Today I’m joining the ranks of industry experts at Small Business Trends, a respected website run by entrepreneur Anita Campbell. Anita’s experts contribute articles on trends affecting entrepreneurs; my first article examines Internet usage trends among 50+ Americans, and where entrepreneurs can find opportunities in the online market.

Boomer Internet adoption is nearly as high as the overall U.S. population. About 70 percent of adults age 50-64 are online, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That’s 12 percentage points lower than younger age groups. However, the gap will close as younger Boomers age into the 50+ market. And, as overall Internet audience composition gets more gray, we’ll see more use of cutting edge digital applications by 50+ users, including social networking, audio and video and blogs. Companies with the right content and business strategies will find plenty of opportunity to serve 50+ audiences, and the article discusses some of the most promising niches for for online launches.

Matt Dickman offers observations on the importance of targeting Boomers online at his Techno//Marketer site, including statistics from a recent study of online usage trends by JWT/Boom.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 9:19 am and is filed under Entrepreneurs, Marketing, Media, Small Business Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.