With Baby Boomers and Generation Jones (the long-lost generation between the Boomers and Xers, born 1954-1965, 26% of all U.S. adults) receiving huge media attention in Western Europe, and now increasingly in the U.S. It has only been natural that marketers flock to them like moths to a flame.
Boomers and Jonesers were both born during the post-WWII 20-year boom in births, but they were raised with very different experiences, which is why so many credible organizations and individuals have been validating the GenJones concept, and spending big chunks of cash targeting Jonesers and Boomers.
Now that they have reached the pinnacle of their spending capabilities, social networks and their advertisers are now trying to seperate them from their cash with the premise that they should connect, explore and share with other likeminded Boomers.
Having said that, we have compiled a somewhat uptodate list of sites. A quick glance through of all the sites and we noticed that some had obviously have been well-funded and designed, and that others looked more like those old subdomain tripod/earthlink/geocities sites. The top three that caught our eye were reZOOM, BOOMj and BoomerGirl. They had clean layouts, and yet were visually interesting and inviting. It made you want to drill down a little further.
http://www.myboomerplace.com/
http://www.e-seniors-village.com/
http://www.boomersint.org/
http://www.babyboomerpeoplemeet.com/
http://www.bbhq.com/
http://www.babyboomers.org/
http://www.grandtimes.com/index.html
Redwood Age
eGenerations.com
Boomer Time
Growing Bolder
Boomer Living
My Primetime
Second Prime Time
Maple and Leek (UK)
GrownUps (NZ)
Wanobe.com (UK)
Direct Marketing Observations 
A purist would dispute how many of these are ‘proper’ social networking sites. Many place the emphasis on magazine-content (produced by professional producers) rather than web 2.0 user-generated content.
One that seems successful at generating user content is iyomu.com. The communities and discussions are all relevant baby boomer conversations.
Steve, thanks for stopping by and adding your site to the mix!
YOu forgot to mention the number on site for “baby boomer women” on Google, http://www.boomerwomenspeak.com. BWS has been online for 5 years and has over 60 forums where women are corresponding 24/7.
Oops, that’s the number one site!
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Check out http://www.newretirement.com/ – mostly financial planning reference right now, but does contain an active Answers section.
NotOverTheHill, better known as “The Hill” is a very fast growing community for the 40+ crowd. It has grown to over 8000 members in just a few short weeks. Resident blogger, Thundercloud “TC”, joins over 2500 bloggers to date on the site, members have uploaded over 20,000 photos, thousands of videos and this active community has a busy forum with over 12,000 posts!
Hope you will all stop by The Hill!
http://notoverthehill.com
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As an aging boomer, I do everything I can to stay in top mental and physical shape. I would love to discuss tips with other boomers for what works for them – I’m especially a big fan of supplements. http://www.nutrayoung.com is a resource.
Hello all, I would like to share with you a new, more intimate, fun, easy to use, most definitely top notch with privacy settings website, called http://www.boomeryearbook.com
Boomer Yearbook, a Turner family creation, is based on the vision that Baby Boomers want to connect and reconnect, but in our own way and on our own terms. Boomer Yearbook is the social network designed by and for Baby Boomers, the largest, most successful and most diverse segment of the population.
We boomers wear many hats. We are leaders, mentors, cutting edge trailblazers, as well as the trusted shepherds and custodians of our families and future generations.
Our commitment is to create and grow this amazing platform and allow us all to come home.
Unite with thousands of our generation on our unique social network. Reenergize your career, fall in love, find old friends, meet new friends, share your experiences, express your opinions, celebrate the past and embrace the future.
It’s absolutely Free, Easy, Mature, and Secure. Welcome to your Online Home. http://www.boomeryearbook.com
Warm Regards,
Dr. Karen Turner
To add to your list of top Baby Boomer social networking websites for Baby Boomers, you need to add BoomerParties.com to your list, which is aimed at Single Baby Boomers.
For Baby Boomers who want to business network with other Baby Boomers, BoomerBizEvents.com features monthly business networking events exclusively for Baby Boomers.
I have to agree with Courtenay, I think the layout and design, and actual content on boomeryearbook is just incredible! It’s fun, free, and user friendly. A great place to share, explore, learn, connect, chat, blog, plus lots lots more!
Your top thirty list has Boomtowne which is closed and is missing the new and to be the leading site for boomer information and social networking BOOMSTER.COM
IN MARCH YOU WILL HAVE THE FIRST LIVE INTERACTIVE AUDITORIUM FOR REUNIONS
For those baby boomers that are retiring and have plenty of time to research their military roots, there is http://www.heroletter.com …..
Thanks Jim for adding to the list!
an eclectic mix of information geared toward the interests of boomers.
YOU forget http://www.seekboomers.com
I think it is very good~~
I like the list up there, and it is a good reference. I just wanted to get a mention of 50plusnorthwest.com We try to keep this focused on articles for the active boomer living in the Northwest.
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