Is your business ignoring the Silver Surfers?

MOST social networks are generally thought of as the preserve of the Facebook Generation – young, web-savvy consumers who were born in the 1980s. And although a third of all Facebook’s users are aged between 35 and 54 – with 41% of MySpace’s audience falling in the same bracket – few websites are aimed at consumers over that.

But by ignoring older web users, many companies are missing a trick. In Britain, 50% of the over-50s have access to the internet, with one in five of these “silver surfers” saying they regularly use email, instant messaging and social networks to keep in touch with friends and family. The lack of interest in this demographic is not unique to the net; although the over-50s spend £205bn ($429bn, E292bn) a year, less than 5% of the total British marketing spend targets them.

Saga, the British company that specialises in financial services and holidays for the over-50s, is one company keen to exploit the gap online. Last week it officially launched SagaZone, a social network for its core customer base. It believes it can build on the success of Saga Magazine – with over 700,000 subscriptions, Britain’s largest subscription-based consumer monthly– and capture a new audience online.

The number of over-50s using the internet is set to rise, and existing brands like Saga can generate new revenue by moving online. But as long as the online advertising industry lazily rests on its laurels and considers itself too hip to talk to the over-50s, the golden opportunity to launch profitable websites aimed at a wealthy audience will remain unrealised.

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Source - The Business www.thebusiness.co.uk