TV competing with Internet for attention

The advertising market has really been feeling the squeeze lately and in this credit crisis there is some evidence of cut backs already.  The interesting contradiction is that people seem to be watching as much TV as ever – despite the amount of time being spent online.

The new Ofcom report on the International Communications Market is very revealing on the multi-tasking habits of TV viewers who are also Internet surfers – some 74% of UK Internet Users surf whilst they watch TV – and 28% do it most times.

Facebook unexpectedly appeals to all ages

I’ve been singing the praises of Facebook recently (despite the Microsoft investment) simply because it’s great fun and after a start with college age kids it has gained massive momentum with those of us way past that stage in life. So imagine my surprise when I come across a debate (albeit based in the US) in Publishing 2.0 about the age factor for online social networking.And then I find a great article (this side of the pond) in Times Online called “Forget Facebook – this is social networking for the silver surfer”. There is apparently a new wave of online social networking for the more mature web user and at the forefront of this is Saga, the travel-to-insurance company that specialises in serving those over the first flush of youth. A trial run of the Saga Zone website started four months ago and about 13,000 people signed up.

Now it is live and we will see how it grows. On it, those over their half-century can find forums on subjects ranging from gardening to relationship advice. They can enter their personal profiles and hope that a like-minded mature citizen will respond. What the site clearly trades on is that maturity is not in every case the handmaiden of contentment. Contact with the outside world is a necessity at every stage of life, and romance does not necessarily die with the sprouting of the first grey hair. Andrew Goodsell, the group chief executive of Saga, said: “The internet is a place where the over50s are thriving. Saga Zone is a place where they can mingle and chat about issues important to them, be they amusing or serious.”

Already, the Saga Zone website has signed up an 87-year-old. A poll of more than 15,000 people aged over 50 in the United Kingdom showed that the so-called grey pound was a significant driving force in the online economy. Nearly three quarters of respondents had bought flights online, a similar number had bought books, and two thirds had bought electrical items. I love the way these survey findings support this natural selection of social netorks.

• 50% of over-55s have access to the web
• 7% look for love online
• 22% play games such as bingo
• 43% regularly buy and sell on eBay

Facebook, the fun side of Web 2.0

I’m reliably informed that the term Web 2.0 was first coined at an O’Reilly Media conference in the States in 2004. According to Wikipedia Web 2.0 “attempts to define a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies….which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users.”

In 2006 “You” was awarded Time Magazine Person of the Year, in praise of the accelerating success of on-line collaboration and interaction by millions of users around the world. Wikipedia was the first particular Web 2.0 service mentioned, followed by YouTube and MySpace. Over the last few months Facebook has become the No.1 social networking tool in the UK. Latest stats from Alexa (www.alexa.com) show that the site is now second only to Google, and in the last few days Microsoft invested $240m for a 1.6% stake, valuing the firm at $15bn. What next for Facebook? Who knows really? But let’s remember the root of its success is that Facebook is for fun. It was created by and for college kids, and now it has extended to those of us who didn’t grow up with the Internet.

Have a go – it’s easy to set yourself up with an account. Just go to www.facebook.com and click on ‘Sign Up’. If you haven’t yet tried it and you want to practice by adding a ‘friend’, feel free to search on Bill James and give me a ‘poke’ (don’t worry, it’s a Facebook term for attracting someone’s attention). Now even as an older, business-minded generation sign up, I continue to insist this is a network for fun and I like to use it to joke with, and keep in touch with friends. If you feel you want to mix work and pleasure there are some business-related tools amongst all the goofy comments and photos available to members. For example, Facebook makes it easy for anyone to start their own group on whatever topic they like, so businesses can create a company events board, staff intranets, recruitment forums and even customer feedback areas. For a small fee, users can post surveys on any topic and make them available to the Facebook network of their choice – a great market research tool for companies targeting the Facebook demographic of 25-40 year olds. Users can also post events free of charge, invite all their friends, and publicise them within their network and groups. As well as creating a company group with recruitment functionality, companies can also use Facebook to headhunt. Looking for a C# Web Developer in Belgium? Go into the Belgian network and search with C# in the ‘job’ field, and see what you can find. And what about LinkedIn and Myspace? Well not only is Facebook overtaking Myspace but my kids tell me that never really worked for them as teenagers anyway. As for Linkedin, well it is a great business network and useful for making professional contacts – I use it a lot and find it really useful but it doesn’t keep me engaged when I visit the site. The reason for that is that it’s very functional but really quite boring – and who wants that even in business?

Ten things you didn’t know about Facebook:

1. Oxford University proctors have used it to monitor the activity of their students

2. There are over 34 million Facebook users worldwide – the largest group is in London

3. It is the second most visited site in the UK

4. A recent survey found that 43% of UK employers block access to Facebook

5. A court ruling in September ‘07 means that members’ profiles could soon be available to search engines

6. 41% of Facebook users are willing to divulge personal information to strangers

7. Facebook holds over 1.7 billion photographs

8. Miss New Jersey was blackmailed by someone using photographs she had posted to Facebook (involving pumpkins)

9. A university in Pennsylvania denied a teaching degree to a student for allegedly promoting under-age drinking on her Facebook profile

10. Facebook has only been available to the general public for 13 months