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

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 commented about Sagazone - Saga’s social networking venture.

Things seem to have moved on. Comments in today’s press (Note to Saga's PR department, update your web site with current press releases) say that the site that has been running in trial mode for four months and has attracted 13,000 users.

Mr Paul Green, a Saga spokesman is upbeat about the whole thing - "Thirteen thousand is just a drop in the ocean - in theory the membership is practically limitless. Social networking isn't going to be for everyone, but the feedback so far has knocked our socks off." Well Mr Green, we will re-visit Sagazone from time to time, to find out what other items of your wardrobe have followed the same trajectory as your socks. Dick Stroud

For collectors of Boomer sites

They come in all shapes and sizes. This one from the nation with a great rugby team (except when it plays in the World Cup). You can read about its orgins on TheMatureMarket.com Dick Stroud

A couple of more Boomer(ish) Web sites

Over the past few of weeks I have received e-mails from a couple of new 50-plus web sites telling me of their existence.

I liked the intro I received from TheGimpyGirls.com: “a Web site of solutions for aging baby boomers, the disabled and the just plain lazy of both genders”. Definitely got my attention. The intro e-mail went on.

We, Cait & Marty, offer solid advice and a keen sense of the absurd to people with physical limitations, regardless of personal architecture.

Presently, 51 million people - that’s 18 percent of all Americans - have a disability. And the nation’s 78 million Baby Boomers are just entering their 60s - making for more Gimpy people than ever before.

If you, or a loved one, need to choose the right cane, live safer at home, garden smarter or find the best cell phone for failing eyes and ears, then The Gimpy Girls have it covered.

The Gimpy Girls - Cheerleaders for the far from physically perfect.

I have no idea how well the site will do commercially but if the approach to business is like the e-mail then it should do OK.

The next e-mail was from - Passionate for Life.

In the words of the Web site.

Passionate for Life is all about inspiring everyone to live the lives of their dreams.
Our Writers and Coaches are very passionate about what they do.
We hope you will find inspiration here and share your passions with us.
Most of all… Live Passionately!

This is not a social networking web site but a very large collection of articles and blogs about everything from ‘Spirit’ to ‘Humor’ with a section dedicated to Baby Boomers.

Clearly somebody has put a hell of a lot of effort in creating the base of content.

I wonder if the theme of “passionate for life” is strong enough to wrap around so much content but only time will tell. I wish both sites luck. Dick Stroud

Get to know about widgets

Know much about widgets? You should. This account of a recent conference session is really worthwhile – interestingly one of the examples used is from eons.

RockYou, claims to be the world’s largest provider of widgets and Slide.com, a company at the forefront of the widget craze, said their portable applications netted 90 million and 134 million unique monthly page views respectively (Slide.com’s didn’t include their Facebook users).

Now what is really interesting is that when asked how many of those viewers had actually loaded the widget onto their page, the numbers dropped to about 15-20 million for RockYou, and 30 million for Slide--roughly one out of five for both companies. A big difference between page views and real user engagement. Not surprisingly this subject was a focal point of the panel's discussion.

According to panel moderator (CEO of the Facebook ad network SocialMedia) the widget "users-to-viewers" ratio was an important takeaway for all marketers in attendance. The moderator also asked the panellists to define the difference between “portable applications” and ‘widgets’ since the terms are often used simultaneously. Having read the responses I am no clearer in understanding the differences – I am more confused.

If you want a primer about widgets, in the context of the 50-plus, have a look at this page on eons.

Does anybody reading this blog have access to eye-scanning technology? If so there is a great project to do in looking at the way that older people deal with widgets compared to the young. Dick Stroud

How to be Happy

I find the LifeTwo Web site interesting. It focuses on all aspects of middle age, from midlife crisis to midlife career change. The guy who runs the site (Wesley Hein) has an interesting take on life and sources some fascinating content.

This week his feature is all about: "How to be Happy." I cannot believe anybody can’t do with an extra shot of happiness in their lives.

The underlying premise of LifeTwo's "How to be Happy" week is that you can learn to be happier just as you can learn a foreign language or to be proficient at golf. These are not good examples since I am hopeless at foreign languages and have an embarrassing large golf handicap.

Each day this week the site will focus on a different aspect of happiness and provide a lesson and a couple of quick exercises.

How can you not take up this offer – have a look. Dick Stroud

More bad news for eons

Microsoft has hired Eons chief technology officer (Reed Sturtevant) to head a new development lab and innovation group that is expected to set up shop next door to the MIT campus. You can read the full story here.

This is bad news. I didn’t realize that eons had such a well known guy as their head of technology. The signals this sends are not good! Dick Stroud

More thoughts about eons.com

My thanks to Arjan for telling me about this blog posting that takes another look at the reasons for eons’s problems and the implications for other 50-plus social networking web sites.

Whilst I have been suggesting we all be very careful about donning rose tinted spectacles when gazing at the wonders of social networking, I think we must also be careful to disentangle the possible reasons for eons’s crisis. How much of it was poor management? How much was caused by a dodgy business model. We must be careful to avoid babies and bathwater!

This post is definitely worth a read. Dick Stroud.

Eons wobbles – what lessons for the 50-plus social networking crowd?

