Harmonic Aftershock

Facebook boom is over for Boomers?

Earlier this week, Inside Facebook released usage stats covering activity over the past 60 days for the popular social network. Last November I blogged about my own experience with the Facebook tipping point noting the seeming surge in boomer joiners. And then just 3 months later, this past February, Facebook announced Women 55+ was their largest growing segment. 

But does the latest data show that they’re not sticking around?

 

Out of all of Facebook’s demographic segments, there was a decrease of over ½ a million repeat users 55+ over the past 2 months. After reading the comments both on the Inside Facebook blog as well as Josh Catone’s related Mashable post, the speculations as to the reason run the gamut. Some cite the complexity of Facebook for non-digital savvy natives while others point to a more seasonal usage of the social network especially around the holidays when families tend to connect more often.  I personally lean towards the latter especially given the surge in usage around and after this past holiday season.

Should this be a cause for alarm that our boomers are falling out of love for Facebook? No. It’s too early to make any definitive conclusions.  And to what degree does it matter? As my colleague @Stevebags pointed out, the most active (and thus repeat) users of Facebook are going to continue to age and eventually be the 55+ demographic for which Facebook (or social networking) is as much of a way of communicating as the telephone has been for our Boomer generation.

The only question is whether or not marketers, today, can effectively reach the current 55+ demographic on Facebook (or related social networking sites) given the inconsistency of their current usage trends.

NightTline: One Step Closer to Web/TV Convergence

One May 11th Mashable’s Ben Parr posted about ABC’s announcement to launch a new 30 minute online-only news show incorporating Twitter. NightTline (2nd “T” is for “Twitter”) has now had 2 webisodes – the first covering “Torture” and the second honing in on “Veterans”.

As I watched, I was glad to see ABC embracing social media. At the same time, CNN has been integrating Twitter in a similar way for months now into their live TV broadcasts. And as Nielsen just reported, TV viewing is still insanely dominating web video viewing.

What also ran through my head is that while we all seem to get giddy about social media going “mainstream”, view participation in live programs has happened for many years via the telephone (remember that thing?). Larry King is a great example of this. The difference (and where the “social factor” comes in) is that unlike the “call queue”, everyone can see (and reply) to viewers commenting on Twitter in real time – and that’s where the conversation really takes shape.

A decent first step by ABC despite it being a bit clumsy and awkward. I would like to see much more interaction with the various Tweets (it seems that only a few are referenced during the 30 minute show which is billed as a “Twitter Web Show”).

“Give me the simple life.”

I was reminded of these lyrics from Steve Tyrell while on the tram, with 2 of my colleagues, at Newark airport this morning. While feverishly replying to emails on my MotoQ, I happened to catch a glance of a guy dressed very casually pointing us out to his female companion. While obviously whispering to her, he made air gestures of “tumb typing”. I looked over at my two colleagues who mirrored my self-absorption into their own mobile devices. We were like 3 emotionless drones all acting in unison.  To an “unconnected” observer, I could understand why the sight was a bit ridiculous and comical.

I’ve become all too accustomed with the fast-pace of my life and the way in which technology has completely converged with it – I’ve welcomed that to happen. Like many of us, I get restless when I’m not connected.  Yet just 10 years ago, none of us were digitally enabled the way we are today – and in 10 years from now, we’ll look back to right now and probably laugh at how archaic it is.

But It takes encounters like this morning to remind me that it’s important to slow it down every once in a while, just for a bit, to enjoy  “the simple life” for that very moment in time.

Life’s One Constant: Human Nature

In his book Meatball Sundae, Seth Godin says, “Human nature hasn’t changed a bit. What has changed is the environment we live in.” and in Groundswell, Charlene li and Josh Bernoff say, “People have always depended on each other and drawn strength from each other.”

The fact is, people have opinions and need to share. The hype about social networking is due to the fact that it’s something that resonates with the very core of who we are in our ever constant “escape from aloneness.”  Social media represents a perfect harmonic marriage between communications technology (the changed environment) and our fundamental, simple, and very natural instincts (human nature).

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 A segment on this morning’s Today Show (above) does a great job bringing this point home.