Saga Zone is the largest social networking site for the over 50s

Well that is what an e-mail that popped up this morning said.

Back in July 2009 it had 63,000 members. Today’s e-mail says the figure is 60,000 members.

The site started around March 2007 when I recorded it had 11,000 members. If my sums are correct that means in 3 years it has added 49,000 members. I wonder how many of these are active - 5% - 10%? Whichever way you cut the figures it is not a ringing endorsement for the power of age specific social media. Dick Stroud

We must have a forum

Over the last year I have been involved in a couple of Web site developments, targeted at the older person, that have forums. During the preliminary discussions about the sites I told the marketing people that they may as well dump the forums since they will not be used. Oh yes they will they said. Oh no they will not I said.

Needless to say the sites were developed and the forums were added. Needless to say they now sit their and decay. After the initial burst of activity of the people on the site, responsible for content, making a vain attempt to generate traffic they now have 2-3 comments a day max.

Unless you have a really intense subject, like computing and health, where people get really worked up about their own knowledge, or the need for advice, the chances that a forum will work is minimal. Of course that will not stop marketers still insisting on adding them to sites.

Just because it is easy to do doesn't mean you should. Dick Stroud

The lost generation of marketers

Today’s FT has an article about the inability of today’s older marketers to ‘get’ the use of social media. Sorry, this article might be on subscription only.

The outgoing marketing chief of Unilever has warned of a “lost generation” of brand managers who do not understand the web and social networks.

In his final interview before retiring, Simon Clift said he believed public relations agencies were best placed to profit from the rise of Facebook and Twitter, as traditional advertising agencies struggle to adapt to the digital world.

Mr Cliff’s basic premise is that: “If you are 25 or 20, you know this stuff – you are brought up with Facebook and YouTube - if you are 50 see your kids do it - most of our brands are managed by people who have had to learn it.”

So you get the basis of the argument; the young have digital welded into their DNA, the 50-plus observe its use and the age group in the middle learn, but do not instinctively use it.”

To help out Unilever has encouraged its staff to use sites such as Twitter and acebook themselves, to understand them better and help them “live the space”.

Mr Clift said: “The people who have most needed it are the people aged between 30 and 45, running global brands because they grew up after it and haven’t seen their kids doing it”.

I assume that Mr Clift’s arguments are a tad more sophisticated than represented in this article since he is portrayed as talking in terms of simplistic stereotypes. He is falling into the trap of purely associating digital knowledge and use with age.

Here is something for him to consider during his retirement years. If he is right then the same argument dictates that as a huge chunk of Unilever’s products are purchased by the 50-plus the company should have a few more 50-plus brand managers to “live the space”? Dick Stroud

Two presentations on SlideShare that are worth viewing

This is the first time I have seen a presentation about the 50-plus in Germany. Lots of facts and lots of the stuff that applies to all European countries.

Definitely worth a look

The Truth About Generation 50plus In Germany

View more presentations from Ulrich Riediger.

This is a beautiful presentation about social media around the world. I have no idea how I would use the information it contains but it is a really well constructed and visually appealing.

Social Media around the World

View more presentations from InSites Consulting.

Dick Stroud dick@20plus30.com

Fantastic source of Facebook demographic and geographic data

Yesterday I was searching for some data about the geographic and demographic differences in Facebook users. I found the perfect source. The O’Reilly Radar Slideshare document titled: “Demographics: Trends April 2009”.

Everything you ever wanted to know. If anybody knows of a more recent source of data then please post a comment. Looks to me like Europe is lagging well behind the US in the uptake of Facebook by the older demographic. Dick Stroud

50-plus web site for sale – one careful owner

I was vaguely aware of The Silver Surfers Guide web site. It was one of the many sites that appeared like a fresh crop of mushrooms during the period when people thought that all you had to do was put '50-plus' or 'Boomer' on a site and zillions of people would come clicking.

Well the site is up for sale. Here is what the blurb says. The website provides good returns from online advertising and other revenue streams, such as its incorporated over 50's dating site.

The dating site alone currently generates in the region of £5000 per annum, with sufficient refinement of marketing this figure could be much greater. There is genuinely no limit to the potential scope for this business, particularly for someone keen to move towards the increasingly more popular social networking arena. The business started trading in November 2008.

Trading was temporarily suspended between January 2009-August 2009 due to site redevelopment and recommenced in August 2009.

Turnover during the 9 months of active trading is £27,388.34 ex VAT. The site averages 12,000 unique visits every week and approximately 30,000 page impressions.

By my calculation this means the site is making £0.045/unique visitor. Mmmm

Full marks for the guy/girl for trying to sell it at this price. My bet is that they would be open to offers. Remember the old saying: "Buyer Beware". Dick Stroud

Twitter status of US users

This is really interesting. Those who Twitter in the US look as if they are just as likely to have an MBA as being a High School drop-out. As you would expect the user base is still predominantly young. This analysis is from Pew Internet and appears in its reported entitled Twitter status of users. Dick Stroud

Pew Internet research on the democratization of social networks

Social network services users have gone from being classic early adopters (i.e. Male, highly educated, young to middle-aged, urban) to become every man and woman – with a continued skew towards youth and as diverse, if not more than the internet-using population.

This doesn’t mean that more older adults aren’t flocking to social networks, they are, but younger adults are also still using these networks, so the overall representation of the age cohorts in the user population has actually gotten younger.

I think that is trying to say is that you are now getting all types of younger people using these networks, which is keeping the age profile young, however, you are also getting a lot of older users who are coming from a limited profile of society. Why don’t you download the presentation and make your own mind up. Dick Stroud

Boomers and social media - do they or don't they

The Boomer Project’s Jumpin Jack Flash e-newsletter has an interesting item about the use of, or in their opinion, the lack of use of social media by Boomers.

This guy has a different take on the situation.

To be honest, I cannot get that excited about the user numbers by age group of social networking or any other Web application, even though I normally comment upon them when they appear.

When marketers consider the relevance of social media in their consumer engagement strategies the question they should ask is: “are the types of people you are targeting using the application.” That’s what is important. Dick Stroud

The older feminine Facebook

Fuelled in large part by younger women, Facebook’s US active base grew by 8.6% in September 2009 to 88.3 million - according to an analysis by Inside Facebook that tracks Facebook’s self-reported demographic statistics for the US market.

Though increases for the month came mostly from younger demographics, Facebook is still growing the fastest- percentage-wise among the over-45s. The 30-day growth rate for women ages 45-54 is 6.9% and for women ages 55-64 it is 8.4% (vs. a growth rate of only 5.8% for women 18-24). How interesting. Dick Stroud

Italy tops the list of Creators

Recently I wrote about the tool that Forrester provides to enable you to find out how many of their social media types exist by age, gender and country – this link gives a definition of the different types.