As reported in xconomy.com, on Monday Eons founder Jeff Taylor called together his staff and had a moment of remembrance for the 24 colleagues he had just laid off – about a third of Eon’s employees. In addition to these 24 staff members, another 12 people “found different opportunities and chose this time to move on.” If this is correct it means a total reductions of 36 staff which is close to half the company. Eon’s hasn’t confirmed these additional 12 departures.

The layoff story was first reported on Tuesday in Mass High Tech.

So what is going on?

The official explanation is that the company was bloated with staff, with too many projects consuming too much resources. This cull of employees is a positive act of: “focusing in on what works and jettisoning all the stuff". The "going back to basics" - "sticking to the knitting" argument.

Eon’s Senior VP of strategic development (one of the lucky ones with a job) stated that cutbacks were intended to help Eons focus its efforts on the areas of greatest traffic; mostly its social-networking and community-building activities found mainly in its people section, with stuff like blogs and dedicated user groups.

Eons’ site has nine major categories: people, fun, love, money, body, lifepath, obits, games, and travel. It appears the company will no longer pursue areas like obits (offering online obits was a core premise of Eons at its founding) and travel, which are time consuming and costly to keep updated with fresh content.

From afar it seems to me that the site is cutting its costs by retrenching into user-generated content. Content costs, always has, always will. The business model now becomes dependent on the proposition that the 50-plus want a place to communicate with people of their own age. I am not convinced.

A while back I posted an item about social networking and predicted that there would be opportunities for one or two large generic 50-plus social networking sites and a crop of cottage industry businesses. I hope we are not seeing eons make the transition towards the cottage industry model. Time will tell. Dick Stroud

Additional comments about Wanobe

Wanobe (see the previous blog post) uses the open-source content management system called Joomla. Many thanks to Rick Hartley for pointing this out.

Why should you be interested in this fact. Well Joomla provides the basic functionality around which a social networking framework can be constructed - for free.

On top of this framework it is possible to add interesting functionality like:

Dynamic form builders
E-commerce and shopping cart engines
Forums and chat software
Blogging software
Directory services
Email newsletters
Data collection and reporting tools

The list goes on and on.

So all of you 50-plus marketers who are looking to move into the social networking world. You have a real live example of somebody who is using open source content. As I said before, the real test is if you can create/source enough relevant content to populate the site. Dick Stroud

Wanobe – yet another social networking site

Another social networking site has hit the streets. This one is of UK origin but has aspirations for a much wider geographic audience. In the words of the site

A MySpace-type website has been launched catering exclusively to the needs of Britain’s babyboomers – those aged 50 and over – who have money to spend and are not interested in growing old gracefully.

Wanobe.com caters for a 50-plus audience whose interests range from Viagra to plastic surgery to Vespas by way of the occasional Porsche.

The website will enable visitors to find and comment on restaurants, airlines and travel, hotels, films and the theatre, match-make and date, store personal information on secure online servers, and network online. Visitors will also be able to get information on relevant health and technology issues, for example.

Geared to generate loyalty, Wanobe.com offers evolving content and, importantly, a zestful, dynamic design that avoids “mature” stereotyping.

It will be interesting to see how this site fares. The navigation bar suggests that the site promises to provide a lot of content. I wish them good luck and will return in a few weeks time to see how things have progressed. So far there is no action in forums, as you would expect. That is going to be the difficult bit. Dick Stroud

A new UK social networking venture

260 start-up businesses applied to the Seedcamp contest but only 20 were selected to a weeklong series of workshops that will include coaching from tech stars from the great and good (Oracle, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft). The three winners will be given €50,000 (£34,000) each and will stay in London for a further three months’ and have the chance to sell their ideas to established investors. Much more about this event is in The Times.

The reason for telling you this is that one of the finalists is mapleandleek.com, a social networking site for the 50-plus. I know one of the founders of the company and wish her well. This is a very positive sign that the entrepreneurial/investor community can see value in such a venture. Fingers crossed they are one of the final three winners. Dick Stroud

Boomer news site with a sprinkling of user contributed content

The founding editor of the financial news portal MarketWatch (Tom Murphy) has launched a second news venture, targeting Boomers. Called RedwoodAge.com it is a news site with blogs and contributed articles.

Mr Murphy is quoted as saying: “People over 40 don’t really care at all about the Paris and Lindsay stories; we care much more about other things, like the war situation, education and health care issues.” I suspect that might be a bit of generalisation!

The article says that is goal is to: “create an online network that links timely national and international stories with issues that connect to the baby boomer bloc, such as ways of dealing with recurring bouts of breast cancer for women older than 40, or investment advice for boomers dealing with the recent stock market fluctuations”. Phew, sounds like a laugh a minute..…

Most of news comes from wire services but this is extended with user comments and a few blogs and contributed articles.

I reckon it looks pretty good. It is a news site with a particular take on the news (to a Brit it looks the sort of place that any respectable Democrat would be happy to be seen). The question is this: “does it offer me enough value, over and above the main news sites? Do I really want me news to be pre-filtered?

I am not sure. I guess it depends on the quality of the comments and blogs.

This is a news focused site with a sprinkling of networking. It will be interesting to see how it does. Dick Stroud

Charles Eugster, 87, goes wakeboarding for the first time

Maple and Leek is a social networking company that is in its initial phases of construction and content acquisition. A couple of months back it sponsored groups of older people to try a new experience and one that is not usually associated with being an oldie.

