Mindful Marketing
  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Mindful Meter & Matrix
    • Leadership
  • Mindful Matters Blog
  • Engage Your Mind
    • Mindful Ads? Vote Your Mind!
  • Expand Your Mind
  • Contact

Should Social Media Influence Have an Age Limit?

6/19/2021

8 Comments

 
Picture

by David Hagenbuch - professor of Marketing at Messiah University -
​author of 
Honorable Influence - founder of Mindful Marketing 


“Act your age”—It’s a demand that flustered parents make of tantrum-throwing teens and that embarrassed teens make of youth-seeking parents.  Obeying social norms like ones for age-appropriate behavior can be helpful for everyone, so why are some older people acting like social media influencers?
 
Influencer marketing has become “the fastest-growing online marketing channel” as countless companies have realized that ordinary people with sizable social media followings can be extremely effective at building their brands.
 
From 2016 to 2020, revenue from influencer marketing leapt from $1.7 billion to $9.7 billion, and it’s expected to rise even more, to $13.8 billion in 2021.  Helping to drive this growth was the 2019 addition of over 240 new influencer marketing platforms and agencies, which enjoyed a whopping $6.50 in sales for every $1 spent.
 
Who exactly are these influencers?  The top three in terms of social media followers are Ariana Grande (429 million), Justin Bieber (455 million), and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo (517 million), whose recent removal of two bottles of Coca-Cola from a table at a European Championship press conference allegedly caused the beverage brand’s share price to plunge 1.6%.
 
However, the vast majority of influencers aren’t A-list celebrities whose actions affect stock prices; rather, they’re people who are persuasive in their areas of expertise and are regarded highly by their admirers.  A few of these influencers who have the highest numbers of followers are:
  • Jamie Oliver – Food (6.7 million)
  • Murad Osmann – Travel (4.1 million)
  • Chiara Ferragni – Fashion and Style (15.3 million)
  • Paul Nicklen - Photography (5.6 million followers)
  • Joanna Stevens Gaines – Lifestyle (11.2 million)
  • Grace Bonney – Design (932k)
  • Huda Kattan – Beauty (28.2 million)
  • Jen Selter – Sport and Fitness (12.8 million)
 
Highly successful influencers undoubtedly share many traits such as strong communication skills and great credibility.  Another is age:  Most of the top influencers listed above, as well as others on HubSpot’s list, appear to be Gen Ys or Gen Zs.  Very few if any have grey hair or wrinkles.
 
Supporting this observation, a Google search for “old influencers” produces a telling People also ask question: “Are there any influencers over 40?”  The fact that this question is so common suggests that many doubt anyone past age 39 can have meaningful social media impact.
 
The widespread preference for youthful promoters makes a recent headline in The Drum seem almost ridiculous: “The rise of the 50+ influencer.”  Really?  Encountering a community of half-century and up social media spokespeople seems about as likely as seeing senior citizen sprinters at the upcoming Olympics.
 
We all know that as we age, our physical and mental capabilities decline, as does our pop culture relevance.  Who wants to hear music suggestions or take fashion tips from a 75-year-old?  Apparently, some people do, and increasingly those “some” number in the hundreds of thousands and even millions.
 
MediaKix has identified the “Top 10 Elderly Influencers Dominating Instagram,” a list that includes these well-seasoned spokespeople :
  • Baddliewinkle – 3.5 million followers:  Helen Winkle’s unique brand attracts sponsors such as Smirnoff, Missguided, and Stash.  Her tagline, “Stealing your man since 1928,” suggests she’s in her 90s.
  • Iris Apfel – 1.6 million followers:  At the age of 97, Apfel is leveraging her extensive background as an interior designer to help build brands that include Vogue, Christie’s, and Hunter Douglas.
  • Accidental Icon – 743,000 followers:  Lyn Slater is a veteran professor who started a fashion blog in 2014 and is now collaborating with brands like Maison Margiela, Perricone MD, and Oribe.