I have just come upon a link, from earlier in the year, that provides a nice graphic showing a European overview.

True to form, the Italians are big at being ‘Creators’. Dick Stroud

Is the wisdom of crowds for the gullible?

A lot is made about the importance of word-of-mouth as a means of informing the decisions of older consumers. The connection is often made between WOM and the user generated commentary that litters web sites from delighted or aggrieved purchasers.

An academic in Portugal (Vassilis Kostakos) has been digging around in the voting patterns on Amazon, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), and the book review site BookCrossings.

He and his team looked at hundreds of thousands of items and millions of votes across the three sites. In each case, they found that a small number of users accounted for a large number of ratings. For example, only 5% of active Amazon users cast votes on more than 10 products. A handful of users voted hundreds of items.

If you have two or three people voting 500 times," says Kostakos, the results may not be representative of the community overall. He suspects this may be why ratings often tend toward extremes. I reckon you are right!

One of the suggestions, accompanying this research, is that the number of time a person has voted/commented should be shown (assuming this is technically possible). Sounds like a good idea.

I guess we all know that whenever we see a “research result” that results from some informal online poll that the answer must be skewed because the types of people that respond to such things are not ‘normal’. Good to see some research that proves that’s true. Dick Stroud

Women do sociable better than men - at all ages

Burstmedia has issued some research about the profile of social networking users.

Not surprisingly, younger use it more than old. More surprising is the high percentage of 65+ (I have my doubts). Women use it more than blokes, especially at the older end of the age spectrum. Dick Stroud

How many ‘Creators’ in your target market

The above image shows Forrester’s analysis of the social media types of UK women aged 55+.

To make sense of the data:
These slides explain these of these groups (Creators, Critics, etc.)
The bars indicate the percentage of the selected demographic that is in each Social Technographics group.
The white marks indicate the same percentages for the whole population of the country selected.
The index indicates how the demographic compares to the population — a score of 100 means the demographic is the same as the population average.

Use the application to construct an analysis of your own target markets. Dick Stroud

Is social networking the new WOM?

We love it when the lowly consumer gets back at the big bad corporation.

Just look at the success of the “United Breaks Guitars" video on YouTube (5.4 million views and counting). Not bad for content that was posted on the 11th July 2009.

Of course the number of views is trivial compared to the viral effect of the video (like what you are reading now).

As we have seen in Iran, where there are zillions of disgruntled citizens going around with their mobiles videoing the awful violence of the fascist state, there are no hiding places.

In the UK there is great concern about the way in which older people are treated in care institutions and hospitals. This has extracted the traditional knee-jerk political reaction that will will result in a few committees and czars being appointed and no action.

What will get things changed is when hundreds, maybe thousands of people start posting videos of the terrible state of some of these institutions.

My guess is that combination of contributed content and ubiquitous video cameras will become a major force for change. Custome care departments beware. It cannot come too soon. Dick Stroud

Watch out kids your mom is listening

I assume this is a comedy – maybe not – maybe it is. This is the mother from hell. Dick Stroud

Another new Boomer Initiative

I have only just discovered a Boomer site called the 46-64 Boomer Initiative that is an: “ecosystem of web destinations, social networking communities, and social tools to help Baby Boomers spark conversations, solve problems and discover new solutions.”

I think the most observable initiatives of this venture is the @BoomerAuthority. The site uses the do-it-yourself social networking toolkit (Ning) and I have to say seems to have a lot of activity and contains some good content. Definitely worth having a look. Good luck to the founders. Dick Stroud

The Ups and Downs of social networking

I have already blogged about the Ofcom report on the state of the UK’s communications market.

This is another factlet that has emerged from their research that shows the winners and losers in the UK social networking world.

I reckon these figures have a simple explanation:

Second Life – always a mystery why it did as well as it did. Clunky and only of interest to the mega-geeks.

Linkedin – fear of, or the result of, job loss has hordes of employees rushing to 'network'

Bebo – a direct migration to mums netmums.

Facebook – the only show in town but vulnerable to the invasion of oldies

Twitter - heavens knows why it is so popular. What’s the betting that next year’s research shows a double digit decline? Dick Stroud

Teens Don't Tweet... Or Do They?

danah boyd is a very smart lady. This is her excellent blog about the dodgy statistics that are used to support the statement that “Teens don’t Tweet”.

It is worth reading because it illustrates what happens when somebody with a highly logical and bright mind dissects the statistics that are churned out by the research agencies.

What really amused me was one of the faults she found in the use of age ranges that don’t relate to the target group. In this case, conclusions are made about the uptake of Twitter in the age range 0-24. As she points out, this age range doesn’t equate to ‘teens’. It is exactly the same as when companies draw some conclusion about Internet use by people in the age range 55-70. A totally meaningless age range that just happens to be convenient for their research process.

A really well written blog. Dick Stroud

The 50-plus, sex and genes - recipe for making money

ITV lost £150 million on its acquisition of Friends Reunited business when it sold it to a company called DC Thomson.

It was clear from start that ITV didn’t have the faintest idea what to do with the company, but I guess its seemed like a good idea at the time to buy what was then highly a successful site, enabling people to search for their school and college friends.

Having been on the site either and either made yourself feel smug about the boring life of classmates or depressed when see how well they are doing, there wasn't much more to do.

Lately, the company alighted upon the two aspects of human nature that maintain a long lasting interest – the "where did I come from" question and sex. By then it was too late and Friends Reunited was pigeon holed as a good idea at the time that never reached escape velocity to become self sustaining. Think of any of today’s social networking sites that might be going the same way?

Anyway DC Thomson, a company I had never heard of purchased the outfit for £25 million.

Why?

The headline in the Guardian answers the question: “New Friends Reunited owner plans over-50s dating website.”

Looks to me like a smart move. Thomson buys a genealogy business (it already has about 50% of the UK market in this field) that it can merge with its own and then provides dating services to the community of people that are desperate to know where their great, great grand mum was born. Brilliant.

The lessons for marketers. One, don’t acquire a company that you don’t understand and have only the most vague ideas how to grow. Two, sex and the need to know “where we came from” are fundamental drivers that can produce a commercial return. Dick Stroud

So who does visit social networking web sites?

From the research done by TNS and The Conference Board the answer seems to be: “Lots of people.”

In the last year the highest growth (in the US) has been in the 55+ which is consistent with all of the other research that I have published. Dick Stroud

What do they know that I don’t?

I have been banging on for ages about the fallacy of social networking sites that are age specific and just when I think the message must have dropped another crop of the ***** appear.

I can only assume it is the indomitable positive attitude of my generation that in spite of all of the evidence to the contrary people keep having a go at winning Boomer eyeballs by creating age ghetto web sites.

