Mature Market Experts

Much of the conversation this year at the 6th Annual What’s Next Boomer Business Summit in Las Vegas emphasized creating online communities and “social marketing.” One central theme last year seemed to be “content is king,” meaning; compelling information will drive traffic to your web site. This year the mantra was “connection is king.”

In plain English (not the privileged code of internet marketers), interesting information and useful resources will help bring visitors to your web site. And now more than ever before creating an “online community” where people can meet and discuss issues is essential to success.

In a number of conversations I had with attendees I heard that several of the highly funded web sites focusing on a specific group of individuals, say,…born from 1946-64, were not doing as well as initially planned (i.e., teebeedee).

Online Age Ghettos
I began to think about why it might be that online communities focusing on a specific group of people, say,…born from 1946-64, may be experiencing attrition. Then it dawned on me that “online communities” are not unlike “real communities” in that given the choice most people want to “live” in multigenerational “neighborhoods.”

The crux of the issue is at the heart of aging in place—namely, most people desire to live in communities of all ages, not just their own. They find it more rewarding and enriching.

Betty Friedan described the “problem” of age and society’s narrow definition of aging as perceived only as decline from youth. In her treatise, The Fountain of Age (1993), Friedan suggests older adults are seen by society as a “problem” to be kept away from the rest of society; not to remind us of ourselves. Housed in “age ghettos” (p. 59), older adults are segregated from the village. Could the same be true for online villages?

Betty has since left us, but the term “age ghetto” remains in the minds of most who have read her book—including mine. The concept is useful here in that “online age ghettos” may be the problem of too narrowly targeted online communities.

A web site that seems to be thriving is grandparent.com which emphasizes multigenerational connections and is inclusive in its demographic reach. What a winning formula…besides who can resist grandkids!