Picture
 
How are people who are old enough to be great grandparents becoming social media stars?  In The Drum article referenced above, author Adam Whyte suggests that pandemic lockdowns kept many people at home and online more often, giving them extra time to be content creators and consumers.
 
Whyte is probably right that COVID helped speed the trend of older influencers; however, it’s likely one that was evolving anyway.  Although they were not early adopters of social media, it was inevitable that at least some baby boomers and Gen Xers would grow into influencer roles given their sheer numbers (about 70 million and 65 million, respectively), their increasing use of Facebook, Instagram, etc., and their growing comfort with technology.
 
However, there’s an even more deep-rooted reason why the emergence of older influencers makes sense:  Even though American culture doesn’t always show it, people do still appreciate age and experience.
 
This point hit home for me earlier this spring as I interviewed prospective college students for a special scholarship program.  One of the questions we asked applicants was, “Who has been the most influential person in your life?”  Virtually every person I interviewed identified someone older than them, e.g., a parent, grandparent, coach, or teacher.
 
If asked the same question, most of us would likely share similar responses.  We’ve all appreciated learning from people who have done or seen things we haven’t, often because they’d lived longer.
 
So, does valuing age mean that older influencers will eventually take over social media influence?  Probably not.  Age has a strong positive correlation with meaningful influence, but it’s not the cause.  People of all ages have valuable talents and experiences they can share.
 
So many people have positively influenced me over my life that it’s difficult for me to identify just one; however, among them have been several individuals who were younger than me.  Ironically, some were my students—one who comes to mind is a young man who despite having a significant physical disability, always exhibited an extremely positive outlook no matter how challenging the circumstances.  The fact that he and others were younger than me didn’t matter.  What did matter was that I could learn from them.  
 
A person’s influence isn’t as much a function of their age as it is of the type of person they are, what they’re good at, and how effective they are at sharing with others.  A potentially helpful way of thinking about these three things is a paradigm I wrote about in an article a few years ago for the American Marketing Association.  I called the model “The three C’s of personal branding,” which are:
  • Competencies: Everyone has unique talents, but people often need to invest time in developing them so that their knowledge and skills can improve to the point that they become useful to others.
  • Character: Theodore Roosevelt said, “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”  This truth aptly supports the notion those who influence us most aren’t just those who are smart or talented; rather, they are people who are kind and genuine.
  • Communication:  Individuals of upstanding character who have valuable competencies won’t be very influential unless they effectively communicate with others.  To reach people beyond those with whom they interact each day, influencers need to use some type of mass media, which usually means becoming proficient communicating via today’s most pervasive form of communication—social media.
 
That fact that the number of older marketing influencers is increasing shouldn’t be surprising.  They’ve lived longer, which means many have more to share; however, longevity alone is not what makes someone influential.  Individuals of any age who are competent, caring, and good communicators are likely to be successful influencers and practitioners of “Mindful Marketing.”


Picture
Subscribe to Mindful Matters blog.
Learn more about the Mindful Matrix.
Check out Mindful Marketing Ads
 and Vote your Mind!
8 Comments
Brooke Boyd
9/2/2021 08:07:24 pm

Reading this blog made me think of the influencers in my own life and how I tend to look at profiles of influencers who are either the same age as me or in their young adult years. I look for people who are through the stage of life that is ahead of me and how their experiences can impact my future life.
But, as I thought about it, I personally have never thought of influencers on social media to be people who are the age of my grandparents. I am so accustomed to seeing very little presence of older generations on social media. I think of my grandparents and how very little technology abilities they have, and I guess I just assume that everyone in their 60’s-80’s would be the same way. I love the point that the blog makes that “…people still appreciate age and experience.” There are unfathomable amounts of lessons my generation can learn from our grandparents’ generation when it comes to humility, respect, generosity, and so many other things.
Personally, I have not seen older influence on Instagram, that doesn’t mean it’s not there, but it just hasn’t come across my social media. As I reflect on this blog and the question it asks, “does social media influence have an age limit,” my answer would have to be no. The men and women who have already been through their young adult life, marriage, children, grandchildren, and many horrific world experiences, they honestly have the most to tell me and anyone else. “The 50+ influencer” who have great character, competencies, and communication have so much to contribute to society, but their platform is missing. Social media has the potential to be that platform.