There is an alternative explanation, which part of me would like to believe, and that is I am wrong and these sites are little gold mines. Will somebody put me out of my misery and tell me what is really happening.

This is a nice article about Boomercafe.com, one of the first Boomer sites that has been going for a decade and run for the fun of it – nothing wrong with that – I guess it was a blog before blogs existed.

These two articles (one and two) contain background about these four new Boomer sites. Hey Ho. Dick Stroud

More evidence that oldies are flocking to Facebook

I think the chart says it? If you want chapter and verse read the comScore press release. Dick Stroud

Age ghetto social networking sites don’t work

Earlier this month I wrote that TeeBeeDee had turned up its toes and was no longer. It had followed in the footsteps of the famous Norwegian Blue Parrot.

If you don’t know what I am talking about put it down to one of the formative experiences of living during the era of Monty Python.

Chuck Nyren also covered the subject and forcefully rammed home the point that age ghetto social networking sites are at best a cottage industry at worst a way to burn a lot of filthy lucre.

Chuck’s post also includes a fascinating set of comments from TeeBeeDee’s ceo in the WSJ.

Anybody thinking of making their fortune out of capturing the 50plus/Boomer £/$ by building a social networking site please read this stuff. Dick Stroud

More factlets about the rate of adoption of new services by the 50-plus

There is a plethora of research being published that compares the digital habits of Gen Y and Baby Boomers. It all shows the same thing, plateauing of uptake by the young, rapid rate of uptake by the oldies.

Of course the explanation for the high growth rates is due to the low starting base in 2008. However, it does tell a message about the way that older people are entering the domain of Yoof and using their digital toys. Dick Stroud

Online, ‘a Reason to Keep on Going’

This excellent article from the New York Times explains one of the great motivations for older people to use the Internet and in particular social networking.

Online contact is a way of overcoming social isolation and clearly a lot of older people are using digital technology to replace ways of interacting that their bodies no longer permit. Definitely worth a read. Dick Stroud

Sagazone revisited again

Every so often I have a look to see how many people are listed on the SagaZone social networking site.

Today the figure is 63,111 back in July 2008 it was 44,000. I make that a growth rate of 55/day. The previous period I measured showed a growth rate of a 100+ new profiles a day.

When you consider how few of these profiles will be active it doesn’t prove a resounding success for the idea of age-specific social networking.

Anybody from Saga like to add there side to the argument? Dick Stroud

2009 Facebook demographics for the US show a 513% Growth in 55+ Year Old Users. College & High School Drop 20%

My guess is that these numbers should not be taken at face value and need more analysis.

However, they do show the way in which older people are jumping into Facebook.

Most of the time I think it is only to see what all of the fuss is about but it might be enough to sound the death knell of the site as a secure retreat for Yoof.

What teenager wants to be hanging around a place where 35-54 year olds are the largest group of visitors? Dick Stroud

UK age composition of Facebook users

An interesting factlet from the FT – the 45+ are a third of all Facebook users. Dick Stroud

Age specific social networking is high risk stuff

Back in July 2007 I wrote about a social networking site called TeeBeeDee.com that was: “founded to provide a voice for the wisdom of our crowd – those of us who have learned from our life experiences and want to keep on growing at midlife.”

Anybody who has read my blog will know that I am highly sceptical of social networking that relies on the person’s age as the primary reason to get and retain their attention.

In a note to members, the founder said that the company had lacked the resources to continue developing the site: “Our business opportunity proved disappointing.” The site had raised more than $9 million but had only 70,000 unique visitors last month. Instead, they were quite content with using Facebook, which has seen its fastest growth in users over 55.

The article concludes that: “Baby boomers apparently did not want to be categorized away by their age.” Sad but inevitable. Here is the Reuter's note about the business. Dick Stroud

Are Baby Boomers killing Facebook and Twitter?

I suppose it must be like your mum and dad turning up at a club/pub/party and wanting to be introduced to your friends. Shock and horror. This is what seems to be going on with Facebook and Twitter. A couple of my friends who recently joined Facebook couldn't wait to go and check out their children’s profile.

Are there no places for Yoof to go where they blasted parents don’t want to follow? Dick Stroud

Goodbye, 9 to 5 TV Part 2

A few days back I wrote a blog post about the launch of a new 50-plus social networking site and TV channel. You can now have a look at the style of the programming from this clip that is published on YouTube.

Clearly this is a low budget business and it will be incredibly difficult for it to gain visibility amongst the sea of channels available on UK TV. That said I reckon the founders need congratulating on a brave venture. I do wish them success. I guess it is in their business plan but I would ditch the TV Channel and focus on publishing the video programming via the Web. Dick Stroud

A new 50-plus TV channel

Way back in March 2007 I discovered Ning and created a social networking site for the 50-plus, all before breakfast. Well to be honest it was the bare bones of a site but I was fascinated to see how easy it was to use this amazing generic social networking software.

Now somebody has done it properly and created Goodbye 9 to 5. Not only have they produced a web site but have also launched a TV channel.

This is what they say about themselves.

A new TV programme produced by Serious Leisure TV, who already make The Caravan Channel, a specialist programme for caravanners, motorhome owners and tent campers.

Goodbye, 9 to 5! starts broadcasting on Information TV, Sky channel 166/Freesat 402 on Wednesday, 10th June 2009, and the first edition will run for two weeks, showing on Wednesdays, Fridays and Mondays at 6pm. After the initial two weeks, the show will become weekly, with each new edition premiering on Wednesday.

Goodbye, 9 to 5! has a general magazine format, but some segments have a strong bias towards the interests of older people - for instance, the first edition has an item about bus passes, and an editorial special about pensions for military service people who retired before present pension conditions came into force.

Goodbye,9 to 5! won't be a static kind of production - over coming weeks and months, it will evolve into a strong and campaigning programme promoting and defending the rights and liberties of the individual - especially when the individuals in question are over 55!

I will certainly be recording the programme on Wednesday and will post a blog item with my opinions. I wish the guys who started the channel the very best of success. Dick Stroud

What not to do with branded content

Many thanks to Reg Starkey for sending me this video link. Highly amusing but with lessons for us all. Dick Stroud

Finerday is working

Way back in July 2007 I wrote about a new web site called Finerday.

My next posting was in September 2007 when I gave a more detailed commentary.

A lot has happened in the last 10 months.

I must congratulate the guys on producing a truly innovative web site that provides both a really simple interface for older people whilst making the site attractive to the younger person.

Believe me that is no small feat.

Along with getting the basic functionality to a working state the site now provides very effective screen capture videos in its “how to do” section.

I still have my concerns and doubts but we can leave those for another day.