This is one of first video clips that have been released on the company’s YouTube channel. What a character. Dick Stroud.

Do the 50-plus really want to be part of an online community?

I am sorry to be posting so much stuff about social networking but it one of the most interesting things around at the moment. Also, I am writing an article on the subject and it provides me with an opportunity to “think aloud”.

Having spent a bit of time on the Saga site I thought I would have a look at 50connect.co.uk. This site has been around for some time and had an online community long before they became fashionable. The site even encountered the problems of flaming.

I wanted to get a feel of the activity level of 50connect’s online forums and how widespread they are used by the membership.

Using the site’s search facilities I discovered some interesting things. If I am wrong then I am sure somebody will tell me.

The site has 56,164 registered forum members and contains 10,088 posts in 23 forums.

Of these forums 8 had no posts this month and 7 no posts within the last 5 days. Mmmmm. They are not a hive of activity are they.

To gauge the activity of the membership I looked at the surnames from A-H. This is what I found

Bottom line: a few members, and I mean a very few members, generate all of the activity. If these numbers are correct then it looks as if less than a hundred forum members are creating all of the posting. Surely that cannot be right?

Either - the onsite search is rubbish OR there are significant data problems OR there is a myth that these forums provide a fertile space for marketers to engage with site visitors. OK, for every contributor there will be a lot of lurkers, but how many? What is a reasonable ratio of contributors to lurkers? One in ten, one in a hundred, one in a thousand?

If there is anybody out there, running a social networking site, that can provide some answers it would be great. Out of a declared community membership of 56,000 how many people would you expect to be active contributors?

Maybe odler Brits are a shy bunch and don't like to talk online - any thoughts what the contribution rate would be in the US on eons.com? Dick Stroud

Growingbolder.com

This is a different approach to launching an oldies social networking site. Go and have a look at Growingbolder.com.

Since registering for the site I have received a couple of newsletters. Insider 1 and Insider 2

No comments to make about the creative and content at the stage, although I am sure I will. But, a big comment to make about the extensive use of video. Well done guys, if you do nothing else you have brought video to the world of the 50-plus.

One small gripe about this site (and all other sites that contain multiple video players). It is very easy, especially for those who don’t know too much about the way the players work, to have two or more simultaneous sound streams.

As you will see with Insider 2, it has an auto start with the top video player. Unless you know that you have to click the video to reveal the tool bar there is no way of stopping Marc’s jolly introduction. I am sure there must be a way of inhibiting multiple players working simultaneously. Anybody with some technical words of wisdom? Dick Stroud

SAGAzone a place to hangout?

Mmmmm not sure. SAGAzone is like all social networking areas it depends what type of person you are and what you want from an electronic dialogue.

For any readers who do not about SAGA – it is the UK’s first and by far largest company that is dedicated to all things 50-plus (finance, travel, etc). It is valued somewhere around £2 billion. Now whether that is a sensible valuation is another question, but that can wait for another day.

The site is competent. Everything seems to work but compared to eons.com it is at first base.

Some facts. Using the onsite search facilitity it looks as if there are 11,700 signed-up members. It is not clear when the thing started but it looks like it was sometime in March 2007.

Because I am a nice guy I will save you the hassle of working out how they divide by age and gender. I know there is a difference between the total numbers. I guess that is due to people withholding their age or a flaw in the Saga system.

Two things surprise me about this analysis. Firstly, the number of men – I would have expected the users to be primarily women. Second, the youthfulness of users – I would have expected it to have trended older.

What are these 11,700 people talking about? Have a look at the analysis. Again I am surprised. ‘Relationships’ is way down the list and things like Gardening, Health, Money and Technology are ziltch. Chat and Soap Box are the big traffic generators.

I am not sure what to make of all of this. All bright ideas welcomed. Dick Stroud

Eons.com makes a splash

Eons.com has issued a press release to mark its first birthday. And a very interesting press release it is. Well worth reading.

A couple of the interesting bits of information

According to Web analytics company Compete, if compared to the top 50 most-trafficked Web sites by 50-plus people, eons.com would rank No. 3 in the amount of time these people spend on the site in a single visit.

I had missed the partnership that eons had forged with Compete, which is also worth reading about. My question is: “who is ranked first and second”. My guess is AARP would be one of the sites but who is the other? All suggestions welcome.

The other item is about the most popular communities on the eon's web site.

The most popular Eons communities, each with thousands of active members, draw a clear picture of the sort of discussions and relationships boomers want online, including 50+ Singles; Hippies for Life; Six Degrees of Separation (Make New Friends); and Bookoholics.

So for all you budding 50-plus social networking entrepreneurs, this is what turns on the oldies- looks to me like sex, nostalgia plus a bit of culture.

The other thing that is interesting is that eons.com has changed its web site. Instead of going to the home page it has introduced a ‘splash’ type screen (see above). My bet is that the feedback eons was getting about its web site is that people didn’t know where to start when they arrived at the home page. I think it works. Any views to the contrary? Dick Stroud

The Techy 50-plus

This Reuter’s article is an interesting reflection on the 50-plus and their tech literacy.

If you are interested in jazz and blues music then the recording company Blue Note might mean something to you. I means nothing to me.

