We’ve been giving quite a few talks in several organizations these days.
One thing I’ve noticed a lot is that after we finish and people come talk to us, there is always a common factor:
They have their eyes wide open on the possibilities that a little online marketing could do for their business, and they are excited about that, but they quite often come with a line like this:
This is all so great but I’m from an older generation, I’m not too much into computers, if only…
My feeling is that because traditional media talks a lot about MySpace, Facebook, Second Life, YouTube, many times just showing very young people doing something funny, boomers feel they don’t belong there.
I always tell them, this is not true, that boomers are heavily online and doing good business. Actually, people up to 65 are heavily online. Most of them are not putting Mentos in Coke bottles. They are promoting their business, connecting, creating relationships with prospects and clients.
The tools online today are easy to use and people just need to be educated to use them.
People need to be educated on how to consume podcasts, use online video for business, participate in wikis.
That is up to us, info marketers and heavy users. We just need to show them that it is actually pretty simple today.