Innovation Science

Plaxoed Again

I just received an e-mail from Plaxo saying that my LinkedIn connections can now automatically be added to my Plaxo contact list. After years of Plaxo’s customers asking Plaxo to team up with LinkedIn (including me), it’s finally here.

This is a big deal. Maybe a tipping point for Plaxo? Hope so! Anyone who is in business and relies on connections has no excuse now not to join both companies.

As a side note: Come on, I scooped Plaxoed on this?

The Social Networking Boom(ers)

The latest Fast Company has a short article on the rising importance of social networks. The focus of MySpace and other social networks have been on Generation Y, typically those people under 25. Advertisers have been complaining, however, that revenue hasn’t been as large as expected with this group, with users more interested in sharing favorite music, photos and gossip rather than purchasing targeted products.

I think that the next big social network is going to be the one that captures the attention (and money) of the aging population, particularly retirees. One-quarter of all internet users are over the age of 50. By 2011, the 65–and-older population will be the fastest growing age group in the US. This is a group that loses a large part of their social network when they quit working. They also start exploring pastimes more fully with their newfound time. Their mobility begins to decrease, reducing their ability to maintain social networks among friends in-person. Finally, they are wealthier than Generation Y and would probably be better customers for targeted advertising—who purchases more items from the QVC channel, those over 60 or those under 20?

The numbers are compelling for this group as an emerging market. According to the US Census Bureau, the number of people aged 18–24 will increase by 11% over the next ten years while over the same span the number aged 65 and older will increase by 32%. Boomers are going to be unlike any other generation of retirees: demanding, technology savvy, always wanting the best for themselves, unwilling to sit idly in their golden years. As an article in the March issue of Fast Company stated, the aging boomers

will bring an avalanche of new social challenges, cultural norms, and business opportunities. With a huge increase in the number of older consumers, entirely new entertainment, culture, and news markets will open up--film, television, books, and Internet sites pitched more to the Matlock set than to the Eminem crowd.

Finding the right approach that resonates with this group will be the key to success. What will they want to talk about? What tools would improve their social networking experience? Probably not the ability to share new-found music. The user interface and design will have to be drastically different from what we see in today’s social networking sites. Not only do the interests and tastes of this generation differ from the younger generation using MySpace, mental and physical capabilities differ as well.

Designing the right approach to a Boomer-oriented MySpace will not be obvious for 20– and 30–something programmers who can no longer rely on their own instincts for what will work, what is important and what is “cool”. But the potential for successful market capture with this aging population is huge. The question is how, and who will be the first with the properly-designed MySpace equivalent.