Finerday has produced a communications engine that could enable older people, who might never use generic communications software, to get the advantages of messaging and networking with their friends and family. Well done. Dick Stroud

A rambling discussion about oldies and social networking

You can listen to this rather rambling discussion about the issues of older people and social media on blogtalkradio. It takes a hell of a long time to make a few basic points. It took all of 15 mins to ask the basic question: “how/why would an older person use social media?"

The other weakness in the discussion is that it ignores the mega big issue about the imbedding of social networking in corporate web sites. The idea that social media = Facebook or Linkedin is very 2008.

One of the panel members is an Aussie called Des Walsh who has written some interesting stuff about the worth of the word ‘Boomer’ outside the US. If you don’t have 40 mins to listen to the podcast then read his blog about the event. Dick Stroud

55+ and on Facebook? CNN wants to hear from you

According to Facebook its fastest-growing age group is women older than 55.

CNN recently covered the subject of older people and Facebook. What is really interesting is to look at CNN’s discussion board on Facebook where oldies talk about their social networking experiences.

Thanks to Kathy Dragon who mentioned this item in one of tweets. Dick Stroud

Boomers+ Generation Y and social networks

USA Today has a long article about how Boomers are using social networking. Lots of stories about how older people are using the Facebook and MySpace.

More interesting information comes from the latest Consumer Electronics Usage Survey from Accenture. I cannot find a link to this survey so can only reproduce what was covered on Steve Rubel’s blog posting.

I think the chart says it all. As you would expect there would be a higher growth rate of use from the sectors with the lowest historical usage. What is more interesting is the plateauing of use by Gen Y. Are we near to maximum penetration for this generation?

Is social networking sinking into the category of a foundation application and losing its excitement. That is my guess. We need another year of results to know with any certainty. Dick Stroud

Boomers and Social Media (Yawn…)

If you are bored of reading about Boomers and social media then skip this post and spend a few more minutes of the day worrying about the recession.

At the beginning of March I wrote that Forrester (the much acclaimed research company) had discovered that not all Boomers were luddites. A fact that appeared to surprise the report’s author.

After publishing the blog I thought that maybe I was being a bit hard on the guy. The thought passed, sooner than it should.

The above shows the analysis that caused the realisation that technology and Boomers might get on better than a herd of AIG executives with a bunch of drunken rednecks. Actually, the charts are very interesting and are taken from the report author’s blog.

The comments that appeared on his blog, about the the analysis, reassured me that I am not alone in my views. Here is a sample:

My perception is that your perception is limited……

This week I have had a number of incidents in which I bumped into a very frustrating assumption about baby boomers and their lack of use/understanding/curiosity and very professional use of social media…..

To assume that my peers are by-in-large clueless ignores the fact that my generation invented all this stuff and we’ve been embracing it all along….

We noted 18 months ago that the usage of social media was not just The Yoof and are bemused that all the marketeering was aimed at the young, of whom there are fewer with less money, than on the baby boomers who are both numerous ….

And so on and so on… Dick Stroud

VibrantNation.com – nice web site

Carol Orsborn, with Mary Brown, wrote an excellent book about marketing to older women - BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer -- The Baby-Boomer Woman.

Carol has been involved with establishing VibrantNation.com, a social networking site for boomer women that I wrote about way back in November 2007. I have to be honest that I have only glanced at the site since then but I went back to have a closer look. I do like the visual appearance.

VibrantNation has just published some research about the extent of networking of boomer women. Here are some of the results:

They are in personal contact with at least 46 people each month.

65% share information online with others in their network.

They are comfortable relying on referrals from strangers online if the source is knowledgeable/experienced. They rely on references on websites like Amazon.com (70%), eBay.com (54%) and TripAdvisor (27%).

Interesting stuff. It would be even more interesting to know how these numbers compare with their husbands and partners. Dick Stroud

So how do you make money out of Facebook?

The last few posts have shown that Facebook is becoming increasingly more important for the 50-plus – and for companies trying to reach the 50-plus.

I still encounter a load of scepticism and (dare I say) ignorance amongst UK marketers about the relevance of social networking in general and Facebook in particular.

I have seen very little convincing content about the commercialisation of social networks, so I was really interested to receive an e-mail from the publicist of a book that has just been published in the US on the subject - The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff.

The author is Clara Shih – an interesting looking lady. As you would expect you can see a splendid page on Facebook about Ms Shih.

Well, congratulations to the publicist at Addison-Wesley your e-mail worked. I will certainly read the book and suggest others have a look to see what they think. Dick Stroud

Forrester it isn’t the 1st April yet

I am astonished. No, I am flabbergasted.

The mighty Forrester Research has just published a 4 page report, for the give-away price of $749, which is advertised with the following quote.

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.

Wow, its good to see that Forrester is still at the cutting edge and discovering that Boomers might actually know how to turn on a computer.

Any sap that, in these recessionary times, thinks it is worth spending $749 of their company’s fast disappearing cash reserves to purchase such drivel should be fired – or as Starbucks said in a recent note announcing its decision to “aggressively re-architect our cost structure” be “separated from the company”.

You will get much better insight about Boomers and social media by looking at this blog (thanks Emma for the reference) and the Pew Internet site. Dick Stroud

Birth of another Boomer social networking site

I am glad that I am not the only person that takes a dim view of anything to do with Boomer portals and their ilk. This posting in The Savvy Boomer blog expresses my views – better than I could.

This is a part of the post.

Thankfully, I haven't seen too many new boomer portal sites lately (not blogs, but sites that try to establish a boomer online community, conceivably to make money.) All I can say to Boomer Yearbook is good luck, you're going to need that and a whole lot more. In case you don't understand my cynicism, you might want to check out a few of these sites that regard themselves as boomer social networking sites:

* Eons
* Boomj
* Boomertowne
* Boomerator
* Boomer411
* Wanobe
* Sagazone

I was amused to see that the META NAME="title" tag used by the site was: “Elderly Problems – Social Network Site for Baby Boomers and Baby Boomer Generation.” I wonder if this was the “working name” of the site that the developers used? Dick Stroud

Self help Web site for Boomers

I came upon Boomerater that describes itself as: “not a social network where the focus is on making friends - rather it's an online community to learn from others who have already dealt with similar situations." That seems very reasonable.

This press release tells you more about the site.

I only had a quick look around but seems to be an easy to use site that is handling a reasonable amount of traffic. I am never sure how you make money out of this sort of venture but I suspect it stands more chance than the zillions of Boomer social networking sites. Dick Stroud

Welcome back Maple and Leek

Maple and Leek, the UK social networking site for over 50s has launched a mature dating section. I first encountered this company back in May 2007.

Like a lot of 50-plus social networking companies it appeared to be having difficulties in attracting users.

To be honest, I thought it had died. But no, here it is, with an updated web site and a focus on oldies in search of love, or something.

Talking about social networking, I had another look at Sagazone. The number of profiles has increased to 60,000, although Saga’s chief executive only claims to have 50,000 of which 6,000 are active in any one month. Odd when a ceo understates the success of something!

I first visited Sagazone back in August 2007 when it had 11,700 profiles. So in 18 months it has added 40,000 profiles. That doesn’t seem a lot to me. Of those I would guess half, at least, are dormant. Dick Stroud

Demographics of social network users

What fascinating research. Interested in social networks? Then this is a report from Pew Internet is a must for you to download.

Clearly it shows a close correlation between age and use of “social networking sites”. In future Pew should take a broader view of what constitutes a social networking site. Currently it only counts the generic sites (MySpace, Facebook, Linkedin, Yahoo, Bebo, Classmates.com…) What about company sites that embed social networking? This is the future of social networking.

Leaving that to one side, it is interesting to see that inverse relationship between use and education. It is not an exact match and maybe it reflects the age factor?

The bottom line for marketers is that if you want to target the poorer end of society then social networks are where you should be spending your bucks. Mmmm. Maybe that is not a good selling message? Dick Stroud

ELDR Web site

The PR company that promotes ELDR magazine and Web site has been very organised in contacting me with details of articles they think will generate a blog posting. The reason I have not written anything has been because of work pressure rather than anything to do with the articles, all of which have been very good.

I last wrote about ELDR way back in March 2007.

From a quick look around the Web site appears to be very good. Lots and lots of content wrapped-up in an appealing design.

Just one small gripe, following on from my posting about usability. Who is ELDR? If you go to the About Us section all you find are details about the key staff. But who owns ELDR? A bit more work on this section would be worthwhile plus more use of some Web video. It would also be good if the magazine was available in an electronic format (e.g. Zinio). Dick Stroud

A few disconnected muses

This time of year there is not much going on in the 50-plus world. Sure, the world is experiencing financial hell and damnation, there is carnage in the Middle East and the expectation of 2009 are equivalent to Armageddon, but that will all wait until 2009.

Much more interesting is to muse about a few things I have seen in the past couple of days.

Twitter
It is great to see that twitter is now using the video made by commoncraft.com to explain what its service is all about. I reckon these videos are a fantastic way of explaining Internet enabled services. Have a look at their explanation Social Networking.

Social Networking

I have long thought that the future of social networking will be determined by how corporates incorporate the functionality into their online presence. This article from E-Marketer comes to something like the same conclusion

The example that is used to illustrate the trend is the way a Johnson & Johnson has created a social network for families who have children with diabetes.

Government Speak

If you want something to sound important make it sound complicated. I think this must be the first lesson taught to all employees in the UK’s Public Sector. If the truth will be told I can think of some people in my own profession who suffer from this problem.

What do you make of this 61 word sentence?

“Given current efforts to consolidate and extend existing Londonwide shared intelligence capabilities into the London Clinical and Business Support Agency (LCBSA, aka "the London Hub"), it is a particularly opportune time for INEL to determine our near and longer-term health intelligence strategy and its internal capability, to complement and build on services we will be able to access via the hub.”

OK, now you understand?

And finally, what was the most searched for term on the WARC (World Advertising Research Council) web site during 2008? Give you a clue, it begins with ‘r’ and ends with ‘n’. Yep, you got it. RECESSION.

Now as I read forecasts and pundits views about the marketing world I think they should be labelled ‘AR’ and ‘BR’. Any market forecasts made before the credit crunch and the ensuing recession are not worth the paper they are written on. What do you reckon? Dick Stroud

Social networking audiences

During 2008 I cannot remember how many deserted 50-plus / Boomer web sites I have visited, all boasting they are the place for the older generation to meet-up and hang-out and do whatever you do when you mix with a bunch of people you don’t know and almost certainly have nothing in common with.

There is nothing more depressing than looking at notice board with a few subject threads that last were updated in October. It is like gazing into a run-down restaurant where the only people sitting at the tables are the waiters.

If you want to see what really interests people, boomers as well, then have a look at Warrior Cat Clans 2. This is the most popular site managed by Wetpaint. Just look at the activity.

Wetpaint is not shy about declaring itself the leader in social publishing. I guess if you have a network of over one million social sites and partnerships, with the likes of Dell, The Discovery Channel, Fox, HP….you can make that claim. It has just released a list of the trends it has seen during 2008. Not surprising it demonstrates the fragmentation of social networking into zillions of special interest groups.

I wonder how many of the deserted-restaurant like boomer sites will decide that 2009 is the year to chuck-in the towel? Dick Stroud

Yellow Pages buys into the 50-plus market

How interesting. Yellow Pages has bought a majority stake in grownups.co.nz, a New Zealand website aimed at people over the age of 50. They do strange things down in the Southern climes.

Yellow Pages also publishes the Retirement Guide, so maybe that explains the decision.

This is the sort of news to bring cheer to the hearts of all those 50-plus entrepreneurs with their age based social networking sites. Mayber Yellow Pages will provide them with a profitable exit. If I were them I wouldn’t get too excited. Dick Stroud

Sagazone revisited

The last time I had a look at Sagazone was back in April.

Since then I have completed a questionnaire asking for feedback about the site. The ‘thank you’ e-mail listed the things people liked and/or wanted to added:

Interest groups
Space for experts to pass on their knowledge online.
Becoming a focal point for the major issues of today
A 'travel planner' with travel information and news of forthcoming events
A mechanism for trading goods online.

These all seem reasonable requests. Since April the number of registered profiles has increased to 44,000 which means the site is adding a 100+ new profiles a day. I am not sure if that is fast enough to substitute for the rate that profiles become inactive but it is faster than at the begining of the year.

Why the photo? That is what you get when you go to http://www.sagazone.com– maybe a bit more of this would help increases the numbers of older gentlemen. Dick Stroud

So long iYomu

I wonder how much money I could have saved the VC industry by telling them that social networking that is age-centric is for the dogs? Well it is not their money they wasted so I guess they don’t really care.

This is a well researched item about the demise of iYomu - who you ask could have come up with that name? Exactly.

I hate seeing businesses fail so the best we can hope is that others will learn from their mistakes. Some hope! Dick Stroud

Medicine and care - how the Web can help

I received a couple of really interesting responses to my last blog posting about the way the Web can assist in the areas of medicine.

The University of California has teamed up with scientists at The University of California, San Francisco to launch an Internet video channel dedicated to improving understanding of incurable neurodegenerative brain diseases. See the above video.

The channel is intended to increase awareness among patients, their families -- and physicians about the various forms of dementia. The goal is to promote earlier diagnoses and to get more patients into research studies and clinical trials. The site is also intended to educate caregivers, and provide support through caregiver testimonials.

The UCSF team is also reaching out with two other forms of online communication. They've created a widget, containing links to the YouTube channel and the UCSF Memory and Aging Center web site that will help the viral promotion of the facility.They have also created a Facebook group, "Defeat Dementia."

The second contact was from OnTimeRX, a company that is all about reminding people about their medication. Look at the comment on the previous blog posting. How interesting that Microsoft includes OnTimeRx software in their generation-specific “Senior PC” Vista systems for Assistive Technology.

Isn’t it great we live in the Web era.

My guess is that this is just the start. The amount of VC funding that will flow into resolving issues created by the ageing population has yet to start. Dick Stroud

The future shape of health and care management

My Outlook inbox contained two totally disconnected e-mails containing links that illustrate how care and health management in the future might (will) be managed.

I don’t know what it is like outside the UK but the health and care services provided by the Government, and much of the private sector, use a level of IT that Noah would toss out of the Ark and demand something more modern.

Every shrill article in the media about the ageing population is accompanied by dire predictions of how the health and care services will implode and that people (mainly 50-plus) must take more responsibility for their own health and care. They may be right.

One thing that could make a big difference is the application of the latest concepts of the Web.
Arjan in't Veld told me about a US outfit called Lotsa Helping Hands that is a free online volunteer caregiving coordination tool. Basically it applies social networking functionality to a specific issue of coordinating care for an individual. What a brilliant idea.

So far there are 8,000 Lotsa Helping Hands communities. The company has partnered with organisations like the Alzheimer’s Association, American Lung Association, Lance Armstrong Foundation and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society providing co-branded services they offer to their members.

The other development is the concept of owning your own medical data and using Google or Microsoft tools for its management. This appeared in an article in Technology Review.
Google and Microsoft want to do the same thing for personal health that software such as Quicken has already done for people's personal finances. Google Health (released in May) and Microsoft HealthVault (launched last October) allow consumers to store and manage their personal medical data online. Users will be able to gather information from doctors, hospitals, and testing laboratories and share it with new medical providers, making it easier to coordinate care for complicated conditions and spot potential drug interactions or other problems. Both Google and Microsoft will also offer links to third-party services like medication reminders and programs that track users' blood-­pressure and glucose readings over time.

Are you getting the picture? It looks to me like we will have the providers of care and health services using clapped out IT whilst consumers will be expecting/demanding/needing to use Web 2.0 and Cloud technologies. Dick Stroud

Playing at social networking

Whenever you have a new marketing technique a handful of people/companies will commit the necessary time and effort to give it a serious punt. The vast majority will play about, get nowhere and blame the failure on the technique rather than their lack of commitment. I guess that's human nature.

Jupiter Research has published a report (the sort you have to have deep pockets to buy) - Branded Social Networking Pages: Best Practices for Successfully Engaging Users.

It found that 50% of advertiser-branded social networking pages in Europe have fewer than 1,000 friends.

Brands such as Marmite and Nike have got their act together on Facebook. Marmite has 92,054 fans 60,472 fans.

Nestle Rowntree's Smarties branded Facebook page has a grand total of 517 fans since launching in March this year.

I am not suggesting that it is necessarily worth the investment for Nike and Marmite (I have no idea of the payback – something I would think have in common with them) but at least they have a reasonable base of research upon which to make a decision. Dick Stroud

Medical Advice and social networking

“A new website seeks to bring the power of social networking to health support groups.”

This was the tag line of the article in Technology Review.

Trusera is a new social-networking Web site that is all about health. The site: “features online communities and personalized health information, allows members to endorse one another's contributions, as a way to identify reliable sources of information.”

Well guys as much as I think this is the way social networking will develop (i.e. niche interest) and as much as I think this focus is relevant to the 50-plus (because all of effects of physiological ageing) I am to be convinced this site is the way to do things.

Unless I can “get it” about a site within 30-60 secs (a long time by some people’s standards) I am likely to give up. I gave up. I will give it a month or two to build content and have another look. Dick Stroud

Dot com revisited?

The presentation in my previous posting will need to be updated with some of the stuff from this FT article.

It appears that the "widget economy" has no sooner been predicted than it looks destined to disappear. In their entirety, widget makers are generating only about $40m in annual revenue. If you have no idea what I am talking about then don’t worry. It is a mega trend that has come, gone and will soon be forgotten – maybe.

Widget-blues is all part of the depression that is descending onto the social networking scene.




The old Gartner model (see above) illustrates what has happened. Social networking is on the fast decent into the “trough of disallusionment”. That doesn’t mean it is finished, rather that it will now be judge by real, rather than silly measures of success. The one thing that you can be certain about is that when social networking emerges into the sunny plains of the “slope of enlightenment” it will have few similiarities to what we know today. Dick Stroud

Web 2.0 for marketers

Last week I gave a presentation about the joys of Web 2.0 and why marketers should wake and leave the house with a spring in their step at the opportunities that the Web 2.0 technologies and applications bestow. I am not sure the audience saw it that way but I thought I would share the presentation with a wider audience.

You can access both the slides and a flash video, with my dulcet tones, explaining what it is all about. I wouldn’t blame you if you chose the silent PowerPoint. Dick Stroud

Faceparty does an eons.com in reverse – but for the right reasons

Eons.com went from being a 50-plus social networking site to an all things to all men (women) site in an act of desperation when it was forced to rely on real, rather than purchased Web traffic.

A UK outfit called Faceparty (never heard of them - well you are in good company) has gone in the opposite direction. This is a bit of the article in Marketing Week

Social networking site Faceparty is axing the accounts of users aged over 36, because it claims older users pose a danger of sex offending. The site says that it has been forced into the move because of changes in government legislation.

It says it has deleted "a huge number of accounts" from the site in recent weeks. Explaining the move on its website, Faceparty says: "We understand that only a minority of older users are sex offenders, but you must understand that we cannot tell which."

It says that new government legislation means such sites must check if older users appear on the government's sex offenders list. However, the legislation is based on checking addresses, and as Faceparty has not insisted on validated email addreses it cannot participate in the scheme.

Clearly this is a strategy (all though I am not sure if a ‘strategy’ is a word that Faceparty would admit to possessing or wanting) that is all about generating media coverage and reinforcing its youthful anarchistic image. Eons.com tries to increase its audience by widening the age range – Faceparty has the same goal but the opposite tactic. Both are likely to be doomed to failure although I do have to admire Faceparty for coming up with such a ludicrous story. Dick Stroud

By your targeted ads you shall be known

I have recently been spending more time than normal on Facebook and taking more notice than normal, which is not difficult, of the ads that are being served to my profile. Since I have a very sparse profile it must be doing it primarily on the basis of age.

