Social Seniors

When you saw my title, did you assume that I meant seniors as in senior class gift? That post will be up shortly as we are clearly entering "that" time of year to begin the annual conversation about what a senior gift is, what it should support and how you go about soliciting it.

At this time, I want to talk about the other seniors - folks who graduated into the school of life more than 60 years ago. We all assume that social media are primarily for the young but the numbers clearly show otherwise with last year's third and fourth most visited pages on the web for folks 65+ being facebook and youtube (read the complete article supporting this point at mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/12/10/seniors-online-habits/ )

Take a look at your presence on those sites through those eyes - are you providing content that would be of interest? For the vast majority of schools that I looked at (including my own) the answer is a definitive no. Yet for most of us in the fundraising world, this group remains the bread and butter of our donor base. As the fastest growing age group - looking at you boomers - this is something that it is in our best interest to address, but how?

I suggest creating a simple ad on facebook soliciting that information and then target it through the ads tool to your alumni in that age group - link it to a page that provides a unique experience and survey for them, including asking for them to serve as a volunteer base for building this further. Simple, cheap and engaging, social media is not just for the young, but for the young at heart.