The Graying of the Web
The September 12th edition of the New York Times ran an article of the same name in their business section. The article provides an interesting insight to the ever-present discussions of social demographics and web frenzies for younger generations. This is particularly interesting to me, since today is my 66th birthday. As a Millennial, trapped in the body of a pre-Baby Boomer, I find the article has applications not just to demographic segments and their web use, but also to my association’s membership programs. You can find the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/technology/12social.html?ex=1347249600&en=437a4c71f256da39&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Author Matt Richtel opens saying, “Older people are sticky”. He goes on to say, “Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites aimed at baby boomers and graying computer users.” Richtel notes that investors see a profitable characteristic of older Internet users: “they are less likely than youngsters to flit from one trendy site to the next.”
“Teens are tire kickers — they hang around, cost you money and then leave,” said Paul Kedrosky, a venture capitalist and author of the blog “Infectious Greed.” …“The older demographic has a bunch of interesting characteristics,” Mr. Kedrosky added, “not the least of which is that they hang around.”
Does this remind you of your association’s membership characteristics? It fits my association’s membership trends. Our major attrition period is in the first five years of membership. We find that those members who maintain their membership longer than five years tend to be members for a long time thereafter.
Here’s an interesting closing thought from the article that assesses the value of the older generation as Internet users: “…there are 78 million boomers — roughly three times the number of teenagers — and most of them are Internet users who learned computer skills in the workplace. Indeed, the number of Internet users who are older than 55 is roughly the same as those who are aged 18 to 34, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, a market research firm.
So, should we association executives refocus our membership programs from 18-34 year olds to boomers? I’m not sure my association should, but it’s thought provoking! Let’s don’t ignore any of our demographic groups, eh?
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Comments
I'm not sure that the truth is as absolute as they say, that older adults are inherently sticky and younger adults aren't.
Teens and young adults, by their very nature, age out of sites that are youth-oriented, while older adults don't age out of being older. In addition, as the number of sites for older adults multiplies, older adults will have more choices about where to hang around, and so they might do a good deal of flitting themselves.
There's actually a fair amount of research that shows that older adults aren't as brand-loyal as marketers always assumed. They grew up in a time of fewer consumer choices, so at least some of their loyalty was drawn from having fewer options if you didn't much like one or two of the main choices.
Boomers, who are used to getting the best and most prestigious of everything, might well redefine older adult marketing. If "the best" changes, and it's easy for them to export their profiles and contacts from one networking site to another, they might just do so.
Posted by: Ann Feeney | September 18, 2007 2:46 PM