In 2011:

Those of us over age 50 will respresent 25% of the population.
In that same year it is estimated that the US population will be
12.5% Non-Hispanic Black and
14.8% Hispanic origin

Marketing Implications:

If you’re starting a business, you should consider products and services that appeal to the over 50 population.
And if you’re already in business, we’re still a worthwhile target market.

Check out

A Profile Of The Baby Boomers Market And Their Potential As Buyers

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

“The popularity of some social networks will decline as business owners insist on owning their community’s content. Tools such as Facebook, Ning and KickApps are great because you can form your own niche community. However, with Facebook banning people for unknown reasons and with intrusive ads on Ning and KickApps, more and more business owners will turn to social networking tools that they can host on their own server so they can avoid these problems. I see Buddypress rising in popularity and alternatively, I see Facebook, Ning and KickApps declining in terms of page views. Look for Buddypress to become the small business owner’s social networking tool of choice in 2009.”

I’m still working on getting up to speed with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like.  And how to best use them for marketing and making money. And, I was totally unaware of the problems with Facebook.

Now there is a new frontier / social network I have to explore.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

Leesa Barnes is an award winning blogger and critically acclaimed author who helps businesses get active using social media in 3 simple steps. To learn how you can become Marketing Fit, visit http://www.marketingfit.com to get your complimentary eCourse called the Marketing Fit Detox: 3 Ways to Get Rid of Fattening Marketing Tactics for Good Using Social Media.

I sent the following to my personal list. It felt so good, that I decided to share with my blog reading friends. Accept this as my wish for you. Please enjoy some of the lyrics to the song “I wish you love”.

I wish you bluebirds in the Spring
To give your heart a song to sing
And then a kiss, but more than this,
I wish you love!

And in July a lemonade
To cool you in some leafy glade
I wish you health, and more than wealth,
I wish you love!

I wish you shelter from the storm
A cozy fire to keep you warm
But most of all, but most of all…
When snowflakes fall, I wish you wealth
I wish you health…I wish you love!

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

I mean I do have an information technology (IT) consulting company, Noble & Associates Consulting. However, I like to say I am a non-techie techie. My company does business analysis, project management, documentation, training, change management, and process improvement / re-engineering. And, we’re the cure for “Post Implementation Distress”. So we deal with business issues related to technology.

Noble & Associates Consulting also provides ERP (enterprise resource planning) and other enterprise wide software system implementation services from a functional perspective. We bring business background and knowledge, and we can write technical specifications. In order to do that, we must have the ability to understand and coalesce both business speak and computer programmer / developer speak.

I heard one of the gurus of social networking, Sherry Heyl, speak on Web 2.0 at a Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) event. Had I not already been investigating the subject, I really would have been lost. But I accepted her invitation to connect on Linkedin anyway.

Then I attended SoCono8, this past weekend. It was organized by Sherry Heyl, CEO and Idealist of What a Concept! Community, Jeff Haynie, co-founder /CEO of Appcelerator, and Leonard Witt, Kennesaw State University’s Fowler Distinguished Chair. I did finally get clarity on what an “RSS feed” was and what a “tag” was. Then there is something called a “tag cloud”, which I would probably never use. To the uninformed, it looks very unprofessional and looks like garbage.

My take away from that was that social networking was just another method for connecting, developing relations and finding out the interests of prospect and with people in general. There were people of all ages at the SoCon08 un-conference. The twenty-somethings were definitely represented, but there also a good number of grey hairs. The were lots of people with business –to-business (B2B) companies. And back to Judy Mod: She did say one of the ways in which folks are using community is for pre-credentialing their company prior to RFP release for public sector projects. So that relates to business-to-government (B2G). I found I knew some of the SoCon08 attendees from other business / technology networking groups and events. I even met a lady looking for someone to do a SAP (ERP) interface!

OK, so I’m beginning to like this community.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

Once again I made an attempt to actually use the networks. My initial experience with DirectMatches was horrendous. I got all these emails saying “I’m just introducing myself” and by the way, they had an eBook to sell. This network also has a network marketing flavor to it. I was told by my “upline” that there were people out there with real businesses. I’m interested in business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) business prospects. Preferably with annual gross revenues of at least $200k. Don’t have time for DirectMatches training on how to use the network.

The assumption is that the network is composed of like minded people. Many are consulting their social networks for advice and recommendations. I was hoping that joining network would somehow save me time and/or facilitate marketing and closing deals. Am I misguided?

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC