she’s, it’s working, she’s, she’s buying these products and you know, when they, she tries ’em if they work, boom.
And some of them are, aren’t that cheap to um. you know, just interesting how it can just, and I. talk, you know, we talk to her friends and they get together, have you tried this? Have you tried that? And it’s like, I have to try to quickly change the, the subject. I don’t have a big enough revenue stream pay for all of her things I.
Keren Etkin: you say that this is a, this is more effective than traditional like advertising newspapers and on tv these days?
Jeff Weiss: Absolutely. Because you think about most paid advertising and it’s kind of the, the brand or the company giving their messages to you, right? Versus hearing it from someone that you can relate to. I To a grand or company the way that I can relate to an individual. And there’s a whole trustworthy fact factor, trustworthiness factor as well, right?
And, and trust has come down a lot, whether it’s, you know, traditional news, government, things like that, which is a whole different, different topic area. So people still um, are more likely to believe and kind of find credible, someone who’s seen as an expert in this area. uh, yeah, definitely trustworthy um, versus more traditional
Keren Etkin: Absolutely. So that was actually my last question. Is there anything else that you would like to add that we didn’t talk about? Any, call to action to our audience who want to go down this route, but they’re not sure where to start
start
Jeff Weiss: well, the first thing I would do is kind of. Read the report that we did because it’s kind of highlights the things and, and again, you can’t make these blanket statements because. People are, as I mentioned before, the key thing to note is that people are on different social media platforms for different reasons, and they’re, they’re, following, uh, content creators for different reasons.
So you have to take, you can’t just kind of blank and statement everything. You have to look at everything individual, trying to understand what your objectives are. Again, raising awareness versus actually driving products and kind of what your expectations Um, And then your budget and who you’re trying to reach.
So there’s all these different factors that come into Um, So it’s really kind of, you know, taking a step back and doing that research first. And then once you’re able to narrow things down, then you get into the fun part. Okay. Who are potential content creators we work with, right? Then there’s a whole process for, for working through that as well.
Keren Etkin: But rather than just jumping in, ’cause oh, you know, my. My sister is, you know, following this person, it looks great. Let’s just work with them now. There’s too many um, that are more specific to older adults as well. So kind of start? from the, from the top and kind of narrow things down Keren, thank you as always. I love being on the show and love chatting with you. So, uh, I hope that your, uh, uh, audience finds this useful.For more context, check out our previous episode with Jeff. It’s the perfect follow up to this conversation. I’ll put the link right here. Until next time, stay humble, stay curious.