The chart (below) shows the visit share by age for the big four social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. And the age breakdown of the (US?) online population.

As eMarketer has noted, “The average age of Internet users is rising in tandem with that of the general population.” It appears so far Facebook is the online social network that most closely mirrors the age diversity of our offline world. Twitter continues to appeal to GenX and GenY. And LinkedIn continues to be an excellent if underappreciated network for reaching 55+ adults – 57% of users are baby boomers or beyond!

I was surprised to see Google+ have a larger audience over the age of 55 than Twitter, but on second thought its design and functionality is so similar to Facebook, it might feel more comfortable to older users.

Stat #8 wasn’t a surprise to us. As Dougherty writes, “Facebook” is the most searched term in the US and Facebook-related terms account for 14% of the top search clicks.” We shared that insight with a team of social media marketing ambassadors from a leading continuing care retirement community just two days ago. It was terrific to see their excitement for how the network could promote deeper relationships with their senior prospects and adult children.

If your organization needs help turning social media stats into social media strategies, please check out these related posts (or give us a call – we’d love to help).

RELATED POSTS:

• The Face(book) in the Mirror is Getting Older
• Can Twitter Drive Sales with Older Generations?
• Mature, Affluent, Educated and LinkedIn
• Gaining Boomer and Senior Marketing Insights from Social Media

MOST CLICKED:

1. Does Google accurately guess age and gender:  Fun article that explores Google’s privacy announcements by testing if this internet search giant can accurately guess your age.  An informal survey within the article of the author’s colleagues found some interesting results in the age category, however the ISP was more able to effectively identify interests was fairly accurate.   Here are few of the age misses the article shares:

• Women aged 24, 25, and 28 were estimated to be men aged 25-34.

• Men aged 30, 41, and 29, plus a 39-year-old woman, were all found to be boomer or seniors aged 65 or older

Try it for yourself

2.  Great Ad Age article that explores the recent disclosures from Paula Deen regarding her health and the impact to her credibility as a brand.  As marketers this piece presents a reminder of how personal a brand is to boomers and seniors and the inability to distinguish (in this case) the person from the brand.

WORTH REPEATING:

A beautiful story in the Huffington Post of caring for senior parents with Alzheimer’s and the grief experienced by all it touches.  Experience a glimpse into the story of one woman as she helps her senior mom deal with a beloved father suffering from this disease.

OVERHEARD (and too funny not to share):

Woman:  “I noticed you limping, is anything wrong?” Gentleman: ” It’s a degenerative issue with my joints that is just too hard to pronounce.  The initials are O.L.D.”

1. MOST CLICKED: Poor photo choice – unprofessional, young – for a press release about marketing to professional baby boomer women. http://bit.ly/w43h1Z

Do you agree with our critique of their image? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Do you worry that your own photography may not be doing the job with baby boomers and seniors? To learn how you can spend less money and see more results with the right photography, download our free eBook – “Photo Finish: Images that Motivate Mature Consumers” – today.

Photo Source: Sirius Bark by Temple3

2. What influences changes in aging brains? 24% of mental #aging due to genes (Wall Street Journal) http://on.wsj.com/y2hPvP

3. MOST SHARED: Apparently consumers use QR codes for the same reason kids touch hot stoves: to see what will happen http://ow.ly/8wSgY

Related Post: A Q&A about QR Codes and Baby Boomers http://bit.ly/yF3yqF

And here’s one link that should have captured more clicks:

Five Ways Content Marketing Connects Brands & Customers (@1to1media) http://ow.ly/8uHBA As Anna Papachristos writes for 1to1Media:

“Joe Chernov, vice president of content marketing at Eloqua, defines content marketing as ‘the art of creating, distributing, and measuring share-worthy content that grows and engages an organization’s audience, while deepening affinity for the brand.’ But as this ‘share-worthy content’ expands in terms of form and delivery, content marketers need to blend old and new tactics to keep their content effective and engaging.”

Some of Papachristos’ five ways may be new to you; others, helpful reminders.

1. Encourage Sharing – with short-form content that engages targets in conversation
2. Solve Problems – with content that is informative, not self-promotional
3. Re-Use and Re-Purpose – to extend the reach of each piece
4. Observe and Report – “Content marketing isn’t about simply dumping a glut of articles or videos online; it’s about strategically presenting customers with particularly
   applicable information at crucial points in the buying cycle.”
5. Serve It Up Social – leverage social networks to extend the reach of your content … and your brand

If you found this content relevant, we hope you’ll use the tools provided to share it with your networks. Thanks!