It appears that by the end of August the label will have revamped its Web site to become a social network and digital music store for fans of jazz and blues, rather than its current format - a simple promotional site.

The core age demographic of its customers is 35-54. Not a group that most marketers associate with digital downloading and social networking.

According to the Ipsos TEMPO survey, adults beyond the age of 34 make up about 40% of all paid-for downloaders -- twice the proportion that teens account for. They also download more songs than average: nine per month compared with the average five across all generations.

The generation gap is similar for music subscription services, where 35- to 54-year-olds represent 45% of those who exclusively use paid streaming or subscription-based music services. Interesting. Dick Stroud

Yet another missive about age neutral social networking

Thanks to Brian Scholz for highlighting an item, posted to his blog thesavvyboomer, that is dedicated to the space where Boomers meet all things Internet and consumer electronics.

Brian like me is amazed at the explosion of social networking web sites targeted at Boomers/50-plus. This is part of what he had to say.

Eons is apparently getting 1 mil clicks a month now and the 2008 candidates are staking out their territories there. But here's my question. Do we (boomers/seniors) really need or more importantly, want our own social networking website(s)?
Why can't we just carve out our own space on a site like Facebook and take advantage of all the development and investment that FB and many of their 3rd party add-on companies have undertaken?

I want access to the energy and innovation that is so vital to Facebook. I don't care if it comes from a 20-something or a 60-something.

I'm not saying that there aren't several niches that shouldn't be addressed separately in our demographic. Dating sites, health care, investing and travel are some that come to mind immediately. To my mind, even though we are a huge demographic on the internet, why are new companies trying to re-invent an already huge wheel? Have they looked at the depth and breadth of Facebook? It's huge.

I kept nodding in agreement as I read his blog.

I am in the process of writing a detailed analysis of the age neutral characteristics of social networking. I will save you reading the few thousand words of analysis and go straight to the “bottom line” conclusions.

The process of social networking is here to stay – it has been around for ages, but since it has been given a name and subsumed by Web 2.0 it has taken on the same totem symbol of sexy youth-centric technology that texting once held for mobile comms.

The MySpaces and Facebooks are rapidly changing to become multi-age, multi-interest and multi-everything, as they absorb content and stuff to enrich their usefulness. Maybe they should study the fable of Goggle and Yahoo – one retained absolute focus on its core activity and extended its offering in parallel – the other was the granddaddy of mashups and was something to everybody and nothing much to anybody.

Depending on their lifestyle characteristics, Boomers/50-plus might want to use the generic social networking features of FaceBook (as suggested by Brian). Others will be attracted to an oldie version of FaceBook. We will come back to this option at the end.

For the great majority of the 50-plus they will use social networking functionality and be oblivious to the fact. Unlike the current crop of generic social networking sites its real volume adoption will result from it being part of an interest/industry/company/activity Web site. Sit and think about it a second. Do you think any significant Web literate company in retail, travel, healthcare, and consumer electronics is not planning how they will use social networking to increase eye-fall and the networking effect of their Web presence? If they are not they should be. Please note - I would be delighted to accept a big fat consultancy assignment to tell them how to do so!

It might be a idealistic nonsense but there is a lot of thinking and going into ways of knocking down the “walled garden” of the generic social networking sites and enabling individuals to mashup their own social networking from multiple sources. Have a look at the recent announcement from Plaxo. Nirvana it might be but just imagine a totally open source social networking standard?

Let’s come back and talk about the host of oldie social networking sites that are opening up. Eons showed that it is possible to produce a decent social networking site that is not a simplistic aged version of FaceBook. So how many more eons will see succeed? I guess it all depends what you mean by the word ‘succeed’. The fundamental issue with networking sites is that they only work when you have enough rich content, provided by the site or its users, to keep people using the site. That is a great deal harder to do than it sounds. To make matters worse, you only get a short window of time to make it work. If you go to a site and it is barren of content then it will take one hell of a lot of persuasion to make you do it again.

I doubt if there will be more than one or two generic sites that achieve any true business level of success per country. There might be another 2-3 that can rub along as a small business in the hope of being purchased for their user base. Probably another 2-3 run as a cottage industry.

Just as I finished writing this blog posting another article hit my desk about this subject. TeeBeeDee (“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”) has announced its first institutional round of funding ($4.8 million from Shasta Ventures and Monitor Ventures).

This brings me to my final point. You don’t have to make any money from these sites, but for a short space of time, it will be enough to demonstrate that you might. This is where Web 2.0 has a lot in common with Web 1.0. A lot of people are still in the thrall of big numbers (76 million Baby Boomers and all of that) and see a huge business bonanza if this affluent cohort can be captured (milked). Think of it as betting. Very long odds, potentially big return, but in venture capital terms a small punt.

That’s my take on the situation. What do you think? Dick Stroud

Care.com – this is a smart idea

Thanks to Rick Hartley for telling me about this web site.

This is a great example of a Web site that has a very distinct product offering that is enabled by social networking functionality.

Care.com is a simple concept. Somebody needs a service – somebody wants to provide a service – Care.com acts as the matching engine PLUS provide the tools to improve the decision of both buyer and seller. Great idea.

In addition, the company looks to make money out of a subscription charge.

Most of the types of care are relevant to the 50-plus both as providers and sellers.

