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RSSHold your Benjamins. We don't share in the excitement that Boomers and older adults are truly smitten with social networking sites for three reasons --- one based on experience to date, one based on psychology and one based on the math.
Experience: Over the last several years at least a dozen Boomer-focused social networking and social media sites sprang up --- BoomerTowne, BOOMj, TeeBeeDee, Eons, reZOOM, and more --- and practically all have disappeared due to lack of interest among Boomers (Eons lives on but only after it broadened its user base to include anyone over the age of 13 -- how's that for focus?). If Boomers want social media, they apparently don't want it exclusively targeted to them.
Our conclusion: Boomers are just not that interested. At least, not in something as generic as a social networking site for "Boomers." At issue is the thinking that being a "Boomer" is an affinity group. It isn't. It is a demographic label for a generational cohort. You can attract Boomers, but only if you segment them by interests, income, education, life stage, lifestyle, and so forth.
Psychological: We have long been a fan of Stanford psychologist Dr. Laura Carstensen, who has developed several accepted theories about how our brains change as we grow older.
One such theory is the "socioemotional selectivity theory," which basically says that older adults become more selective about their social networks, investing in people and networks that deliver emotional satisfaction. That typically comes from familiar individuals with whom they have had rewarding relationships (in the "real" world, we might add). Older adults narrow their social interaction to maximize positive emotional experiences and minimize emotional risks of investing time in relationships that are not positive.
Carstensen's hypothesis is that our motivations change as we grow older. When people are young, they perceive their future as open-ended, so they tend to focus on future-oriented/knowledge-related goals. When they grow older, gradually, over time, they feel that time is running out, so their focus tends to shift towards present-oriented/emotion-related goals.
In other words, with the clock ticking, we don't want to waste time with relationships that won't feed us emotionally.
Our conclusion: No doubt millions of Boomers using Facebook and other sites are deriving emotional satisfaction. But those on the sideline are not willing to invest the time necessary to obtain emotional satisfaction from a social networking site. Every day we get older and even less interested.
The Math: No doubt, Facebook's growth among adults ages 45+ seems impressive --- an increase of about 900,000 users in September alone (76% of whom are women). But Facebook also added over 1.7 million 18-34 years in same month (62% women), more than twice as many.
Growth doesn't tell the whole story. The overall numbers are modest. Facebook has 15.7 million users who are 45+ (out of total population of 121 million 45+, or a penetration of about 13%).
Not bad, but in September, Facebook reported about 43 million users ages 18 to 34, out of 72 million 18-34 year olds, or a penetration of about 60%.
Let's agree social networking is simply not as widely accepted among Boomers and older adults as it is among today's young adults. And based on Carstensen's theory, maybe it never will be.
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This is an interesting analysis. While I agree that uptake of social networks by Boomers is still lagging, there's still reason to be optimistic -- especially in the health arena. See my post here: http://blog.pathoftheblueeye.com/2009/10/28/think-boomers-aren%E2%80%99t-using-social-media-think-again-especially-in-health/
http://www.quisenblog.com
I also get from this that boomers are much more interested in the present, not the future. That makes them a good target for the NOWISM trend.
You have to go to the blackboard and write 100 times "I am not as funny as I think I am."
You're actually funnier.
Uhm, no. Let's agree that this article uses the numbers to make its point -- what does it tell me that younger demos sign up for FB at twice the rate the boomer generation does? Not much, when you think about it. It would have been interesting to hear how these numbers develop over time.
I would argue that the picture would change dramatically and we would see an ever-increasing adoption rate among 'mature' audiences over the past year or so. What marketing is about, at least to a degree, is to be there at the onset of a 'trend' (and we've moved past that point, right?) and then reap the rewards of being a 'pioneer.' The conclusion (?) of this article is that Social Media may not live up to the hype -- my conclusion is: Heed Matt's advice at your own peril. You might get left behind.
What's more: What do we know about the 13% of 45+ FB users? The article doesn't mention it, but we can assume these are the early adopters, the innovators, the 'role models' to their peers, higher education / high income -- why would anybody want to ignore them, if one can access them this cheaply and efficiently? What other medium enables you to do that? Heed Matt's advice at your own peril. You might get left behind.
twitter.com/marqueteer
In particular, women remain skeptical of traditional sources of information related to drug therapy and treatment so pharma web sites are not the place to go. Instead, women look to each other for expert advice, in the context of opinion and real life experience. Only social networking offers this, and as much as we want to partner with our doctor for information as to what ails us, we want to be empowered to take control of our health.
It's okay to define groups of "people" as one thing or another, if you have a product or service that you know is more attractive to that "group."
But to say one group or another is smitten by some new tool or technology, proves the speaker is out of touch with reality. People want to connect to people, period. It doesn't matter how - granted, Facebook (oh, not my favorite tool at all!) and Twitter, and blogs, and such allow us to engage with new people and family and experts, but in the end, it's our core group of friends that matter most.
As a boomer woman very much engaged with social media, and with the women's market, in general, I can say with assertion that brands are more likely to impress me if they get to know me. The best way to do that is to actually engage in the conversations going on in social media circles.
Then, let me ask questions, draw my own conclusions, and make the decision on further contact. (remembering that I am one person connected to millions of others - one by one, or several dozen by several dozen)
Social media is just yesterday's coffe klatch, held online in thousands of living rooms all over the U.S. , with moment by moment reporting. Oh, excuse me, I have a twitter post to reply to...
Facebook is the future of media and the world. By middle of next week or so, there will be no more television, or newspapers, or websites or magazines or outdoor boards or radio or even those little bi-planes with banners trailing behind them flying over the beach in Venice, there will only be Facebook. We will keep our money on Facebook, we will buy our groceries on Facebook, our children will go to school on Facebook, you and I will go home after a long day of work on our Facebook pages and settle in with the family to watch some Facebook. In fact, I'm told that the U.N. is, at this very moment, closing down it's buildings here in New York and replacing them with an exciting new Facebook page, which all the countries of the world have signed on to. Except for Iran which is going with Twitter.