By far the most shared post was Gaining Boomer and Senior Marketing Insights from Social Media. Find out what messages/strategies are hitting (or missing) the mark. Todd Harff recaps a number of resources that can be extremely helpful in determining and leveraging boomer and senior social preferences and behaviors, including  LinkedIn’s which allows you to see what is generating the most interest segmented by industry or group.

Other Top Tweets:

1. Santa’s Senior Secrets- An infographic chock full of not only holiday cheer but stats on seniors the world over.

2.  Baby Boomer social media revolution: More and more boomers flock to sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  How will you reach them?

3. Seven reasons direct mail and print remain effective marketing tools.

4. Interesting article via @AllThingsAging examining the rise of Ethnogeriatrics within diverse communities.

TOP TWEETS THIS WEEK

1. Holiday homecomings may last a long, long time for Baby Boomer women. Mostly driven by the recession, they’re now housing their adult children and don’t anticipate packing them up any time soon. http://bit.ly/u2VETl

2. Free social media tools your brand should be using to research baby boomers  and seniors bit.ly/vJnNeG

3. Retirement: Busy, but a different kind of busy. http://exm.nr/tTFTv5

4. As people put off moving into any type of senior housing, senior living providers are finding those entering are “significantly older—and in need of more care—than they were several years ago” reports Senior Housing News.  http://bit.ly/slWBXe

5. Featured by SocialMediaToday.com: Gaining Boomer and Senior Marketing Insights from Social Media by @CreatingResults ow.ly/1g6UNC

And a tweet that should have gotten more attention because these are words we can all live by … From Laura Fitton (aka @Pistachio, thought leader and the author of Twitter for Dummies): “Just in case you forget, sometimes http://ow.ly/i/n0AH“

And today’s boomers and seniors are absolutely telling marketers what works – and what doesn’t – in motivating them to buy a product, sign up for a list, join a club or take other actions.

You just have to know what to ask and how to listen.

Unfortunately, many organizations working to attract or motivate older adults aren’t taking advantage of new, digital research methods. Why? I addressed three main reasons in my presentation:

1. Misconception: seniors and boomers are not online or expressing their opinions online
2. Fear: digital research requires costly, specialized tools or platforms
3. Cloudy vision: not seeing the gold to be found in the marketing platforms and services already in use

Didn’t make it to ICAA 2011? Never fear. 

All this week I’ll challenge the obstacles noted above. Posts will share actionable tips for following your customer’s lead. I’ll include lists and links to resources available to organizations of all sizes. And I’ll look to you to lead us to your favorite resources via the comments below.

Mature Market Research 2.0

Thanks to the wild and wooly world wide web, market research has gone from formal and established methods to insights that are often offered informally … sometimes without research “participants” even being aware of what they’re sharing. Data has gone from a hard-earned trickle to a flood. As Tom Webster says, we’re now “drowning in numbers.”

For example, mystery shopping has long been a terrific but time- and person-intensive way to see first hand how sales teams interact with prospects. Or to spot potential turn-offs at an active adult community or destination.

Today, you can mystery shop without ever leaving your keyboard. Want to find out why people leave your floor plan page without first signing up to receive a brochure? Program a quick poll to ask that very question of web visitors. Curious about your sales team’s performance? A few quick web searches for your brand name plus “customer service” can let you know what customers really think.

But Baby Boomers … Seniors … Older People … Aren’t Online, Are They?

Yes, Virginia, there is an older and wired consumer. In fact, the Internet population in recent years looks more like the actual population.[link to another post of ours]

And per Creating Results’ Social, Silver Surfers research we know baby boomers and seniors are expressing their opinions as they interact with websites and social platforms. We found that 36% of 40+ respondents had voted or ranked items online, 25% used comments or message boards to share their thoughts, and 21% had posted a user review.

Voting/Ranking, Blogs, Message Boards and User Reviews are most popular with older Baby Boomers. This mirrors their offline preferences. They love to talk and share; there is value in a peer’s opinion of a product or service.

And that’s just the information they’re volunteering. In the Wall Street Journal’s terrific series “The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets,” reporter Julia Angwin writes “… the tracking of consumers has grown both far more pervasive and far more intrusive than is realized by all but a handful of people in the vanguard of the industry.”

While all this can seem scary, there are big benefits to moving to market research 2.0:

* For consumers, they get more relevant content, better customized experiences and time-saving short cuts

* For marketers, you can be more targeted, more cost-efficient and more effective

Tune in tomorrow for ways you can enjoy these benefits by following your customer’s lead online.