Reply
Chunjie Shan
9/3/2021 01:13:33 am

When we choose to follow an influencer online, it means that he or she has something we want to follow or learn from. I don't think it should set an age limit on the influence of social media. In many cultures people appreciate age and experience. As mentioned in the blog, age is directly proportional to meaningful influence. People of all ages have valuable talents and experiences to share. Older people can become influencers on social media not only because they have age and experience, but also because they have charming personality and great character to attract people to follow them.

Reply
Jingwen Duan
9/3/2021 12:19:30 pm

I really like how you said about "A person’s influence isn’t as much a function of their age as it is of the type of person they are, what they’re good at, and how effective they are at sharing with others." Influencer should not have a age limit, in my opinion, I think older people have so much good and valuable life suggestions to share. Because they are older and they experienced more things than us. We have a say in Chinese, "I have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice" used to describe how older people should be respect as how much they experienced in life. So I always think older people have a special way to become influencers, they are valued in areas they are good at and they are valued with their opinions. Even though there are fewer "old influencers", but I think since the social media become a trend and more older people are using these social medias now, there will be "old influencers" in the future.

Reply
Pam Reinoso
9/15/2021 02:57:05 pm

This blog reminded me of an elderly influencer named Leslie Jordan that I used to follow on Instagram. He is a very funny and sweet character, but I had never thought of a platform for 50+ influencers. I believe that that time will come as the latter folks of Generation X and the older Millennials could most likely make it happen, but I do not think there will be enough for a platform today.
Regarding the question of the article, I do not think there should be an age limit because people respect and look up to age and experience. Older people can have helpful words of wisdom and advice for others not just younger people.

Reply
Mellisa link
2/3/2022 11:09:32 pm

Hey, Nice Blog; I don't think the age limit should be considered while following an influencer. I follow every age limit people on social platforms; however, old age people have great personalities and they have more experience and charm.

Reply
Jackson Gilbert link
10/10/2022 12:21:14 am

I completely agree with you. They say "age is just a number," and I believe that to an extent. Because, yes, older people have much more experience than young people, and I really follow many of them because, trust me, these people give you some of the best ideas. "Tried and tested!"

Reply
Jobin Reddy link
10/10/2022 12:49:52 am

That was well written! It's true that age has a positive correlation with meaningful influence. However, I must say that older people are much more knowledgeable. You have mentioned the points very correctly. Nice read.

Reply
Ella Willson link
11/3/2022 12:58:53 am

I must agree that even though people are more inclined towards young influencers, there are still a lot of old influencers who are doing great and they actually have a better knowledge. Nice blog though. Good to see that the blog was written by keeping the bigger picture in mind and with a legitimate mindset.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe to receive this blog by email

    Editor

    David Hagenbuch,
    founder of
    Mindful Marketing    & author of Honorable Influence

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Categories

    All
    + Decency
    + Fairness
    Honesty7883a9b09e
    * Mindful
    Mindless33703c5669
    > Place
    Price5d70aa2269
    > Product
    Promotion37eb4ea826
    Respect170bbeec51
    Simple Minded
    Single Minded2c3169a786
    + Stewardship

    RSS Feed

    Share this blog:

    Subscribe to
    Mindful Matters
    blog by email


    Illuminating
    ​Marketing Ethics ​

    Encouraging
    ​Ethical Marketing  ​


    Copyright 2020
    David Hagenbuch

Proudly powered by Weebly