Commentary
Are Baby Boomers The Unicorn In Social Media?
- by Lori Bitter , Columnist, May 31, 2010
The first, and not surprising, finding is that when it comes to social media, older boomers behave more like seniors (the cohort known as "Ikes" or the Silent Generation) and younger boomers behave more like the Gen-X cohort.
The biggest takeaway may be the last line of this chart. Fifty percent of seniors are not participating on any social network, while 47% of older boomers and 45% of younger boomers are not. So while half of older consumers may have no interest in social media, the numbers who are "reachable" is still in the 35-40 million range.
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Balance this finding with where boomers are spending their time, compared to three years ago (before the current economic crisis.) They reported spending less time doing these things:
Volunteering 38% Reading magazines 34% Reading newspapers 34% Reading for pleasure 33% Exercising 31% Listening to the radio 29% Time with spouse 18% Watching TV 16%
The only category that showed a significant increase: the 62% growth in spending time online. Boomers are trading time with more traditional media for time online.
The Boomer Social Maven
To help companies engage the boomer who is online and in social networks, we asked a series of questions to segment them. In the final analysis, two key questions were most predictive in defining the boomer social maven: 1.) They network both on and offline and 2.) Have a propensity to recommend products and services to others.
From this analysis, three clear segments emerged:
- Isolated Insulars: on their own; social islands
- Everyday people: most boomers (and social media lurkers)
- Social Mavens: connected, exploring and expanding networks daily
It was important to look at frequency of contact with their social networks as opposed to amassing friends or connections. Boomer social mavens have significantly more frequent contact with individuals across all types of groups within their social sphere. This includes family members, political organizations, hobby or interest groups, religious organizations, social groups, neighbors, co-workers, former co-workers and business contacts.
The boomer social maven is most likely to be a younger boomer (45-54) and equally male and female; this is a surprise to many who think of women as the voracious social media consumer. The important takeaway for marketers is that mavens are huge consumers of all types of media and use more traditional media than the other segments. This points to a greater need for integration of on and offline engagement strategy for those companies who want to reach the unicorn.
Lori's work is always interesting and on target. The take away for marketers is the need to create an integrated balance of traditional and interactive marketing.
Whatever happened to common sense? Why in the world would someone in their 50's or 60's be on myspace? Why would someone need to be on linked in after they are not looking to expand a career? Classmates is spam. Twits are for the non-focused. And FB is a prime target of the none of your business clan, although many fall through the cracks. What is noticeably missing is email or a personal website where one connects with friends. Someone actually spent money on this study? Must have been a whipper snapper twit.
The first question any marketer should ask is "Is our target market using social media and if so what are they using it for". Hopefully this will help base some reality in the social media hype
I agree and disagree with Paula Lynn. True that MySpace is for youths but LinkedIn is becoming more and more of a social & volunteer work network for me and my connections. Classmates I've never used, Twitter I like but only to direct people to my FB and website pages. FB is also good to direct people to my website/blogs.
I'm online everyday building a network of similarly interested people. I agree that e-mail, websites and blogs should have been included in the study as these forms of social interaction can denote a deeper connection as a result of effective marketing.
Doris, The Traveling Boomer
www.babyboomerstraveling.com
This is the kind of common sense that lends a perspective not necessarily shared by all others;
it is very valuable as a reality check.
Thanks, Lori.
My uses of SM
LinkedIn - lots of time spent job related 15-20 hrs per week
Twitter - limited value - I do not care what you are doing that is unrelated to the work we share bi-weekly review
FB for recreational use only- once a month
MySpace - why?
Classmates - Junk mail - try unsubscribing, I've tried over the past year with no results.
Paula, I'm neither a "whipper snapper" nor a twit. I have a twenty year track record of researching the activities of boomers and seniors and translating that research into actionable marketing strategy. Had you inquired, you would know that we did include web sites, review sites, bookmarking, blogs and more in our study. Information that has been widely shared since this study was released. Our POV in this article is that social media is the new shiny object in the marketing toolbox and it should be considered. But for mature consumers, it is not the panacea. Intelligent integration to reach our consumer segment is.
I can also vouch that Lori is neither a whipper snapper nor a twit -- I think this study's takeaways are dead on, and seem to validate that -- as with most social groups -- it's the "lifestage" that drives activity as opposed to the chronological age. As a younger Boomer, I'm very active on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter -- but probably more so because I am a business owner and marketing professional. However, these social media tools are only part of the toolbox I use on behalf of myself and my clients - integrating them with offline strategies has been key to my success.
Great article. I recently was hired to work client side for a company whose target audience is Baby Boomers. I've been working on social media isolated for a month without gaining much traction. I'm going to see if I can work more directly with the other marketing employees to figure out how to best connect with Boomers using social media as an integrated practice along with more traditional media.