It is also worth looking at from a Web site design viewpoint. It is simple and uses Web 2.0 stuff in a supportive rather than overt way. Dick Stroud

More about mushrooms and fertilizer

Future Lab is one of the blogs that republishes some posting from this blog. It published my musings about the way that social networking sites for the 50-plus are mushrooming and one cause is the surge in traffic volumes of sites like MySpace and FaceBook.

Somebody left a comment on the blog to say they couldn't understand the connection. I thought it was worth a few more words of explanation.

Most people fall into the trap of thinking that high profile Web sites like MySpace and YouTube are the sole domain of the young. That’s a just good old fashioned youthful arrogance.

Over 40% of MySpace users are aged 35-54 and rapidly getting older. The average age of YouTube users in the US is 39 years old. Useful technology ages fast, always has always will. Have a look at my most recent blog post.

The 50-plus will adapt social networking for their own use. This might be like Eons.com (a generic site social networking site) or with the technology embedded into a vertical market site, like waitrose.com. The point is that the web literate 50-plus, who tend to be the better educated, more affluent will quickly use social networking functionality.

The final point I was trying to make, is the simplistic attraction of the 1% rule. This is when you have a large total market and you justify a venture on only requiring very small market shares. There are 76 million baby boomers – 50% (at least) are Web literate – they are a gregarious bunch and will naturally adopt social networking (say 20%) and surely we can get 1% of this group! If my sums are right that is 760,000 people. Social networking functionality Web sites are inexpensive to create (if you ignore the content!).

Bingo, I have the basis of a business case. Get the message? Dick Stroud

Ageing Web video

Like so many developments on the Web, the initial burst of enthusiasm amongst young people rapidly ripples through to older age groups. Just think that the really advanced 18 year old who thought it was the height of technological sophistication to purchase a book using the Internet will just have had their 30th birthday. eBay has rapidly (in business evolution terms) gone from being the thing of the young to the hobby/home business tool of oldies (average age of UK users must be pushing into the 50-plus).

According to data compiled from Nielsen/NetRatings, comScore and Quantcast, Web users aged 35-64 represent anywhere between 48% to 65% of YouTube's audience. The average age of YouTube US users is the US is estimated at 39 years old.

Web video is fast going to go the same way.

Pew/Internet’s recently published report (Online Video) has the latest take on the ageing of Web video. I have reproduced a couple of the charts. The numbers that really interest me are:

The comparisons on use between the 30-49 and 50-64 years olds (just a 11% difference). This about the same difference in the behaviour for receiving and sharing links with others. The difference does increase for the more complex activities like posting video links online.

The difference in the propensity of the 18-29 and 65+ to watch news and comedy videos. A ratio of 1.8 for news and 4.7 for comedy.

Instinctively I feel both of these results are right but it is nice to have a bit of research to back-up your gut feelings.

What this shows, again not an amazing conclusion, is that different ages use Web technologies for their own purposes. What starts as a generic demonstration of a technological leap (like YouTube and MySpace) soon morphs into serving the behaviour and needs of different age groups and lifestyle groups. Dick Stroud

50-plus social networking companies are growing like mushrooms – this is the fertiliser.

Anybody who reads this blog will know that I am always going on about the way that social networking web sites for the 50-plus are growing like mushrooms on a fine fresh damp morning.
This research from Comscore is the metaphorical fertiliser that is stimulating this growth. Just look at the growth rate. MySpace attracted more than 114 million global visitors age 15 and older in June 2007, representing a 72% increase versus year ago.

Facebook experienced even stronger growth during that same time frame, jumping 270% to 52.2 million visitors.

Just think if only I could capture .1% if this audience? Just think what that would be worth? And so the argument goes on. Seductive isn’t it. Dick Stroud

More does not mean better

I have just visited a 50-plus social networking site based in New Zealand. It contains some good content and the web site has a nice feel other than its size and complexity. Wow, the home page takes four screens.

More does not mean better. A bit of drastic surgery and restructuring of the navigation would greatly improve, would could be a good example of a 50-plus social networking site. Dick Stroud

What will be the UK’s largest 50-plus social networking web site?

A raft of new web sites are attempting to capture 50-plus Web traffic with the hope of translating it into 50-plus spending.

I think these Web sites are in for a shock. I don’t think their main competition will come from look-alike sites but from a very different place – companies like Waitrose.

For US readers of this blog, Waitrose is part of the John Lewis Partnership that is one of the UK’s largest retailers – Waitrose is a food retailer although increasing sells other household goods, especially electronics.

Waitrose is to Tesco (now one of the world’s largest retailers) what FaceBook is to MySpace – the up-market version.

Waitrose has just updated its Web site and added a slug of social networking functionality. All of the usual stuff; personalisation, forums, video and ‘scrapbook’ folders. All of this functionality on top of a first rate e-Grocery Web site.

It is clear that whoever designed the web site was told to make sure it is 50-plus friendly. Have a look for yourself.

- Tabs (repeated)
- Index visible on every page
- Large type
- Advanced (not complicated) search
- Big graphics

The Web site has some big 'nasties' (note to Waitrose – pay me a shed load of money and I will tell you what they are) but it is pretty good.

We have just moved from day 1 to day 2 along the social networking timeline – imagine what the end of month 1 will look like! Dick Stroud

Social networking and more social networking

Thanks to Arjan in't Veld for telling me about this analysis from Hitwise.

