The rich flock to Facebook, don’t bother with Twitter

Rich individuals in the US are increasingly joining Facebook. The percentage of US millionaires using the world’s largest social network has nearly doubled from 26 percent in November 2010 to 46 percent in June 2011.

The data, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, comes from a reported titled “Social Media and Affluent Households” by Spectrem Group, a consulting firm specializing in the affluent and retirement markets. The results are based on online and telephone surveys of the financial decision-makers of 3,002 households.

The company has three categories for the rich, not including primary residence: the mass affluent (net worth of $100,000 to $1 million), millionaires (net worth of $1 million to $5 million), and Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW, net worth of $5 million to $25 million). Following this grouping, 55 percent of the mass affluent in the US are using Facebook, 46 percent of millionaires are on the social network, and 47 percent of UHNW investors are using the service.

“Led by Facebook, the social media era has finally arrived for the nation’s wealthiest investors, with nearly half the nation’s millionaires now logging onto the social network. Wealthy investors are also interested in reading blogs by trusted financial advisors,” George H. Walper, Jr., President of Spectrem Group, said in a statement. “The message is clear. Learning how to effectively use social media and financial blogs is critical to the future success of financial services firms. Providers who fall behind run the risk of frustrating their investors and losing customers.”

In addition to Facebook, LinkedIn is also popular among wealthy investors, with 22 percent of the mass affluent, 19 percent of millionaires, 26 percent of UHNW investors using the job website. Twitter usage is much smaller, with 5 percent of the mass affluent, 3 percent of millionaires, and 6 percent of UHNW investors using the smaller service.

The results are completely understandable. Facebook and LinkedIn offer much more privacy than Twitter does, and most rich individuals understandably prefer to keep their personal lives out of the public’s eye. Since Facebook is a networking tool, while Twitter is a broadcasting tool, it isn’t surprising that the latter’s usage is so low. Facebook is bigger than LinkedIn, so it makes sense for it to have a larger share, but there’s another factor that also comes into play. LinkedIn is mainly for those looking for a job, or for those who think they will be at some point in the future. Most rich people have steady jobs already.

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Top 3 negative experiences on social networking sites

Social networking sites are great for maintaining and renewing relationships. But Facebook and other sites can also lead to shattered relationships. According to a new study, the three most-common negative experiences are:

— Ignoring or denying “friend” requests

— Deleting public messages or identification tags

— Seeing a Top Friends list on which one doesn’t appear or is ranked lower than expected

Robert S. Tokunaga of the University of Arizona studied 197 college students concerning their social networking experiences. More than one-quarter of the students said they had been denied or been ignored regarding a “friend” request and just less than 25 percent had someone delete a public message or identification tag.

All three of the major negative experiences are ones that can be found only in the world of social networking, he pointed out. In real life, one does not walk up to another person and ask to “friend” him or her. Experience in social interactions in the real world often doesn’t translate to the virtual world. “People using social networking sites are unable to apply their own knowledge of social norms in offline settings to the online domain,” Tokunaga explained. Even the word “friend” means vastly different things to different people in the social networking world.

Still, knowing which social networking behaviors are liable to irritate others should help everyone.

“It is not advisable to engage in these acts without presenting a legitimate reason for the behaviors,” he said.

The study is published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

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