The above shows eight such ads. Now maybe Facebook knows something that I don’t but four of the ads are about obtaining finance. The one that offered me a loan on my car, with an APR of 437%, certainly did get my attention. It is not a joke it is for real!

There is an ad about 50+ dating, one about specs another from an ambulance chasing legal outfit and astonishingly one promoting a Glaswegian singer. Let me think for a nanosecond before deciding that is not for me.

What does this say about me and Facebook? It looks to me like there is only bargain basement ad inventory targeting older age profiles from small companies – the sort of stuff that appears in the back pages of magazines. So, if Facebook has me listed as a short sighted, lonely, poor old sod with an injured back, that might look for solace by listening to a Glaswegian dirge then its time I departed. Dick Stroud

Consumer segmentation and social media?

This article in AdAge (US) gives a summary description of the social networking behaviour of some of the consumer groups used by Simmons Research (part of Experian). It is the first time that I have seen any attempt to overlay social networking behaviour onto lifestyle groups.

I particularly liked the definition of the “Smart Green” group.

They prefer to buy products in recycled packages and eschew products that pollute. They are average users of social networking, blogging and podcasting but slightly above average in message boards. They are older (50-plus) and are most likely to go online for health or financial information. And in the spirit of their eco-friendly attitude toward trees, they're 23% more likely to send electronic greeting cards.

Know anybody like that? Dick Stroud

Social Media Lessons to Learn from Eons

The guys at Immersion Active are a smart bunch and talk a lot of sense about the older market.

Their current newsletter contains a well written and thoughtful article about the way Eons.com handled (bungled some might say) the relaxation of the age limit on membership.

For observers of the company this was seen as the raising of the white-flag – certainly it was seen as the reason to put the company in the “valley of death” category by the venture capital industry.

Sometimes you have to hold up your hands and say: “it seemed a good idea at the time but it didn’t work”. Much better than see a company die by a thousand cuts – probably also a much better financial option. Dick Stroud

What do you want from Social Networking?

I have just completed an online survey for SagaZone. The above shows the most interesting part of the survey - the “wish list” for new features.

Whenever I am invited to be part of a survey my instinctive reaction is: “I wonder what is going wrong that”. I know the smart thing to do is use surveys to ensure continual improvement, but in my experience it isn't how most companies employ user research.

Saga’s registered number of profiles is now 35,000. This is an increase of 4,500 from my last reading in mid January. This means they are adding less than 50 new users/day. During the first few months of the site's life the rate was 100 users/day.

Maybe that explains the survey? Dick Stroud

Social Networking in the UK

I am getting bored with social networking. Not social networking itself but the subject. Been there done that. But, a lot of people are interested and any marketer who is not asking themselves how best to use it needs to be fired.

OFCOM has just published a report about social networking in the UK. It is free and it is good.
See the above charts for a taster of what it contains.

The first chart shows responses to the question:” Have you set up your own page or profile on a website such as Piczo, Bebo, hi5, Facebook or MySpace “? This research was part of Ofcom’s media literacy audit December 2007.

The second chart (from the same source) shows the membership of the main networks by age.

Nothing very surprising other than higher use of Facebook by the 50-64 year old group and the higher use of networks by the lower social economic groups, even though they use the internet less than the ABs. Do I detect that social networking has a class dimension? Dick Stroud

Yet another new Boomer site

Another new Web site targeting the Boomer Market. They keep on coming.

This one is called Galloping Geezer.

Should you feel inclined– you can read about the site’s background in this press release. Dick Stroud

Growingbolder.com - brave venture but will it succeed?

Way back in August 2007 I wrote about a video based social networking site called GrowingBolder. For ages afterwards I received an e-mail newsletter reporting on the progress this site was making toward being launched. To be honest, there wasn’t anything compelling enough to make me want to click back to the site, so I lost track of how the company was doing.

I have just received a press release reporting on the web site’s progress. Since I was quoted I thought I better go and have another look.

Anybody who reads this blog knows of my big reservations about age-centric web sites. I will not go over that ground again. Whatever you think of the business model, you have to give it to the site's founders since they have clearly committed a massive amount of work to the venture.

Since I am a totally sold on the power of video I naturally warm to the site’s use of this as the major communications media. I really do wish them well. Will this be enough to overcome the inherent weakness of a community based on age? Only time will tell. Dick Stroud

Interest specific social networks

It is always gratifying to be proven right, especially when it is something that happens so infrequently.

For some time I have being whining about the way that social networks will become another standard set of Web functionality. To be honest I am not the only person with this story. My thanks to Rick Hartley, who holds the same views, for alerting me to an article in the Wall Street Journal on this subject. If I were you I would try the link soon, since WSJ is a subscription paper.

The short article is an interview with the ceo of Sparta Social Networks who build networks for other companies.

It is interesting to see the range of their clients. There is newbaby.com through to DesignSessions (a community for design students).

Now the question is this. Let’s say I am really interested in fishing (which I am not), driving (which I hate) and Amy Winehouse (who I detest). I am sure that I can find social networks for all three. Being an active member of each of these communities is going to weld me to my PC for longer than is healthy. So, how the hell am also going to get time to spend time with Facebook, Linkedin let alone eons.com.

Market forces, more accurately interest/enjoyment forces, will be the determining factor. I think the age-specific and generic social networks have their work cut out to compete. Dick Stroud

Eons is turning into the US’s version of Heyday

I have no idea how Heyday is doing after it was radically scaled back. I suspect it is in the “valley of death” – not making enough (any) money to finance a decent promotional campaign which means its membership slowly (or maybe quickly) evaporates. I suspect the reason for its continuing existence is more to protect the egos of Age Concern’s senior management rather than its chance of commercial success.

Eons looks like it is heading the same way. The New York Times ran an article about it over the weekend. I will not bother with all of the history but what did interest me were a few facts about the site’s traffic.

In early 2007, traffic data seemed to suggest that Eons had found the key to attracting boomers. But then its visitors all but disappeared. According to comScore Media Metrix, Eons attracted almost 1.2 million unique visitors in May 2007, but by December, the visitor tally had fallen to 285,000. What happened? You may well ask. Let me give you a hint – it starts with G and ends with E.

The rapid rise in traffic had been obtained by unsustainable means. Eons had secured traffic by buying advertising rights to keywords on Google and other search engines. At one point, it bought 26,000 phrases — like “retirement living Chicago,” “R.V. travel in Dallas” and so on — but the visitors sent by the search engines stayed at Eons for an average of only 7 seconds. By contrast, regular members of Eons stayed for an average of 20 minutes a visit.

I wonder how much of the venture capital pot went straight to Google? Just goes to prove in adversity somebody does well.