The analysis shows the rising popularity of three interest specific social networks: CafeMom, a network for mothers, Daily Strength is a support community for those with health issues and other life problems, and Eons is the well known site for the 50-plus.

What was fascinating about the analysis was the average session time (June 2007)
DailyStrength (26.29 mins) - CafeMom (21.22 mins) – Eons (12.05 mins)
Eons is still on an upwards trajectory.

Hitwise believes that CafeMom is appealing to MySpace users as they become parents (more than 25% of upstream visits to CafeMom came from MySpace).

What we are seeing is an inevitable fragmentation of social networking sites into a few mega sites and then loads that have a special interest focus. Is being 50-plus enough of a special interest? My bet is that is not, other than for a very, very few. For the rest it will be a cottage industry. Dick Stroud

PS

A couple of new 50-plus sites have popped up in my Google Alerts in tray.
My Plan After 50: “the site serves as a portal to information on topics such as financial planning, employment and health.”

TeeBeeDee: “was founded in 2006 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.”

Smart move by Barack Obama

Eons (the US social networking Web site) must be delighted that it is attracting the political great-and-good as members.

Barack Obama, the Senator from Illinois and Democratic candidate is now a member as is the former Governor of Massachusetts and Republican candidate, Mitt Romney. You can see his Profile and LifeMap.

It is also a smart move for these politicians to look for visibility amongst such a large and politically active demographic. Dick Stroud

The 50-plus's MySpace

A couple of days back I wrote a blog posting titled: “Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace”.

I concluded with the sentence - So what does this mean for the 50-plus? Well eons.com looks to have taken the position of the oldies’ Facebook . Who will be the oldies’ MySpace?

I think I have found the answer.

I received an e-mail from the founder of eGenerations.com saying that I had not commented about his site and maybe I would like to go and have a look. I did. I wondered why the site re-directed to seniorsgrandcentral.com and then remembered that I had reviewed the site when it launched (using this name) at the beginning of the year. It was a good idea to rebrand!

In many ways the functionality and usability of the site is good - some of it very good. The content is definitely not for me, but clearly it is for a lot of other people.

The founder of eGenerations talks about eons as being his main rival. I don’t think it is. I think the two sites cater for very different types of people.

Give it another 6 months and we will see a shake out of these sites as the successful ones (however that is defined) fragment along race, class and special interest lines. An interesting time ahead. Dick Stroud

ELDR is launched

In March 2007 I wrote an item about a magazine and Web site called ELDR that was scheduled to launch in June 2007. It has launched.

I haven’t seen the magazine but the web site looks professionally constructed and contains lots of stuff. It is far better than most of the eons look a likes that have appeared in the past 6 months.

It was interesting to note that the focus of the company has slightly changed since the March pre-launch. Then the company was about: “helping baby boomers and their aging parents deal with the challenges (and opportunities) of aging by providing the most useful, thought-provoking and trusted information available anywhere". Now it is about: “inspiring the influential 60-plus audience to celebrate the joys, navigate the challenges and discover the meaning of aging”. Maybe they recruited a different copy writer or it indicates a real change in the marketing focus.

Anyway, I wish them luck with the venture. But, I am still far from convinced about the commercial viability of this type of social networking site. Time will tell. Dick Stroud

Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace

What the hell has this to do with the 50-plus – I think a lot?

Up until now social networking sites have been perceived (idiotically when you think about it) as generic. The style, content and promotion were aimed at Yoof (other than eons and the pile of eons-look imitators) but the underlying assumption was that a heterogeneous market would be happy with homogenous places to meet and socialise.

We tend to all live spaces defined by class, race, age, and education so why would we want to meet-up in a place where most people are not like us.

Danah Boyd, a PhD student in the School of Information at Berkeley, had the temerity to state the obvious. As she says in her blog: “I suspect that this will be received with criticism, but my hope is that the readers who encounter this essay might be able to help me think through this”.

This is the comment immediately following posting the item:

Wow. ::jaw on floor:: When I posted my article last night, I sent it to some friends and academic lists figuring that it would stir a conversation. I figured that some usual suspects would read it and offer valuable critiques. I was not expected Slashdot, Digg, Metafilter, del.icio.us/popular, Reddit, and other aggregators to pick it up.

Meme flow on the web intrigues me. When I post a well-thought out, well-written analysis, I get a few thousands hits and maybe a BoingBoing mention. So far, I've received 90K hits for this latest piece, the most problematic of essays I've ever shared publicly.

Well Danah Boyd, you look a pretty smart lady to me, even if you like Michael Moore's new film "Sicko."

Social networking is social networking be on line or in the pub. There are the gregarious who want to mix with all sorts but a large number (I would guess the significant majority) who want the reassurance and benefits of being with like minded people. That applies equally to age as well as class.

So what does this mean for the 50-plus? Well eons.com looks to have taken the position of the oldies’ Facebook . Who will be the oldies’ MySpace? Dick Stroud

Only 12 Booms – bet I can do better than that

My admiration for eons.com continues. Its most recent announcement is a ‘BooM’ feature that enables users of the site to vote/recommend content.
BooM is no more than a simple voting feature but not when it is on the eons web site. In the hands of the web site’s copy writer it becomes.

