Baby boomers and social networks, a love story.

Baby boomers, or post WWII babies, have apparently discovered social networking and many other online applications, according to a recent survey by Accenture. As reported by Junko Yushida in a EETIMES.com article,  the management consulting firm reported that  there has been a 67 percent increase in baby boomers reading blogs and podcasts and an increase of 59 percent in the use of social networking sites. Clearly these statistics show that a small amount of people were originally involved with these things and all of a sudden the number increased, which still shows that baby boomers are a fast growing contingent in the use of social media. The study claims that the reasons for the increase in use are staying up-to-date and remaining connected to family.

An article in USA Today by Marco R. della Cava quotes various baby boomers’ reasons for using social networks and other social media. One gentleman used social networks as a means of recovering his lost communication abilities because a stroke inhibited his ability to speak. Other common reasons included sharing unique interests (Nascar, BBQ, moms raising teens) with a wider audience than would be possible without social networking. Of course the most common reason for anyone to join a social network is to reconnect with old friends.

The older one gets, the more old friends one accumulates, social networking is the idea way to continue those friendships.

Social networking via wireless handheld devices (cellphones)

Social networking has become an addiction that has taken hold of the generation that grew up with the Internet. Posting pictures, videos and information about ourselves has become second nature, rarely do we question this everyday fact of life. It is natural for the trend to travel to the most common instrument of technology: the cellphone. You cannot leave home without it for fear of not being connected with the world. The major cellphone carriers now offered ways to keeps people even more connected! Applications for social networks!

Blackberry offers apps for Facebook, flickr, myspace.

iPhone offers 157 applications in the Social Networking category for application. The most Popular are Facebook, IM+ for Skype, eBuddy Lite Messenger.

Verizon wireless offers 16 applications in the Community and Sharing section of the products available for phones. The most popular applications are designed to share photos.

These applications have been modified to fit the smaller screens but still function in the exact same manner as on computers.

Here is an interview with a programmer that aggregates social networks on cell phones at CES 2009.

IBM blogging, guidelines and such.

The articleby Justin Allen, “IBM’s blogging policy increases engagement” was delivered to me by my subscription to Ragan Headlines! Thanks Ragan!

This article was particularly interesting because IBM is an enormous technology company, having been one of the original computer companies it has expanded into every aspect of the Internet and computer technology. As such a huge company it is very difficult for employees to communicate with each other and their bosses because of the structure of the company and the multitudes of offices around the world.

Ethan McCarty, the editor in chief of IBM’s intranet wanted to hear more from employees so he set up a wiki with the employees that he already know blogged and asked them to help set up guidelines for blogging. The employees obliged and a set of guidelines was created and sent to employees in every sector of the company so they could have the opportunity to blog. It worked. Using these guidelines the company has started conversations throughout the company that have been productive.

1. Blogs, wikis and other forms of online discourse are individual interactions, not corporate communications.

2. Identify yourself

3. If you publish a blog or post to a blog outside of IBM

4. Respect copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws.

5. Don’t provide IBM’s or another’s confidential or other proprietary information.

6. Don’t cite or reference clients, partners or suppliers without their approval.

7. Respect your audience.

8. Find out who else is blogging on the topic and cite them.

9. Don’t pick fights,

10. Try to add value.

IBM bloggers are all available in the IBM blog directory for reading within the organization and for the public.

In this video, Ethan McCarty further discusses IBM’s blogging policy and how it has benefited the company.

Have you BBM’d today?

The phenomenon of having instant messaging specifically designed for the Blackberry platform has taken cellphone interactivity to the next level. Blackberry BBMs are conversations in Realtime.

Urban Dictionary defines BBM as “Black berry messenger (noun)
To black berry message (verb) can be used “to bbm”
An instant messaging application on blackberries where you can see if the message has been delivered, when it was delivered and if the person has read it.

The example of how a BBM is used in conversation is:

Alissa: Hey I bbmed you yesterday and you never answered!
Me: Oh, I never got your bbms.
Alissa: Yes you did! Don’t lie, I saw on our conversation that you received them.
Me: Darn, I wish I didn’t open that bbm!

Blackberry users can connect with other Blackberries by exchanging pin numbers. The network is different from the traditional network used by text messages.

The BBM is the evolution of the text message. The text message was the evolution of the instant message. The instant message was the evolution of the email. The question becomes, what is next? As technology allows more interactivity it is fun to wonder what can possibly evolve from instantaneous conversation.

Banks get interactive

Now that the economy has officially tanked, with much blame placed on the banking sector, banks are beginning to rebuild. They are doing so by rebuilding the relationships that were destroyed with the failure of the subprime mortgages. The loss of houses and real estate has put banks in a very bad position. So what are they going to do?

Banks are beginning to use the easiest and most effective tools to date to create interactive relationships with customers. Social Media!

Banks in the Asian Pacific have begun a three-step plan to entire more young people to use these new, forward-thinking banks, according to the article “APAC banks tap new tech for Gen Y” in ZD Net Asia. A study by IDC’s Financial Insights saw that there will be much more focus on online and mobile banking that will include aspects of social networking, blogs and podcasts.

ING Direct has created an entire social network for first time home buyers, which will presumably be used by the younger generation that actively participates in social networks. The site is set up around forums and advice columns. This is all reported in the article, “Banks target social networks like Facebook.“

Micheal Aranta, a senior manager at Financial Insights Asia-Pacific stated how the banking industry must think to gain the trust of the younger generations: “Ultimately, banks should realize that the battle for the Gen Y segment can be won, not by simply building on top of traditional strategies, but by using innovation to respond to preferences that make the Generation Y unique from older generations.”

Those preferences can be summed up in one word: interactivity.