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Written by Marc Gamble on June 11th, 2009

Baby-Boomers Crashing the Social Media Scene

"Adapt or Die" takes hold among Baby Boomer workers

Adapt or die is Darwin’s theory of survival. Apparently, it is also a reason why Baby Boomers have leaped ahead in their use of technology.

Accenture, the research and management-consulting company, has found that getting better at the use of technology is a matter of survival as Baby Boomers are working at their jobs a little longer than they imagined.

Lack of knowledge on the job, especially one with an ever-increasing reliability on technology, can threaten continued employment.

"This professional reason is especially plausible given the stress more people are feeling to keep their jobs, and the realization by boomers that they are likely going to work five to 10 years longer before retiring," Kumu Puri, a senior executive at Accenture, said in a statement quoted in PC Magazine.

"Sharpening their technology skills is integral to their growing-older survival strategy."

For Baby Boomers the Accenture survey found:

• The number reading blogs or listening to podcasts grew to 28 percent from 18 percent, while the number of Gen Ys remained flat at 45 percent;
  

• The number watching and posting videos on the Internet grew to 36 percent from 26 percent, while the percentage of Gen Ys doing dropped 2 percent;
  

• The number using social-networking sites such as Faceboopk grew to 28 percent from 18 percent, while the percentage of Gen Ys grew to 82 percent from 80 percent.

According to Accenture, the numbers of younger people isn’t growing in these categories because they have already embraced these technology uses while Baby Boomers are only now beginning to catch up.

Accenture speculated another reason for the Baby Boomer adoption of web-based applications was to communicate with children and grandchildren who’ve already adopted the technologies.

No longer are social nets the domain of the pubecent-swilling youth and that socially awkward clerk at the Apple store – your Facebook feed now tells you that Norma’s joined a Weight Watchers group and posted some pics of the grandkids.
 

• According to iStrategy Labs, Facebook’s seen its 35-54 demo membership blow up by 276.4 percent between June 2008 and January 2009. 
   
• The 55-and over contingent grew 194.3 percent in the same amount of time.
   
• In comparison, that ever-so-sought 18-24 group bounced just 20.6 percent.

The total number of Facebook users aged 35-plus in October 2007 totaled just fewer than 845,000, while as of this past January, their combined might totals just less than 8 million – 18.9 percent of the total Facebook pie.

 
Their might extends beyond Facebook, too. More than 60 percent of Baby Boomers consume socially created content, according to a recent Forrester report.

Though they might not create content as willingly as your average 22 year old – the report notes they aren’t as likely to start a blog or upload a video to YouTube – this group of 43-63-year-olds instead wields more disposable income and constitutes a bigger generational segment. So pay attention, because they have no problem consuming social content.
 

• In Forrester’s survey, 62 percent of Boomers aged 53-63 and 66.7 percent of Boomers aged 43-52 said they could be found "reading blogs, listening to podcasts, watching user-generated  videos, reading forums, or reading consumer ratings."

 
"Boomers are not particularly cutting-edge – they just catch up later," confirms J. Walker Smith, president of Yankelovich MONITOR and coauthor of Generation Ageless, a book chronicling how Boomers live today. Smith compares the surge of Boomers logging on to social networks to when Internet access gained steam in households in the late ’90s. As then, with AOL, the user-friendliness of today’s social networks is key. "It’s all about easy of access. Boomers weren’t doing lots of complicated things online but being engaged and keeping in touch."

Smith says social networks particularly appeal to nostalgia-loving Boomers because they allow them to connect with friends of the past. Doing anything more than basic networking with old high school buddies, however, might be pushing it for your average Boomer, who Smith says gravitate to "things that require a very small modicum of tech savvy." Photo and video uploads, for example, may be a bit more daunting than an easy interactive quiz application.

Facebook and MySpace aside, who better to cater to these emerging social network addicts than AARP? The nonprofit advocate for the 50-and-over contingent revamped and relaunched its Web site – including an online community boasting 400,000 registered users – last spring. Community membership is free to anyone (even if you’re not a half-century old, for you granny-grabbers), and members can create personalized profiles with the ability to post photos, video and blogs. And according to Elly Spinweber, AARP’s senior manager of media relations, older community members are getting their bearings just fine. "More than ever, our users are becoming more comfortable talking to each other, creating blogs and commenting on articles." Spinweber says.

AARP’s community, a sort of Facebook-message board hybrid, has differentiated itself from the bigger social networks, Spinweber says, by encouraging its users to create and interact in groups (2,000 and counting). Spinweber singles out two groups as being the most popular right now – unsurprisingly, their content is of particular importance to an older audience. In "The Singles Perspective," users who have become single again can connect with each other, talk about their experiences and meet new people, while "Create the Good" gives users ideas for volunteering in their communities, whether they have five minutes or five hours to spare.

Group action aside, anyone with a grandparent knows they sure as hell don’t hesitate to tell you what they think. In fact, in 2008 Forrester found that just over a third of Boomers aged 53-63 will react to social content. Last year, financial services giant Charles Schwab polled 4,000 individuals to gauge how different generations approach retirement. At its microsite called "Rethinking Retirement," Charles Schwab invited users to "tell us what you think" by completing a 12-part survey that would allow them to compare their answers to those already polled.

By way of the survey, a forward-to-a friend application, social tagging and widgets, the company ensured social interaction. "We focused on delivering helpful guidance with our interactive content … in ways that address visitor concerns and in ways Boomers are currently receptive to interacting with content," says Matt Hurwitz, Charles Schwab’s director of public relations. He says the company aimed to strike a respectful tone with the site – especially when engaging this audience in a conversation about retirement and their hard-earned cash.

So while life may indeed seem to be over for those whose moms have just joined Facebook, it’s only just begun for mom herself. With all this networking going on, isn’t it just a matter of time until Boomers jump aboard the Twitter train (which has only just hit the mainstream itself)? "I think there’s an open question of whether Boomers will become engaged with Twitter," Smith says. "They haven’t engaged with blogging. It might [take off], but there’s reason to think it won’t."

Just remember – they’re the complete opposite of early adopters. "Boomers complain about the size of the keys on a Blackberry or iPhone," Smith says. "That’s what old people talk about."
 

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Tags: baby boomer stats online, baby boomers, babyboomers on facebook, facebook, myspace, social media, social media with babyboomers

2 Comments at "Baby-Boomers Crashing the Social Media Scene"

Dealing WIth Economic Issues February 21st, 2010 (#)

Personally, I am glad to see baby boomers rise to the occasion. It is just too sad to see them working at McDonalds when they really want to be building a legacy for their families.
Dealing WIth Economic Issues´s last blog ..Baby Boomer Men Facing Unemployment Lines in Record Numbers

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Marie Leonard February 28th, 2010 (#)

The social scene is just rocking with boomers who have found a new lease on life. I’ve looked at it but am not enthralled. Many say that you can market to that market if you know how to. I do know how to but not sure if I want to.

There are other avenues that are much quicker.
Marie Leonard´s last blog ..Baby Boomers Concerns Keep Them Working

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