Facebook doesn't seem to have any problems in adding new, older users. Roughly 44% of Facebook's 34.7 million users in December 2007 were 35 or older, up significantly from a year earlier, according to the comScore. Dick Stroud

The continuing tale of Eons

Back in September I wrote about the exit of eons.com’s head of technology along with a third of the company's staff. Well it has taken a while but it has filled the CTO vacancy.

I was interested about the guy’s statement about the future technology direction of the company.

“One of the things that was very critical back in September was recognizing that what the customers really wanted was this online community, the social networking aspect, so we’ve been working very hard to focus all of our efforts and resources into that area” - with 700,000 users, we’re at a very good starting point.”

By nature I am a suspicious sort of bloke. I wonder if the decision to focus on the social networking aspects of the business has more to do with the lack of success of the other revenue generating streams (like travel) and the fact that the content is for free. Time will tell.

Here is a question for you. If eons.com has 700,000 users since it started business –what percentage of them do you reckon visited the site within the last 4 weeks? My best guess is no more than 15% and probably no less than 5%. If somebody knows the answer or has another view then let me know. Dick Stroud

How many members is enough members

What a sad chap I must be to keep track of the numbers of members of 50-plus social networking Web sites.

I wrote about TeeBeeDee a few days ago. Clearly a very smart lady who started the site but it ‘only’ has 16,000 members. Sagazone, the UK’s highest profile site now has 30,507, which means it's adding them at the rate of about 100 new a day. Both these observations were made on the 13th Jan.

Compared with the big generic sites these numbers are paltry, the equivalent to petty-cash.

So how many members is enough to make a site self sustaining? What sort of attrition rate would you expect? Are these sites actually keeping pace with the rate at which members lose interest and stop logging-in? I know there are no absolute answers. Anybody like to add their two pennies’ worth? Dick Stroud

TeeBeeDee interview

Whilst looking at Mark’s new Web site (see the next post) I came across this interview with the CEO of TeeBeeDee.
The venture-backed company is headed by veteran magazine publisher/media exec Robin Wolaner. Twenty years ago, she was the founding publisher of Parenting magazine. She was a senior exec at Time Inc and CNET. An interesting lady. Dick Stroud

Retirement Revised - worth visiting

I met Mark Miller when we were presenting at the same event in New York. At that time he had just launched 50+ Digital a consulting company to print and online clients.

Since then he has been a busy guy and has just launched a new Web site RetirementRevised, focused on retirement information needs of 50+ Americans. This is an interactive companion to Retire Smart, the weekly newspaper column he writes for Tribune Media Services.

Definitely worth visiting the new site. A nice clean design with some interesting material. Interesting to note the use of video and Mark’s intention to create his own video material.
I wish him well with the new venture. Dick Stroud.

A few more social networking sites

Thanks to Chuck Nyren the list of 50-plus social networking sites has grown a little longer. See his comments to my recent post.

This got me thinking. Well if truth to be told it provided a distraction to avoid writing a report that has been festering on my desk over the New Year holiday.

The UK site that I omitted is Wanobe. I have already posted a couple of comments about this site at its launch and when I discovered the architecture it is built around.

I revisited the site. Well if the activity in the forums and the page views counters are anything to go by then it isn’t generating much traffic. Sad because somebody has clearly put a lot of thought and money into the site.

Whilst doing a count of users I visited Sagazone again. Back on the 22^nd November the number of members stood at 27,572. Today, it is 29,301. That is 1,729 new members in about 40 days. OK, this is a count of members who have agreed to make their profiles visible, so the count will be higher. Let’s say it is double that number – still less than 100 members/day.

Saga can take a little consolation from the fact that Which Computer has highly praised the site in its social networking survey. Big deal.

I promise this is the last time I post anything to do with social networking this month! Dick Stroud

Lists of social networking sites – mainly for the 50-plus

For the past 3 months I have had a Post-It note on my computer screen saying: “publish a list of social networking sites”. Because I harp-on about the subject so much I often get approached to provide a list of 50-plus sites. Rather than keep doing it by e-mail I thought I would get the details onto my blog. That was in September but other stuff kept getting in the way.

So apologies to the owners of all of the sites I have missed or put in the wrong category. Send me an e-mail and I will update my master listing.

A great blog about all stuff social networking
mashable.com

Social Networking services
affinitycircles.com
socialplatform.com
joomla.com
ning.com
peepagg.net

Sites with imbedded social networking. In my view the way of the future.
Care.com
waitrose.com
cafemom.com
last.fm
tripadvisor.com
flixster.com
dogster.com
decornextdoor.com

Oldie-centric social networking sites - not listed in any order of priority. It will be interesting to see how many of these are still around in a year’s time.
Eons
grownups.co.nz
egenerations.com
eldr
overfiftiesfriends
mapleandleek
50connect
myboomerplace.com
boomertowne.com
boomer-living.com
boomj.com
secondprime
boomergirl.com
lifetwo.com
teebeedee.com
over50s.com
lifestyle60.com/
55-alive.com
pastfifty.net
Sagazone

For those of you interested in designing online social networks: The theories of social groups is not a bad article to read.

Finally, if you want to read somebody who really (I mean really) understands this social networking stuff then you should subscribe to danah boyd’s blogs apophenia and Many-to-Many That's it - the note has been ceremonially torn up and put into the bin!Dick Stroud

A social networking fest

Let me think. It must be all of 3 days since I wrote anything about social networking. For something that is beginning to bore the pants of me I seem to be increasingly writing, conference speaking and consulting about the subject.

Here are few bits and pieces that have flashed through my Outlook inbox.
Growing Bolder is up and running. The first couple of pre-launch video-newsletters were amusing but after the umpteenth - “we are nearly there folks” - announcement the joke began to wear thin.

I am not sure about the sign-in barrier approach (see above). In my experience it rarely works and is quickly dropped. So far the site has 212 visible members. I guess there may be more who don’t want their profile displayed. What’s the bet that there will be a limited non-member entry to the site within the next month or two?

As I have recently mentioned, Sagazone has been getting bucket loads of coverage in the UK press. Nonsense like: “silver surfers discover their own Facebook” etc etc….Back in August it had 11,700 members. This has increased to 27,572. It will be interesting to see how the membership changes now the glare of the media has disappeared.

A new ‘empowering’ site for the baby boomer generation (Linkfifty.com) has erupted in the US. Yawn.

One site that does interest me is egenerations. At least it is different and makes a big thing of using video, which it does pretty well. Have a look at this learn section of the site.

For all those Dutch speakers who visit the blog here is the very first online social network for the 50 plus in the Netherlands. It is called http://www.vijftigplusser.nl/ and according to Arjan in't Veld (thanks for the lead) has all the functionality you would expect.

There you go another week in the life of 50-plus social networking. Dick Stroud