Facebook Leading the Way

According to Nielson, ten percent of internet time is spent on social media. What particular media is leadin? Facebook ! In fact, the amount of time spent on- line increased 710% year after year. From April 2008 until April 2009, Facebook users increased their time online from 1.7 billion minutes to 13.9 billion.

Nielson reports: "Time spent on social network sites is also expanding: Across the globe in 2008 activity in ‘Member Communities’ accounted for one in every 15 online minutes - now it accounts for one in every 11. In Brazil the average is one of every four minutes and in UK it’s one in every six minutes."

It isn't all Generation Y...See the Baby Boomers?

The Facebook audience is broadening as it moves away from being a social medium just for a young audience. Time has factored Facebook into the mainstream arean bringing along a marketing interest in how to use it for advertising purposes. Nielson also finds: "From December 2007 through December 2008, Facebook added almost twice as many 50-64 year old visitors (+13.6 million) than it has added under 18 year old visitors (+7.3 million)".  

Complaints abound from the younger audiences as the "Age Wave" surges the media platform with its presence, sending business and marketers in frantic directions to tap into this massive segment of consumers.

Use "Positive Aging" in Marketing to Baby Boomers?

 

Have you heard of marketing campaigns for Baby Boomers utilizing the theory of "positive aging"?  It is being suggested by many in the marketing profession.  Yet I find issues with this.  Blogs and websites are popping up everywhere with terms such as: Gerotranscendence; Center for Positive Aging; Healthy Aging;and hundreds of positive mental health articles bracing for this "age wave".

Not that there is anything wrong with "positive mental health", but is there such a thing as purposely delivering negative advertising to Baby Boomers?  Scare tactics on savings?  Forget it! Baby Boomers learned to live in the "now" better than any other generation. Tacking up the word "positive" in front of any word perceived as negative, will not appeal to anyone much less those of us lumped into the largest segmented generation spanning over 20 years.  So why does marketing try to pigeon-hole a group that includes early Boomers and late Baby Boomers? In many cases, we have the same generational group giving birth to members of the same generation?

If you are a Boomer, then you understand the dangers of labeling, and probably still hate the idea of segmenting people.  If you are not a Boomer, then proceed with caution if your advertising does not acknowledge the individuality and uniqueness with which  Baby Boomers regard themselves.  Is this a selfish attitude?  Not in the least.  

Baby Boomers can simply be counted on to cherish their uniqueness in the scheme of things, and are not to be underestimated in dealing with what might be judged as manipulation by a "machine".

Baby Boomer Wave Surges Internet Marketing

Any Baby Boomer would gladly explain the power of this generational group when it turns its attention to anything 'under the sun'. Why are businesses and marketing just now getting the real scoop on Baby Boomers? That question hasn't been answered, but no doubt most busniesses are beginning to wake up to the Baby Boomer Wave phenomena.

Woe to the business that attempts to get the Boomer dollar by appealing to their advancing age as versus the traits they claim and seem to have. This is the ageless generation, and a marketer better remember it.

Jenna Wortham at the New York Times wrote her confirmation of the Boomer wave and noted the following: A recent report from Forrester Research indicates that while it might be tempting to categorize all aging Americans as techno-dinosaurs and Luddites, more than 60 percent of baby boomers are avid consumers of social media like blogs, forums, podcasts and online videos. That’s up from roughly 40 percent a year ago.

Be careful of any statisitcs you read on Boomers prior to 2009. In fact an executive comment made by Forrester in March says: "Baby Boomers aren't technology Luddites; in fact, more than 60% of them consume socially created content. You'll also find Boomers leaving their opinions on Web sites and even joining social networks. Yet this group isn't as active as younger generations, so to reach Boomers, start with sponsoring or creating social content since they're not as willing to create blogs, videos, or audio. We also recommend allowing Boomers to share their opinions with others by enabling comments, ratings, and rankings on Web sites".

So to make the warning to marketers clear:

"May those who have Eyes, See; and those who have Ears, Hear."