Ninety Six Percent of Teens & Tweens Social Networking?

Update: Jodi from Alloy wrote and said the stat is: "96% of online teens/tweens report using any social networking technologies." To use most social networking technologies you have to have a profile I think…I don't doubt that most tweens and teens have been on a social network or used the technologies, I was just curious about this research was done since there is a big percentage gap with Pew in a relatively short time period. I just received another note about the methodology used in the Grunwald research:

Study Methodology
This white paper draws heavily on findings from Kids’ Social Networking a new study from Grunwald Associates underwritten by Microsoft, News Corporation, and Verizon. The study is comprised of three parallel national surveys of children ages 9-17, parents and school district decision-makers. Carefully constructed nationally representative samples of 1,277 teens/children, 1,039 parents and 250 school districts were used.

Sounds legit to me.

AdAge.com, reg. required, just reported that "a whopping 96% of online tweens and teens connect to a social network at least once a week, according to a study and white paper being released today from Alloy." I'm no statistician, but I have lots of questions about this research I'm hoping Alloy will jump on and answer.

1) Pew released a report in April of this year that said 55 percent of online teens (12-17) have profiles online. That number has now jumped from 55 percent to 96 percent? Granted this research includes 9, 10 and 11-year-olds, but that makes me scratch my head even more. That's an awfully big jump in a relatively short period of time.

2) The Grunwald research looked at tween and teens so ages 9-17. Are that many 9-13 year olds on MySpace or Facebook lying about their age or are they counting under 13 sites like Club Penguin as social networks? How are they defining "social networking" for tweens?

Of course the real goal of the research was to show how brands can use social networks to reach this population since "nearly half engaged with a brand in the space in the past month":

"The operative distinction they're making is: 'Do not interrupt me en route to a connection with one of my peers or in the midst of a conversation,'" she said. ["she" is Samantha Skey from Alloy] "They're saying: 'Enhance or facilitate my social-networking experience. Offer me utilities to enhance my production process or tools to help me better able to express or engage myself.'"

In other words, give them freebies: utilities, cool downloads, exclusive content and other items of value. "Mix their music or animate their backgrounds or offer a countdown to a special day," Ms. Skey said.

Certain categories had endemic interest among kids, not surprisingly entertainment and technology. But Alloy was surprised to see a large number of respondents — mostly girls — were also interested in hearing more about categories such as personal-care products.

Ms. Skey also suggested there were ways for marketers without natural youth interest to attach themselves to utilities and services that kids would be interested in. An insurance company could, for example, sponsor educational content or a company could launch a cause-related campaign or a campaign that involves points and rewards for things kids are interested in. "Straight forward old-school reward systems are attractive and enable choice," she said.

What do you think? Is this percentage too high?

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