baby boomers and social media

the iPad

i’ve never been a gadget girl. but lately i’ve been soliciting conversations with strangers when i overhear them talking about being part of the 300,000. the 300,000, that is, who will pick up their iPads this weekend.

“are you getting one saturday?” i’ve asked several folks. when i find someone committed to buying this iPad, i immediately break out into a full fledge conversation. i explain that while i’m getting an iPad, i don’t plan to use it as a gadget. instead it will be my outside communication device. i then go on and on about how the one and a half pound weight of my new toy (i mean, important business tool) is easy on a woman’s back.

at home, i spend numerous hours in geek-like behavior, researching everything there is to know about the iPad. it’s amazing to see me, this woman, who has never even set up her previous phone or computer functions, now reviewing all of iPad’s capabilites.

nonetheless, my macbook pro will be missed. what will i miss about keeping my laptop at home? first, i’ll miss the opportunity to video skype calls to loved ones far away. now my day calls will be made via old school audio. i’ll also miss the ability to use a spare battery as the battery in the new iPad is not removable.

my biggest concern about the new iPad is wondering how difficult it would be to write on a device that lacks physical keys. can i learn to maneuver touch keys with comfort?

nagging doubts about the IPad won’t deter this new fan. what i’m most excited about my upcoming iPad purchace is having the ability to see a screen without lugging around a computer. i’m at the stage in life where reading glasses have become a necessity. i wish i could remember that fact every time i leave home without them. while i love my iPhone, i don’t like squinting while sending a text or navigating online. with the iPad, i’ll never have to worry about text being too small. nor will i be caught in my handbag fumbling around for reading glasses. what this means for baby boomers and seniors is that we can do away with our reading glasses in public other than a quick glance at a restaurant menu. what a cosmetic treat!

saturday morning can’t come quickly enough for me.

i wanted to let folks know about a great blogging workshop i attended.

media bistro charged $65 for a 3 hour workshop in washington, dc that covered blogging basics. their instructor, johnica reed, was worth every penny. johnica was quite impressive. at twenty something, this harvard grad created a great career for herself as a travel writer and lifestyle expert and blogger for several well known companies. most impressive was johnica’s ability to capture this boomer’s attention for the entire three hour period.

highlights of new blogging tips for me to consider included learning to pay attention to when i post to my blog. in the past, i’d proudly throw the post right out there as soon as i was finished. that time frame was usually some crazy hour in the late evening or on the weekends. “bad times,” said johnica, who advised the class to post during the heaviest traffic times. when i asked her what those times would be, she suggested 10am on a weekday, right after a person has come to work, checked their messages and doesn’t want to work yet so instead goes to their facebook page. mmmm, that tip was worth it’s weight in gold (i did notice an increase in traffic when scheduling subsequent posts for morning hours).

the class was given tips on what to write about, told the top blog subjects, and advised to combine the top blog subjects to create a specific niche blog.

johnica’s view of how often we should be on various social media platforms: fb at least once a day, linkedin at least three times a week, twitter at least three times a day and blogging at a minimum of once a week.

dear johnica lost me when she schooled the class on foursquare, the new “location centric social network” game that all the youngins are playing. i will never be the “mayor” of a location for checking into a restaurant or bar and announcing my location at different hours of the day and evening to the the online community. when i complained about whether we should make ourselves so readily available to the world, a sweet looking 20 something year old turned around and said, “it’s a generational thing. we grew up with these devices.“

we’re living in a world where people going out to dinner start the meal w/texts, tweets and picture taking of the food. a woman like myself prefers the old fashioned way of taking in the ambience and enjoying a good evening without the intrusion of social media enabling gadgets. still, it’s good to know all the extra stuff you can do if you have 24 hours a day to play (or be payed for) using your mobile communicators.

check out johnica’s class the next time she breezes into town. that may be a while. i believe she’s blogging from thailand this week…

i’m starting my week by attending a class tonight hosted by media bistro on blogging and social media essentials. i smile to myself because time flies. last april, i was vacationing in curacao and saw a t.v. interview with laurel touby, founder of media bistro. the company has made a name for itself by offering on-site and online classes, providing job postings and industry blogs covering the journalism and public relations industry. two months later i headed to nyc for the 2009 media bistro circus, which was a two day forum exchanging ideas with social media experts.

i knew when i attended that first conference that i was on to something new. from day one i was overwhelmed by my ignorance about so many areas in the field of social media. compounding my ignorance was my surprise in seeing that there were very few minorities and baby boomers in attendance. i was surrounded by several hundred, mostly under 30, non suit wearing folks who seemed to actually understand the latest technological advances made in the field. my head was swimming with information. by day two, i broke from the gathering with a headache and decided to skip dinner for a nap.

after that conference i paid much more attention to everything related to the field. i knew that it was no longer cool to hire a young upstart with social media finesse to manage the social media areas of my projects. after all, how could i effectively monitor what they did for my clients if in essence, i didn’t have a clue myself?

tonight, however, it’s a whole new ball game. in only eight short months, i “get” it. i went from severe frustration to having fun with this technology. i find myself spending several hours each day reading about the latest developments in social media, actively participating on several social media platforms daily and preparing workshops for clients who want to learn how to get up to speed on the basics of online communication. while i know there will be a lot to learn this evening, i am also sure i’ll be much more clued in about the basics of this particular course.

so there’s no terror in my heart, like there has been so many times in life when i’m doing something new. in fact, this formerly anti techhead can’t wait to get to class and learn all i can. i’m even excited to see how much of a review the class willl will be for me.

a change has come. the theme for this past month’s social media week in nyc was “shift happens.” i like that because i know it’s happened to me.

let me begin by saying i’ve never considered myself to be a real baby boomer. i’m a vibrant, active, 45 year old who can pass for a woman in her mid 30’s on a good day. but according to baby boomer stats, you are a bona fide boomer if you were born between 1945 and 1964.

those of us who belong to this illustrious group haven’t been as active in social media as we should. many of us didn’t grow up with computers in the home or school. my high school class (proud graduate of troy high, class of 1982) was the last graduating class without computer training. as a result, i was always averse to anything computer related. years later when social media first came into the picture, i felt terrified. since social media is a major component of what i do as a public relations consultant, i had to become more engaged in the technical world. that, or i’d be looking for another career. i love what i do. this meant making myself open to the often confusing ways of cyberworld.

friends who are my age congratulate me on making strides to understand the world of social media. i tell them all the time that we are no longer doing something special when we decide to become participants in online conversations and collaborations. in fact, many boomers are quite active in social media.

jennifer vangrove, an associate editor at mashable blog, summarized the findings of the recently published boomers and social media report produced by eMarketer. here are some highlights from the report:

47% of all boomers have created and maintain a profile on at least one social network. 10% of us actively twitter.

even the seniors are getting into the mix.
36% of the “matures,” (people between the ages of 63 and 75) now maintain a profile on facebook. and for reasons that haven’t yet been figured out, a full 17% of these matures who use social media are twittering.

so what does this all mean? it means that if you’re my age or older and not engaging in social media, you are no longer the great majority. i would bet that in the five months since this report was published, the number of boomers who read, create and share online content are now in the majority.

i begin each day with the goal of learning at least one thing that can help me navigate the social media waters. many times i get frustrated because there’s so much information out there and it’s easy to get confused. but here’s the thing. social media isn’t going anywhere. and pretty soon, if we don’t commit to learning the basics, we could find ourselves out of the loop.

don’t get left behind.