generation V – Josyan McGregor

Over the last few months, I’ve had to do some research online on the subject of mommy blogs. To my surprise, found a lot of them. They are an extremely powerful channel for online advertising!

I’m a Mom (he’s almost 12) and I have to admit that I am definitely not a mommy blog reader. I’m more interested in tech gadgets and new media (duh?!).

Anyways, after reading and discovering some jaw-dropping sites and blogs, I had to admit that I was impressed – very impressed. Here are a few of the mommy-based blogs which I find informative in their content, innovative in their approach and most of all beautiful in their design sensibility.

http://www.naturemoms.com/blog/
http://www.urbanmoms.ca
http://themommyblog.net

I recently came across some research concerning the internet behaviors of moms and more specifically the differences in the way Gen X and the Gen Y moms use the internet. The research – conducted by NewMediaMetrics – revealed that there was a significant generational difference between these moms.

Gen X moms *born between 1965 and 1981*

use photo sites

rate and review products

shop

Gen Y moms *born between 1982 and 1994*

read blogs

participate in an online community of moms

create and share their own video

These results remind me of an earlier post on Generation V which I commented on back in August. It seems to me that Gen Xer’s lean toward being Lurkers and Opportunists and the Gen Yer’s tend to be Contributors and Creators.

For the record, I am officially a Gen Xer. What do I do on the internet? Well, I read blogs, participate in social networks (not a mommy community though), shop and create my own content (write a blog). Where do I fit in?

Alas… not really anywhere specific – yet again!

Just the way I like it!

🙂

I often check out MarketingCharts to observe online statistics and stumbled upon an interesting report from Gartner concerning Generation V last week.

This report attempts to outline and categorize internet users. Apparently, we are either creators, contributors, opportunists or lurkers.

Although I agree for the most part, I’m not sure it’s that clear cut. As for myself, I believe I have elements of each a creator, a contributor and an opportunist – I’m not sure who would admit to being a lurker (but that’s just me I suppose). What about you?

These are the findings directly from the report:

Findings about these Generation V segments:

Up to 3% will be creators, providing original content. They can be advocates that promote products and services.
Between 3% and 10% will be contributors who add to the conversation, but don’t initiate it. They can recommend products and services as customers move through a buying process, looking for purchasing advice.
Between 10% and 20% will be opportunists, who can further contributions regarding purchasing decisions. Opportunists can add value to a conversation that’s taking place while walking through a considered purchase.
Approximately 80% will be lurkers, essentially spectators, who reap the rewards of online community input but absorb only what is being communicated. They can still implicitly contribute and indirectly validate value from the rest of the community. All users start out as lurker.

Please feel free to comment on this. I’d love to see if I’m the only one who thinks these findings are slightly generalist.

Tag: generation V

Generation V: Majority of Internet Users are Lurkers!