Good news and bad news for older people online (aka 'Silver Surfers' )

Much as I dislike the term ‘Silver Surfer’,   it is one that is still in common use and is used to signify ‘older people who are online’. Today, it has been used by both the Express and Telegraph:

-          The Telegraph has announced the closure of Saga Zone

-          The Express covered a new business for ‘silver surfers, and has a used a few quotes from an expert source aka me!

This co-incides with the imminent launch of our online consumer discussion forum (info@agepanel.co.uk)

1.      Saga Zone to close

Saga Zone – the online social networking forum for people over 50 run by Saga – has been closed.  An announcement on the website states that it will close on February 26^th. The reason given is the amount of ‘controversial and offensive’ content posted on the site by members, which is seen as a threat to the Saga brand.

In the Telegraph today, more specific reasons are given and a spokesperson for Saga is quoted as referring to ‘racist, homophobic and anti-semitic or anti-arab’ comments. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ianmcowie/100022685/racist-jibes-prompt-saga-to-scrap-its-social-network-facebook-for-the-over-50s/

Seen by some as a rival to FaceBook, but for older people, Saga Zone is claimed to have had ‘many thousands’ of registered viewers but only ‘low hundreds’ of regular contributors. This ‘conversion ratio’ is what one might expect – but given the massive popularity of FaceBook the absolute number of users seems surprisingly low.

Data released by FaceBook last month claimed 27 million users in the UK,  30% of whom are over aged over 50. So why such low numbers for Saga Zone? One of the reasons for this could be that most people prefer to do their social networking on an ‘age neutral’ basis. ‘I think I’ll talk to someone my own age’ is rarely high on our agendas, while ‘I’d like to talk with someone with similar interests’ probably is.

As to whether or not older people are any more or less less politically correct than any other age group - let's leave that subject for another day!

2.      ‘Striking gold with Britain’s silver surfers’

In the Daily Express today, Maisha Frost looks at a new IT business servicing ‘older’ IT users, putting this in the context of  a ‘mature market’ which is large, growing and under-served.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/375809/Striking-gold-with-Britain-s-silver-surfers

She includes wise remarks and comments from a ‘specialist in marketing to mature customers’ – someone called Mark Beasley, of marketing agency rhc advantage.
 

3.       New marketing research online community for older people about to launch

rhc advantage is about to launch Age Panel, an online community for ‘expert’ consumers aged 45 and upwards. This is intended to provide a forum for experienced consumers to share their opinions with each other and with sponsoring brands and businesses. Please contact info@agepanel.co.uk for more information.

For more information on marketing and mature audiences, please contact Mark Beasley – mark@rhcadvantage.co.uk or visit www.rhcadvantage.co.uk