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Wealthy Rush to Join Social Media Revolution-Luxury Institute |
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The latest Wealth Survey out of The Luxury Institute trumpets an explosion of participation by US affluent in online social networks – soaring from 27% in January 2007 to 60% a mere year later.
Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza thinks marketers might be lagging behind that march, saying, “While some in the luxury industry are still debating e-commerce, search and banner ads, the majority of their customers have leaped into the online dialogue.
“Luxury,” asserts Pedraza, “needs to catch up quickly.”
Pedraza’s research showed that the average, affluent US Internet users
is a member of three online social networks – with 110 online
connections through these sites.
Looking ahead, he sees online communities continuing to fragment into
specialized and selective entities of like-minded members. For
marketers, that should make it easier to target if they handle it right.
No-no’s, according to Pedraza, are tactics like forcible opt-out’s on
private purchase information, difficulty in dropping out, etc.
An eMarketer analysis sees the affluent – with annual HHI of
$100,000-plus – constituting a full quarter of US Internet users, up
from 16% in 2001.
And perhaps belying once and for all the notion that social media are
for the young, Nielsen Online, according to eMarketer, sees the
affluent as representing nearly 30% of Facebook users and about 22% of
MySpace users.
Harvey Chipkin
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Issues & Insights 
