Presentation at 2009 Boomer Business Summit in Las Vegas.

1. Boomers Online: Social
Media Comes of Age
Matthew Lees, Patricia Seybold Group
Boomer Business Summit
Las Vegas, NV
March 19, 2009
© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

2. Is this What All the Hype is About?
Page 2
© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

3. Social Media is Like…
• “Social media is like water…”
• “Social media is like ice cream…”
• “Social media is like the Matrix…”
• “Social media is like punk music…”
• “Social media is like working out…”
• “Social media is like speechwriting…”
• “Social media is like a box of weather…”
• “Social media is like a Mr. Bubble Pool Party…”
• “Social media is like visiting a good hair stylist…”
• “Social media is like Bam-Bam [of the Flintstones]…”
• “Social media is CB radio (& Twitter is just one channel)…”
• “Social media is like recess…”
• “Social media is like the seventh grade…”
• “Social media is a lot like high school…”
• “Social media is like parenting…”
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

4. Social…Media, Networking, Technology
Email Profiles
Blogs Ratings
Forums Reviews
Chat/IM Rankings
(reputation)
Wikis
Tagging
Podcasts
Kudos
Videos
“Most
Ideas
popular…”
Wisdom of
Crowds
People + Content + Tools + Opinions +
Goals Page 4
© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

5. Snapshot: Social Networking Services
Service/Site Founded Members Countries Other Information
LinkedIn 2002 37 million 200 Half outside US; execs from all F500
Plaxo 2002 20 million
Ryze 2001 500,000 200
Spoke 2002 40 million 2.3 million companies
Bebo 2005 N/A AOL (2008)
Facebook 2004 175 million
Friendster 2002 90 million 90% of traffic from Asia
Hi-5 2003 80 million 200 Latin America, Europe, Africa
Orkut 2004 Google; 50% Brazil; ~ 4% Boomers
MySpace 2003 > 100 million
Twitter 2006 ~ 6 million ~ 55 million monthly visitors
Flickr 2004 Yahoo (2005); 3 billion images
YouTube 2005 Google (2006); 100+ videos/day
eHarmony 2000 20 million ~ 236 marriages/day
Match.com 1994 15 million 37
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

6. Boomers, the Internet, and Social Media
• >90% of Boomers use email
• 70-80% of Boomers are online
• Boomers make up ~35% of the Internet population
• Since 2005, broadband access for Boomers has tripled (still only
in the 50%-65% range)
• About half a million Boomers have Twitter accounts (8-9% of ~6
million)
Source: Pew Research Center
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

7. Boomers, the Internet, and Social Media
Source: Pew Research Center (Pew Internet & American Life Project) January 2009
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

8. Boomers, the Internet, and Social Media
Source: Pew Research Center (Pew Internet & American Life Project) January 2009
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

9. Facebook Stats
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

10. Orkut Stats
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

11. Goals/Benefits to the “Sponsor”
• Awareness Google is your Home Page
– Buzz/PR/Branding
– Education
– Lead-Generation
• Information, Knowledge, Insight
– R&D
– Marketing Messages
– Publicity (early warning)
– Competitive Landscape
• Customer Loyalty, Satisfaction
– Long-term Relationships
• Revenue
– Direct Sales / Upsell
– Referrals
– Advertising and Sponsorship
• Savings
– Support (e.g., call deflection)
– PR (see above)
– Customer Insight (see above)
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

12. Social Media for Marketing & Customer Service
Promotion
Service/Support
Brand Management
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

13. Social Media for Brand Engagement
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

14. Social Media for HR
Page 14
© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

15. Social Media for Brand Engagement and PR
8,000+ videos
$57K to winner
Brand engagement vs.
headaches
Page 15
© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

16. Social Media for Market Research / Product Development
Quality vs. quantity
Infrastructure to support the
program
Taking action and
communicating
Page 16
© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

17. Social Media for Marketing (Awareness)
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

18. What’s Not New about Social Media
• What Is New
– Scale (Many-to-Many)
• Network Effects
• Customer Visibility
– Ease (Low-Cost Technology + Connectivity)
• What’s Not New about Social Media
– Human Behavior
– Human Needs
– Good Business Practices
• What’s Essential
– Jumping in – Being part of the conversation
– Understanding needs and providing value
– Being authentic and transparent
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

19. Goals/Benefits to Customers
I want to…
• Strut my stuff
• Express myself
• Find answers
• Solve problems
• Learn
• Get access to experts and insiders
• Help others (and feel good about it)
• Find out about things before everyone else
• Help me do my job (better, faster, cheaper…)
• Connect with others who have similar needs and interests
• Have fun!
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

