Some people have the knack for keeping their long distance relationships vital and alive over time. Sadly, apparently I do not. It's not that I don't treasure my friendships. I have had confidants, best friends, soul mates in every city along the way. (And while I believe myself at heart to be a nester, following my and/or Dan's ambitions have often taken precedence, leading us on a series of moves over time.)

In 2000, Prof. Robert Putnam released a book that made the headlines, called Bowling Alone, The Collapse and Revival of American Community. In a nutshell, it discusses how Americans have become less connected from family, friends, neighbors and their communities. Bridge clubs and bowling leagues had been replaced by crickets and tumbleweed. We had experienced a loss in “social capital,” or connections among individuals, impoverishing lives and communities. At the core of social capital theory is the idea that social networks have value, both personally and for society as a whole.

"For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog"

Marketers of all ages: You can not truly grasp the boomer ethos unless you view the four-disc DVD: “Hiya, Kids: A ‘50’s Saturday Morning.”

Sure, you’ve seen still shots of Howdy Doody—or perhaps snippets of one of the first and most famous of the children’s shows to ever hit the tube. But unless you sit through an entire episode, you will miss many of the nuances that helped form boomers’ outlook on life, our expectations of how things should be, and how amazingly well we’ve both contributed to and adapted to changing times.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

“Are you on Twitter yet?” The question came to me from a fellow boomer, who was part of the in-crowd on the “what’s next” technology frontier.

“Twitter is way cool, but what I’m really into now is Yelp,” I replied.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

It seems despite all the newly baked books and freshly sprung boomer-focused marketing tips, people continue to raise one question: how do we really reach the boomers, particularly boomer women, who make many of their household’s purchasing decisions? Words like “touch points” and “psychographics” are casually thrown about in brainstorms, but often with little headway. For many, the breadth of this demographic is just too daunting.

For the rest of today’s blog, continue at the Boomer Blog

By now you are probably aware that the baby boomers are online in droves. Women 55 and older are the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook. They are social networking, sharing photos, and even twittering in an effort to stay connected to their friends and loved ones.

At aging conferences I use to attend, some people would cringe at the conference sessions that centered around older adults and sex. And in my mind the titles of the sessions, always hazy and euphemistically stated (e.g. “Going into the Garden after 70”), only reinforced the associated stigma. Shhhhh, they said. Older people aren’t supposed to have sex anymore. Let’s keep this discreet.

By Guest Blogger, Stephen Reily, CEO of VibrantNation.com, The largest online community for women 50+

We’re all familiar with the dated stereotypes that keep many mainstream companies from delivering Boomers the products they really want. But even when companies succeed with innovations that defy those stereotypes, there is another challenge that can deny Boomers access to their products: Retailers who don’t know where to put them.

I was reminded of this phenomenon recently at the Silvers Summit conference (focused on technology for Boomers and Seniors) at this year’s giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

By Guest Blogger Stephen Reily, Founder of VibrantNation.com.

Vibrant Boomer women are responsible for more book-buying than any other demographic, but new research suggests why Apple and Steve Jobs may not get their book business, even the ones who buy iPads.

At the recent Annual Conference of the Specialty Information Publishers Association (SIPA) James McQuivey of Forrester Research shared some research with interesting implications for Boomer women readers – and good news for Amazon.

As at most recent media conferences, the iPad was on everyone’s minds at SIPA; and it was the first conference where I saw several presenters use iPads to deliver their PowerPoints.

The iPad has had an unbelievable launch. 2 million have been sold in just two months. And Steve Jobs reports that iPad owners have already downloaded 5 million books (which may include 1 million copies of “Winnie the Poof” offered free with the device).

We are in a new iPad era, one in which even Jobs’ inflated claims for the device may come true. Forrester projects that consumers will buy over 58 million iPads by 2015 – a lot more than 30 million e-readers (including Amazon’s Kindle) they project will be bought during the same period .

Bad news for Amazon, right?

Not exactly.

McQuivey noted that consumers repeatedly strongly e-readers like the Kindle for reading lengthy and linear content like books; what’s more, it’s easier on the eyes and can be read in a great variety of places than the iPad (like outdoors). About 30 million Americans read more than 2 books each month, and many of those are Boomer women. For them, the e-reader and Kindle will remain a relevant device.

Even better for Amazon is its decision to let the Kindle be an app as well as a product. And the Kindle app has sold half of those 5 million books downloaded onto iPads to date.

Amazon has done such a great job of capturing book readers, and so many readers are so used to Amazon, that no one will quickly beat Amazon as a book retailer. Steve Jobs won’t want to admit it, but Apple will not be unseating Amazon as the most relied-on source for books, even for books bought from Apple itself. Combine that with the fact that selling through Amazon is a lot more profitable for publishers (and authors) than selling through Apple, and Amazon’s dominance as the Vibrant Woman’s preferred source of books is likely to continue to a long time.

Few things remain the same in book publishing , consumer electronics, and media these days. But a few things are likely to remain the same for many years:

• Boomer women will remain the most reliable and profitable consumers of books in any format.
• Boomer women will end up reading more of their books on e-readers (many of which will probably be $99 devices that aren’t branded Kindles).
• Amazon and Kindle will sell more of those books than anyone else.

This content is provided courtesy of Stephen Reily of VibrantNation.com. VibranNation.com is a leading online community devoted exclusively to the influential and fast-growing demographic of smart and successful women over 50. At Vibrant Nation, these women (whom we've named "Vibrant Women") can look for tips, share information, and join in smart conversations about work, style, relationships, wellness, books, and more.