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

Social networking fever

Having said I am bored with social networking I find myself blogging about the subject again. It seems that every group, subgroup and celebrity wants to get in on the act.

OK, you "get up and go" older ladies you now have somewhere to 'go', or so the press release says.

Vibrant Nation, a new online place that celebrates the ability of women in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond to do anything. Based on the idea that women already have the best answers for each other's questions, Vibrant Nation is like a social gathering where women connect each other to the best resources that work for them. By gathering their voices on www.vibrantnation.com, these women also can help marketers understand their real interests and needs.

The same day another press release arrives saying that

Kylie Minogue is taking on MySpace and Facebook by launching her own social networking site. KylieKonnect allows fans to create personal profiles, upload images and blogs, and chat with other fans via mobile or web browsers.

As predicted, social networking functionality is becoming another bit of functionality that is added to the web designer’s checklist. Dick Stroud

I am getting bored with social networking

I have already written about Saga making a formal launch of Sagazone (yawn). In response to Saga's announcement the UK press has produced a deluge of nonsense about “silver surfers” and online networking.

Amusingly, a few of the articles took an aggrieved tone along the lines – “how dare these oldies gate crashing the world of youth….”. This article in the Telegraph is one of the better ones.

As usual the general media is 6 months behind the pace, since anybody with any interest in this area has known that social networking is intrinsically age-neutral. It is a bit like the time mobile phones were seen as some sort of symbol of youthfulness and texting was a magic reserved for sub-18 year olds.

Another social networking site has been launched in the UK – mychumsclub.com. This one is bit different in that it charges you £50 to join and will cap the membership (i.e. going for the exclusivity angle). In the same week it has been announced/rumoured that Friendsreunited (arguably one of the first social networking sites) is dropping its subscription fee of £5. Weird or what!

OK, social networking was an interesting topic. It is here, it will morph into lots of other things, but there are a lot more interesting things on the horizon of 50-plus marketing – Web video for one. Dick Stroud

Sagazone goes live

Back in August I