20. Examples of Boomer Customer Scenarios
I want to…
• Learn how others are using a particular new medication.
• Connect with others who are caring for an elderly parent.
• Educate others about my experience with a surgical procedure.
• Make smart financial decisions (learning, saving, investing, etc.).
• Have an impact / make a difference / share my experience.
• Pursue the hobby I have been putting off.
• Get travel tips and ideas.
your
omes from helping
Your success c
• Meet someone.
s ) be
ospective customer
customers (or pr
• Find a job. …
ing their objectives
v
successful in achie
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

21. Boomers Contributing through Social Media
# of Posts: 6,224
# of Files Created: 51
# of File Downloads (in past 30 days): 7,732
Average Rating (scale of 1-5): 4.7
File Exchange Rank (3,539 members): 17
~ 20 hours/week
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

22. Boomers Contributing through Social Media
“I retired a few years ago. When
I did, I thought of doing some
sort of charity work; perhaps
Habitat for Humanity. But I
realized that the best thing was
to use my skills in mathematics
to teach others. While I'm not
bad with a hammer, I'm
arguably very good at
mathematics…”
“So what I do is multi-fold…
• Review submissions on the
File Exchange.
• Submit my own tools as I
find time to develop them.
• Answer questions on
optimization, modeling,
curvefitting, splines, and
numerical analysis in general.
•Answer questions that arrive
directly from e-mail.” Page 22
© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

23. Boomers Contributing through Social Media
“All of these things have some
teaching aspect. I'd like to see
people learn to write high quality
software in less time than the
years it took me to learn. When I
review a submission, I try to go
into great detail on what is
wrong, what can be improved,
what I like about it.”
“I learn stuff
“And of course, its always
all the time.”
nice to see when one of my
tools gets a reference in a
doctoral thesis or a paper or
book somewhere. Really
though, I just see what I do
as a way to give back to the
world, now that I can do so.”
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

24. Boomers Sharing their Stories
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

25. Boomers Sharing their Stories
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

26. Boomers and Social Media (1)
CATEGORY BEHAVIOR APPROACH
Media Awareness Old-media savvy; more aware of Think long-term relationships, not (only) campaigns
being marketed to
Ask (for content, input, data, etc.), but be
transparent, provide value, take action, and
communicate results
Consuming Content More comfortable consuming than Make it easy not just to search, but also to find
creating; grew up on analog media what they’re looking for
Creating Content Will create when (a) it’s easy, and Provide a low barrier to entry; make everything
(b) there is need/value quick and easy (but not simplistic)
Lean toward being more articulate Boomer content is higher value content (SEO)
(slower, higher quality)
Reach out to active users and influencers
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

27. Boomers and Social Media (2)
CATEGORY BEHAVIOR APPROACH
Social Purpose More willing to help others (“do Provide ways to let Boomers help others (answer
well while doing good”) questions, solve problems, share experiences)
Social Identity More context aware; less Respect privacy; ask only for information that has a
comfortable mixing private and purpose for them; give them control over their
public, personal and professional identity (esp. who can see what)
Social Interactions Grew up with face-to-face; build Make it easy to find others and share content
virtual networks more slowly (more (within and without); reach out and touch someone
incestuous?); value personal
interaction
Social Currency High premium on reputation and Support credible reputations and trusted content
trust; take seriously
giving/receiving recommendations
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

28. Challenges
• The Network Effect
– Value prop comes from the size of the network itself
– Cannibalization how many networks and communities can people
realistically participate?
– Don’t have to DIY
• Organizational
– Social media is extremely cross-organizational
– Common hindrance: organizational culture
– “Shared” control (not “loss” of control)
– Relatively inexpensive, but still takes financial and human resources
• Fear of “Undesirable” conversations
– Legal and PR risk
– Relationship risk (airing dirty laundry)
• Measurement and Attribution
– Can be tough to identify clear ROI
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

29. Key Takeaways
• It’s still new, but it’s not going away; join the
conversation
• Adoption among the 78/79 million Boomers
will only increase (both social media
consumption and creation)
• Business is still business
• Google is your home page
• Help your customers/prospective customers
succeed in their goals
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group

30. The Patricia Seybold Group
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Matthew Lees
Patty Seybold
mlees@customers.com
pseybold@customers.com
Twitter: @mlees
Twitter: @pattyinboothbay
“Outside Innovation is a landmark book in its revelations
on customer-led innovation.”
-- Tom Stemberg, Founder/Former CEO of Staples
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© 2009 Patricia Seybold Group