What's that... there's gold on Eons? You know it...embedded in all the conversations on Eons--there are many!--there are gleaming nuggets of knowledge, beauty, compassion and humor. Before BOOM it!, they've often been hard to find. Now you have the tool to discover those treasures and let them shine. That's what's bubbling up on the Homepage! And you're revealing them. Here's how....

I just love it. Not the feature or the language but the guts to break out of the morbidity and manufactured ‘fun’ that are associated with most Boomer/50-plus social networking sites. Keep it up. Dick Stroud

Another 50-plus web site - but with a difference

Yesterday I spoke with the joint founder of overfiftiesfriends.co.uk.Readers of this blog will know that I am skeptical about the future for the numerous 50-plus portal type sites that are springing up in the US and to a lesser extent in the UK.

If a site focuses on the 50-plus age group it must add value other than generic 50-plus content and chat forums.

The rationale for this site is to provide a mechanism for over-50s to meet (both in person and online) – but not as a one-on-one (so to speak) dating site. In my view this is satisfying a genuine market need.

The business model is similar to friendsreunited.co.uk. A free basic membership and then a payment to use all of the site’s facilities.

For a web site that was created on a low budget I reckon it is pretty good. Like all social networking ventures the secret is to get to a critical mass of users - I wish its founders well. Dick Stroud

Eons launches a travel web site

Eons is the social networking site that most people follow and ape.

Well a new bit of the company’s grand vision became visible a couple of days ago with the launch of its dedicated travel web site.

If you are an 'eonsite' you better have a look. Dick Stroud

A 50-plus web site launch with a difference

On 25 May, a social networking site for the over-50s, Maple and Leek, will be launched.

On this day the company is hosing 5 events that will give 40 people across the UK the chance to try something new and challenging for the first time, from wakeboarding to sailing a race-winning Thames barge. The only qualification is that you must be 50-plus. All of the details are on the web site.

The events will be professionally filmed and participants will upload photos and blog about their adventures. Maple and Leek has the support of various guest celebrities who will be involved during the day.

Unfortunately, I cannot make any of the events but if you have the right age qualification then contact the company at angela@mapleandleek.com

It will be fascinating to see how this all works on the company’s new web site. Dick Stroud

Social networking factlets

There is something about the enormity of the Internet and its global reach that I still finding amazing. Research published by Universal McCann came up with these factlets:

More than 170 million people globally now post blogs that are read regularly by 340 million internet users –the largest audience is the US, where 64 million read blogs.

The number of people watching video clips online has doubled from 31 per cent to 62 per cent in the last nine months.

194 million Internet users have joined a social network.

Even if these numbers are 20% inaccurate they are still stunning. Dick Stroud

You never need to miss another death

You have to give it to Jeff Taylor. He is a real Trekky and boldly goes where no man has gone before. Taylor told Reuters “The death business is growing” and how right he is.

I find that I am increasingly unsure if some celebrities are still alive. This leads to me being astonished when I see them being interviewed and upset when I hear that they have been dead for the last 5 years.

My problem is solved. I can now subscribe to ObitWatch and get an e-mail when people pop their clogs.

It is worth reading this review of this feature and the eons web site by Peter Cashmore on mashable.com. Dick Stroud

Boomer dating

This article from Newsweek is a real eye-opener for a shy and retiring guy like me. Online dating is where it is for the US boomer.

Here is a sample from Female aged 62: “ Are you a gentle man ~ ~ A gentleman ~ ~ A tad bit wild (If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun) ~ ~ Do you have that elusive chemistry that will make my heart turn flips and my body get goos...”. Wow.

The next marketing idiot you meet who tells me that the 50-plus are stuck in their ways and unlikely to change, point them to Prime Singles. Dick Stroud

A plague of social networking sites

I can’t believe it – yet another new **boomer** web site.

Myboomerplace.com has hit the web to provide: “a website for persons over 40 to have a place to meet, congregate and develop new relationships with persons of similar interests”.

There must be more social networking sites targeting boomers than any other age group. Dick Stroud

eons e-newsletter

For those of you who don’t subscribe to eons, the following post is a copy of their recent e-newsletter. A bit different from Age Concern. Dick Stroud

The latest eons newsletter - see above post

Eons Insider
Summer's coming!




50 plus everything

It's time to take advantage of all that fresh air -- go walking, hiking, swimming, fishing, boating, tennis, golf, you name it! And if you have an upcoming high school reunion, you certainly want to look and feel your best.


Start burning calories now! Visit the complete Eons Fitness resource.


Start off with our new Fitness Quiz. Answering the questions will give you new ideas to get your body moving. Your responses will also help redefine fitness for people 50+.

Check out the fitness tips from our own members:


Fitness Over 50
Weight loss and nutrition
Find bicycle buddies
Walking

Among our articles, you'll find:


It's never too late to get in shape
Five reasons to get more exercise
Ways to overcome obstacles to getting fit
A recipe for body conditioning
Working out at home
Using Pilates to strengthen your core

Don't forget to exercise your brain! Play Brain Builders now:


Daily Jigsaw
Jack Kerouac trivia
U.S. Capitals trivia
Sudoku Classic

EonsTM, the 50-plus media company for loving life on the flipside of 50, is your place to tackle your adventures and dreams, celebrate your accomplishments, and make the most of today. Visit Eons.com or learn more about us.

