A report from Forrester Research, “The Broad Reach of Social Technologies,” takes a look at the growth of social over the last three years. And guess what? It’s growing!

The demographic data follows the trend we see overall—younger people are more heavily involved, but over-35s and over-55s are becoming more and more active in social networking. While 10% or less of online adults aged 18-34 are “socially inactive,” the older age ranges are showing high growth. Among adults 35-54, participation grew 60% over last year:

Now more than half of adults ages 35 to 44 are in social networks. Adults ages 45 to 54 grew their Joiner behavior nearly as much, but still lag behind the 35- to 44-year-olds; 38% of those ages 45 to 54 use social network sites regularly. These consumers also increased their Creator activities to the point where one in five produce social content. With this age group including nearly 70% Spectators, marketers can now safely create social media marketing for people ages 35 and older.

And in the 55+ category, 70% of online adults use social tools monthly, while 26% use social networks.

Now that we know the statistics, what does all this mean? Most of us believe that Social Media benefits the business owners. However, I beg to differ on that assumption. Social Media benefits both the business and the customer.

Social Media benefits for businesses are:

1. More online conversations about your brand – A successful Social Media Marketing campaign leads to a lot more talk about your brand online. When your message works with your users, they will spread your message more effectively than tradition methods.

2. Quick turnaround – Hitting a front page of major social video, news and bookmark sites will send you huge amounts traffic and almost instantly. This doesn’t mean the traffic will equate to conversions, but it should generate momentum in the right direction.

3. Low costs – The cost of using social media is very inexpensive. The sites are free, the only thing to consider is spending the time to use and update them on a regular basis.

4. Better Customer Service – We all know that great customer service leads to loyal customers.

Social Media benefits for the customers are:

1. The power of recommendation – Would you rather buy from a faceless company or from a company that people recommend? We know that influencers play an important role the buying process and you can reach these people with SMM.

2. Being educated on the company – Knowing that companies are behaving ethically is an important aspect of business these days. Having that information available helps customers make decisions on which company they want to do business with.

3. Better Customer Service – Experiencing good customer service can be difficult to find sometimes. By getting involved in social media, it can provide customers with the opportunity to voice their opinions and be heard on the products or services they buy.