By Rieva Lesonsky
The Boomer Project, an excellent resource for anyone whose business is seeking to market to baby boomers, recently took a critical look at the frequently-reported news that baby boomers are turning to social networking sites in droves.
“We don’t share in the excitement that Boomers and older adults are truly smitten with social networking sites for three reasons — one anecdotal, one based on psychology and one based on the math,” write the authors.
1. In the last few years, they point out, a dozen or so social networking sites for boomers have started … and died. Eons.com is the only one that’s still around, but it has opened its user base to all ages (plus, it’s got the Monster.com founder behind it). One thing boomers don’t want, it seems, is social networking sites just for them.
2. The authors cite Stanford psychologist Dr. Laura Carstensen, who has studied changes in the aging brain. Based on her research, she has a theory that as people age, they get more—not less—choosy about whom they socialize with. In most cases, aging adults limit their social interaction to those they know will be pleasant, and don’t waste time on interactions that may not pay off.
Of course, younger boomers may not yet be at that stage. Perhaps that’s why some studies show that a large proportion of Twitter users, for example, are 45-plus. But for older boomers, they’re just not as motivated to spend their time on social networking when they can interact with their existing social circle using methods they’re familiar with (letters, phone calls, e-mail or even face-to-face) and get just as much of a payoff.
3. Social networking sites have cited some impressive numbers, such as Facebook adding nearly 1 million users age 45-plus in September alone. But keep in mind that in the same time period, Facebook added 1.7 users in the 18-34 age group, and out of Facebook’s total users, just 13 percent are age 45 or over.
While I think these are interesting points, I’m not totally persuaded. For one thing, I know plenty of boomers who are actively and eagerly using social media tools. However, the majority are using them for business reasons—not for personal socializing. That would explain why they’re not limiting themselves to boomer-focused sites. And if you’re using social networking for business, point 2 above wouldn’t apply—people seeking new business are looking to widen, not contract, their social circle.
As with everything else in business, you need to do your own research and determine how social media tools apply to your own goals, resources and customer base.
