Today, there are more 18 year old males actively using Facebook than there are 18 year old males living in the world.

Let this fact sink in.

Insights like this and many others were gained from Facebook data, courtesy the “Digital in 2016” Report by “We Are Social” and its analysis by Simon Kemp for “The Next Web”.

In today’s day and age, when vast sums of money are expended on digital and Social Media marketing, we must ask ourselves a tough question. Can the data provided by Facebook, in terms of demographic characteristics of its users, really be trusted? Is it authentic and free of bias? Before addressing such questions, it would be useful to understand why Facebook has emerged as the golden standard in the world of social media marketing.

Facebook as the social media channel of choice:

Globally, there are 2.31 billion active users of social media, out of which 1.86 billion are on Facebook. The sheer reach that Facebook provides, along with targeting options is irresistible. Contrast this with Twitter (320 million) and Instagram (400 million), and it is self-evident why brands want to be on Facebook.

GlobalWebIndex data (as shown here) shows us that 34% of Facebook users visited a company, product or brand’s Facebook page in the last month. Additionally, 24% of Facebook users interacted with these pages by sharing a photo, video, post or article from the aforementioned page. While this may provide us with enough evidence to blindly promote our businesses on Facebook, a closer look at their data tells us otherwise.

Facebook and its users’ age:

As stated earlier, today there are more 18 year old males actively using Facebook than there are 18 year old males living in the world. This has been derived from the data from the “Digital in 2016” Report, which shows that 110% of the current eligible male population of age 18 are active users of Facebook. This shows us that 1 out of every 11 Facebook profiles (totalling to more than 57 million) purportedly claiming to be men aged 18 has at least some misleading information.

A similar trend is seen in women aged 18 years, as well as both men and women aged 21 years. All these age points see an unusual spike, and the reasons for the same could be any or all of the following:

1. Youngsters over-stating their age in order to be perceived as ‘of legal age’ in their own countries.
2. Older people under-stating their age in order to achieve a more desirable age as compared to what they really are. Possibly for purposes of vanity or anything else.
3. People may still be wary of providing Facebook too much data and have rounded up or down their age to a whole number to avoid entering correct data. There is still an apprehension in people’s mind that data could be stolen for purposes of hacking and identity theft.
4. A number of these accounts may be ‘fake’ profiles used for ‘clickfarm’ purposes by unscrupulous agencies.

Hence, it is likely that users themselves are misrepresenting their age for purposes of vanity, security or more fraudulent activities. The video below is an apt synopsis of what I have been trying to say.

Facebook and an apparent gender bias:

56% of the profiles on Facebook are ‘set to male’, as compared to 44% accounts ‘set to female’. This means that males account for 27% more active accounts on Facebook as compared to females. This apparent bias towards male accounts could be due to deeper forces at play. For example:

1. In a number of countries even today, unfortunately, women are not afforded the same rights, freedoms, and luxuries as are afforded to their male counterparts. This means access to internet and social media could be controlled for women in these countries.
2. Drawing from the above point, it could be that ‘setting your gender to male’ on Facebook would make the existence of the social media account more legitimate in countries like this. In such countries, women are probably looked down upon on social media and are ‘trolled’ for their views. In such situations, ‘hiding behind a male profile’ could allow women to voice their opinion and attempt to change this deplorable state of affairs.

What does this mean?

As a result of the above two observations, there is a possibility that other demographic data on Facebook such as relationship status, location etc. could be misrepresented as well. These inaccuracies and misrepresentations make it much more difficult for marketers to decide whom they should target. It also makes it difficult to actually reach this target audience. As a result, many advertisements targeted to say 18-24 year olds would actually be shown to people older than that (around 28-34). Another argument could be made: that marketers could target the ‘desired ages’ of their consumers as they would be able to relate more to communication geared towards these age bands (Harley Davidson would be a prime example as it has consumers in the 40+ age band who want to be seen as people who are young at heart and spirit).

The Indian Context:

India has 136 million active social media users which is growing at 15% year-on-year, with a penetration of around 10%.  These users spend an average of 2 hours and 17 minutes on social media via any device daily. Overwhelmingly, 69 million of the users in India are in the age bracket of 20-29 years of age. A whopping 76% of these users are ‘set to male’, while 24% are ‘set to female’.

We see a repetition of the global pattern in India too, and marketers would be wise to identify the possible misrepresentation of this social media data while using demographic filters in their social media marketing strategies.

What should you, as a social media marketer, do?

In light of possible misrepresentation of demographic data, marketers using social media to promote their brands could use contextual and topical targeting to a larger extent as compared to demographic targeting. It would be dangerous to solely rely on demographic targeting as your communication may not reach your intended targeting.

This is not to say that demographic targeting should be shunned. However, it must form a comparatively smaller share of your social media spends. One would be better off spending a larger share on declared interest-based, behaviour-based targeting as these are less likely to suffer from the distortions mentioned above.

Another point to be noted is that Facebook has been used here as an example, due to the fact that it is the largest player in the social media advertising space. However, the same misrepresentation could also plague platforms such as Google AdWords (demographic targeting section), Instagram, Twitter and so on.

As consumer behaviour adapts to changes in the business environment, so must marketers.

Disclaimer: The data analysis has not been carried out by me, and have been picked up from the articles referred to in the blog post and hyperlinked in the same. I urge you to check them out as they are extremely interesting reads!

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