1. MOST CLICKED: “What if we cherished our elderly as we worshiped youth?” Hi-impact video from Rogerson Communities.  Thought provoking look at the value of services and care of #Seniors.  Click here to see the full video.

2. MOST SHARED: 27% of Virginia #babyboomers & 19% of VA #seniors say they’re not financially ready for retirement ow.ly/7wGmV.   Informative survey into the insights and perceptions of #boomers.  Other interesting results include 68% #seniors feel prepared for impact of aging and 42% say their communities are ready to meet the needs of that process.  See the full report here: www.olderdominion.org.

Actionable tweets of the week:

1. Blah, blah, blog, #blog: Takeaways from BlogWorld conf from which all can benefit ow.ly/7sDEm

2. Study: radio has positive impact on all stages of purchase funnel ow.ly/7tWPn Chart w/ % lifts ow.ly/7tWSF

3. Understanding paid vs organic search, & why to think LEFT for better results (@tedives) ow.ly/7sEBv

4.Something to think about: Leading retailers commit to paid search, email & SEO in 2012 ow.ly/7sLRG What are your priorities?

5. Shameless plug of the week (and shared case study): Case study on another CCRC website that increased leads from 5/mo to 25/mo after re-design ow.ly/7sAWh

We’re honored that nearly 1000 people choose to follow and share our tweets. But, despite the rapid growth of Twitter, we know a lot of people interested in marketing to the mature consumer aren’t yet using this social/micro-blogging platform. Pew Internet & American Life has estimated that 13% of online adults use Twitter while 92% use email.

So, we’re introducing a new blog feature. Every Monday, we’ll bring you those tweets that were most shared/clicked/actionable/discussed during the past week. All with greater detail and delivered straight to your inbox.

Top Tweets This Week:

1. MOST CLICKED: Elderblogger Ronni Bennett (www.TimeGoesBy.net) tells the editors of the New York Times to stop using the word “elderly” and perpetuating ageism. http://bit.ly/sPr98L

2. MOST SHARED: Associated Press & LifeGoesStrong Poll: Baby Boomers prioritize living near adult children or family (73%) over living in a community with people “of your own age” (27%) in retirement. http://prn.to/tlHMtT

3. We love this idea from the LeadingAge 2011 Conference: Elie Wiesel promotes partnerships between children and elders in nursing homes. http://bit.ly/rKZcVl

4. We have @ChuckNyren to thank for this chuckle: 40 things that make old people happy … according to the stock photography so many organizations draw from. http://bit.ly/sRNKNa

(When you’re ready to invest in authentic photography that will move the sales needle, be sure to download our eBook with national “Photo Finish” research.)

5. Using Facebook for social engagement? You need to know that Facebook is showing your brand messages to more people, but fewer times. AdAge: http://bit.ly/s9tgbC

6. A new AARP surveys finds baby boomers and seniors are worried about today and tomorrow – specifically their own financial well being. http://bit.ly/uQ1d80

7. Do you want to reach Gen X and baby boomers? Consider radio advertising between 6a and 9a. Research from Magid Associates gets broken down at http://bit.ly/tTqGB8

Tell us what you think of this new feature! Use the comment section below or … Tweet @CreatingResults. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

* Nationally, the over 45 population has grown 18x more than the under 45 population. We can thank the Baby Boomer s (born 1946-1964) for this. As they have shifted into middle age, so has America.

* The median age in each of the 50 states has gone up. The increase in median age is most notable in the Northeast, where the average person has gone from 34 years old to 39.2 years old. Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut now rank among the oldest states – hello, New England! West Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania round out the top 7.

* Texas, the Southeast and the Intermountain West have moderated the effects of the aging population thanks to immigration and migration of young adults attracted by healthy, diversified economies.

* The Sunbelt has seen the biggest growth in its over 65 population, and the senior population is growing in states not typically associated with retirement.  As Frey put it, “Areas that show growth in these seniors, due both to ‘aging in place’ and migration, are likely to benefit from their above-average economic attributes.”

* And, there is a “senior explosion in the waiting” in areas – again, the Sunbelt – where Baby boomers attracted by weather, knowledge-based economies and college towns have been moving in the past decades.

* When the Baby Boomers were actual babies, they were likely suburban babies. These were the areas where young families bloomed.  When they had their own families, they raised them in the suburbs.  And now, they age in place.  Fully 40% of the suburban population is over 45.

What do you think these statistics mean –for marketing, for health care, for your business?  Are you adjusting your plans based on these population trends?  Please share your thoughts below.