Let us know what you think:Were here to listen; send us feedback or ask a question

Charities beware – commercial ventures can both make and lose money

I have written numerous items about the demise of the 50-plus venture that Age Concern established – Heyday.

The marketing press were quick to pick-up on the story but it has taken some time before it has hit the mainstream media. That happened in yesterday’s Observer.

I quote:

One of Britain's largest charities is facing a full-scale investigation into how it 'lost' up to £16m invested in it by setting up a company to harness 'grey power' that failed to attract enough members or make any money.

The leaders of Age Concern, a charity that represents 11 million older people across the UK, have been told by their regional members that there must be an external inquiry over the financial situation of its new membership organisation, Heyday.

The core question that any investigation must answer is this: “Was it a daft idea to create Heyday or was it a good idea badly mismanaged”?.

When the head of Age Concern addresses its members he better know the answer. Dick Stroud

New Zealand is not to be outdone

The global rush to launch 50-plus social networking sites has reached to places far away (New Zealand).

Grownups is the New Zealand eons.com look-alike.

You can read about the site in this article from the New Zealand Herald and visit the web site.

I wish the founders of the site loads of success. Is there enough advertising in NZ to support such a site? We will have to wait and see.

I am not the only person who is conscious of the 50-plus social networking frenzy. Peter Clayton (Total Picture Radio) has come to the same conclusion in his posting “Boom Boom Boom Bomb”. Let’s hope not – but I fear for many that’s what will happen. Dick Stroud

Boomers hit YouTube.

Nearly a quarter of all online video viewers are 45+, according to research from Arbitron/Edison Media Research .

Earlier research for 2004 and 2005 from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Princeton Survey Research Associates found that 58% of those who download videos were age 28 or younger – unfortunately this is the kind of ancient data that is still informing too many reporters' views.

There is a big mismatch between the stereotypes about the ‘i-generation’ being the only group who use Web 2.0 features and the reality that all age groups are using video, social networking etc. Dick Stroud

Where to retire?

Somebody will become to retirement locations what Tripadvisor is to hotels. Not sure Top Retirement will be the company, but it is a start. Dick Stroud

Spat closed 50-plus forum

50connect.com is one the UK’s oldest 50-plus portals. I have to say I have never found it very exciting, but it keeps on going, so other people don’t share my view.

I was surprised to see this blog posting saying that:” Due to some problems between some regular posters we have decided to remove the boards (forum) for the time being”.

Whenever I looked at these forums I thought they were trying to compete with slow drying paint for establishing a new world record in boredom. Clearly, things have hotted up a bit. An amusing story. Dick Stroud.

XXX launches a Baby Boomer-Targeted Web Site

When Jeff Taylor launched eons.com he ignited a Lemming-like response from would be Web entrepreneurs across the US intent on creating look alikes.

How can you go wrong – 76,000,000 Boomers – loads of them online – lots of $s to spend – we all know that Web 2.0 is the way forward – Hey Presto – deluge of Boomer portal sites.

Here is the story of another one - Drumtable.com.

My bet is that all but a couple will have closed within the next 12 months. Dick Stroud

Words fail me

Some business ideas, TV shows, foods and brands make the transition across the Atlantic and play just as well on both sides. Some don’t. This web site for Baby Boomers is one of them.

I just loved the big opening animated graphics and had to capture it on Google video for posterity.

Apparently this web site is the brainchild (I could think of other descriptions) of Wisconsin entrepreneur Herschel "Buzz" Peddicord.

Peddicord said the new venture was developed to be "the" online destination for the baby boomer generation.

As always, I wish Buzz the best of luck with his venture and will view its progress with interest. Dick Stroud

Yet another over-50s social networking web site

Another “innovative paradigm of collaborative marketing” for baby boomers has hit the street. Well that is what the press release said.

I wonder how your average baby boomer is going to find time to do much else other than click through the numerous new web sites that are sprouting up for their entertainment.

The press release goes on to tell us that Boomer-Living.com, has compiled an online powerhouse of contemporaneous articles, interviews, seminars, workshops, webinars, exercises, and other activities and opportunities. How can you not click and visit? Dick Stroud

Another day another boomer social networking site

Friday, must be about time for another social networking web site. Yep, here we go BOOMj.com.

Feeling in a good mood, with the weekend looming before me, I will dish out a bit of free consulting to the guys at Boomj.com

1. In the ‘About’ section of the web site you need a tad more than ‘Headquarters: 3753 Howard Hughes Pkwy Suite 200, Las Vegas, NV 89109’.

2. There is something strange about the way the site is using the ActiveX control MSXML5.0. It has my IE7 browser bleeping like a demented gerbil. Maybe a bit more site testing?

From a press release I learn that BoomJ is:

A Web-based lifestyle portal for a niche market serving Baby Boomers and Generation Jones. BOOMj.com provides an integrated and highly focused community which incorporates personalized social networking, e-commerce, travel, health, finance, political and entertainment news for our target market.

Well, good luck guys with the new venture. I still have a pile of concerns about the viability for the swarms of social networking sites that are hitting the Web. But, you don’t actually need to make money from these ventures, just generate enough traffic to convince others that they can make money, then sell and get out. Dick Stroud