Flipside Journal

Feature: Evaluating Social Networking in New England

I’ve changed direction with my blog. I was a little naive to think I could launch the next FaceBook or MySpace (not really my intention) merely by soliciting others to engage in social blogging. Lets face it, I don’t have the programming skills, I don’t I have the financial resources and I don’t have access to the tools necessary to be successful. Or do I?

I’ve spent the last month evaluating social blogging and social networking sites with the expectation that I will ultimately define a business plan for engaging boomers and retirees online.

I’ve decided to continue my research and development and go back to the drawing board. I plan to use my blog as a journal. The focus of this journal is to continue to highlight best practices, case studies, technology and content aggregation tools that have made other sites successful in targeting boomers and retirees. I intend to share this research in an open forum and hopefully attract others to contribute. My focus is going to continue to be on niche communities that serve specific areas of interest and more importantly are attracting boomers and retirees.

The ME Generation (Boomers) vs. the GREATEST Generation (retirees)

Starting in 2011 and for each of the 20 years that follow, 77 million Americans are going to begin the process of turning 65. The good news is that there is considerable research on the social and economic impact this generation will have on our country. I plan to spend the next few months chronically the impact this will have on the Internet. In stark contrast, today’s generation of retirees are not nearly as Internet savvy as the next great wave of retirees. Online adoption is driven by many factors but can largely be measured on how easily a person can develop the following skills: email, search, online shopping, online banking, and online investing.

2006 Pew Institute Study of People over 65 in Massachusetts

The Pew Institute conducted a market research study on people over the age of 65 in Masschusetts (and other states) and they found that 50% had an email account. Out of that group of people only 30% checked their email more than once a month. As I look through research from Forrester, Proctor & Gamble and others, it quickly becomes apparent that Internet has limited use for people over 70 (email and surfing). It largely makes sense. Those of us who market and sell to retirees know that retirees are incredibly “sticky”. Once they’ve select a health plan, financial planner, health care provider or any host of other services - they are unlikely to change. The law of diminishing returns requires that we focus our advertising dollars on those who are just beginning to evaluate their choices. How should we engage retirees online and what can we learn from them as we prepare to engage boomers online?

The Next Great Wave: Engaging boomers online

The Internet offers the ability to target audiences with very specific content and on a one-to-one basis. In the B2B space TechTarget is a great example of a community of websites organized with a very specific product/service focus. Over the last 10 years they have built a multi-media empire based on the concept of content aggregation. Their micro focus has allowed them to build ad revenues in excess of $85 million dollars a year with about 4 million unique visitors per month. Each of their communities are organized around a very specific IT technology: storage, mainframes, operating systems, etc. Very little of the content they package is organic to their organization. They use a content management system that allows them to aggregate content from other publishers, community members, and advertisers.

As a content aggregator, they present and package this information to IT professionals who are involved in making purchase decisions for a very specific area of IT. TechTarget offers their advertisers the means to engage these audiences in meaningful dialogue and an opportunity to influence their purchase decisions. This is the next great wave of social networking models. Creating communities that link Consumers to Businesses in a meaningful dialogue. Arguably this exists today with sites like FaceBook, MySpace and others. Business are testing the waters in engaging these communities with their products or services. This approach is largely intrusive because these communities are not organized around commerce. They are organized around social or cultural networks.

Sugar, Inc. and CommunaSpace

Over the next few weeks I will start to present case studies on social networking sites that were formed around the concept of commerce. I will take a look at Private and Public communities that were created to connect consumers with the manufacturers of the products/services that are important to their lifestyles. I’ve provided a link to two organizations with very different business models but have successfully engaged consumers with the companies that serve them.