The Generational Gap In Social Networking

5 months ago I posted how the social networking needs of people dramatically change once they graduate college. There is a huge generational gap that has currently still not been filled. There are multiples SN’s that have captured the highschool crowd, including myyearbook.com and myspace. No one would argue that Facebook has fully captured the college crowd. And LinkedIn currently dominates with professionals 30 year and older.

But as you see, there is a huge gap in between Facebook and LinkedIn. For most people, Facebook’s purpose dramatically changes once graduated. It becomes less of a tool for initiating contact with new people, and more of a contact management tool to keep up to date with old friends. But at the same time, most recent grads aren’t involved enough in their professional careers to really care about LinkedIn (internet techies excluded). This creates a wide open space for people in between college and a dedicated career. The age of this stage in life is different for everyone, but my guess is that it is between 22 and 28 years old for most.

Some social networks are aiming for the demographic, including a couple local Boston startups HeyLetsGo and Wis.dm. Yelp seems to also attract people in that demo. Some would say MySpace dominates this demographic, but while I would agree they probably have the largest numbers in that demo, the connection isn’t as strong as it is for college students with Facebook, and professionals with LinkedIn. In my opinion, there is clearly no dominating SN for the post graduate crowd like Facebook and LinkedIn are with their demos.

What do you think is the right approach to capture the post graduate, pre professional market?

[tags]Social Networking, Social Network, Online Communities, Web 2.0, Facebook, Myspace, HeyLetsGo, Yelp, Wis.Dm, LinkedIn, Brian Balfour[/tags]