Social Networks (That Are Not MySpace)
Eons social networking site targeting the over 50 years old/boomer market. “78 million Americans who were 50 or older as of 2001 controlled 67% of the country’s wealth, or $28 trillion.” More demo stats here.
They even have “the first age-relevant search engine” called Cranky.com. 8-) I can’t wait to try that out… I’m not sure if I’m surprised or not that “sex” is the top search.
Another interesting article on marketing to “boomers” here with some strategies that are working.
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iVillage has just rolled out a social networking site “for grownups” called iVillage Connect. It’s got the typical profile pages, photosharing, blogging and groups. It compliments and is the next evolution of the site’s very active message boards.
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I’m a big fan of LinkedIn.com, a great business networking site. (My Profile here.) Over the last month or two, I’ve started browsing and participating in the Questions/Answers there. 
There is some interesting collaboration, with some quality information changing hands. I’m betting many business leads come from that site.
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I’ve recently been invited to another business focused social network with more of a non-US presence, called Ecademy. Its got some interesting community, especially in the UK, but could really use some 
information design/usability help, as well as some restraint in ad placement. (My Profile here.) It’s also a paid service with a free trial period, so I’m not sure how many of the profiles are really active. Another interesting thing is that they actively offer space for audio and personal video on the site… say a video introduction to yourself.
As a boomer or business person, do you actively participate in social networks? Have you seen your business connections grow via one? What other social networks do you use?
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Comments
Thanks for the note Frank. I definitely agree with the point of single sign or more “user-centric” type social networks… right now, most all of them are “site-centric” and hold their content and community all to themselves.
I hope that someone is working on this new paradigm… 8-)
Charlie
Interesting site Sumy,
Seems very youth focused, but it’s interesting that they have brought in social commerce to the mix, and rev sharing for sales.
Takes the friends recommending to friends and word of mouth concept to it’s end conclusion, buying immediately from a friend’s site/page upon the personal, trusted recommendation.
Interested to see how that works out, as it looks like they just launched in Jun. (2009 according to the press release… 8-)
Charlie
Thanks for the post about social networks alternative to MySpace.com
MySpace.com is suitable to meet some users needs/wants, there is plenty of space of social networks serving other users. But it would be nice to have one accountID valid for several networks. http://www.mypacis.com/ and http://www.smilegrid.com/ are working in this direction, it would be great if you decide to blog about this.
MyPacis.com is a social network with a social mission: promoting peace by linking people, using an open source, international and integrated social network.