Mark Sherman, an entrepreneur with a background in the mortgage/moving industry, recently launched a website called ZoomAtlas with an interesting technology that lets users post “notes” on specific locations anywhere in the U.S.
You can, for example, find your childhood home and share your memories about the site while also inviting others to share theirs. Another user who looks for the same locations can find and communicate with you, reconnecting people via neighborhoods, schools and other places where they have lived, worked or played.
Mark Sherman said that when he launched ZoomAtlas he assumed that users would be of all ages, and when they launched they marketed the site to every age group 22 and up.
But when the site started gaining traction, they found that the one group that responded most significantly were people over 50; the median age is 47.
While ZoomAtlas isn’t marketing itself exclusively to Boomers, it realizes that Boomers will be an important component of its audience and growth.
How memory and technology bring the past and the future together
Is it surprising that ZoomAtlas is popular with Boomers?
On the one hand, no one is probably surprised that a site built on memories is one in which an aging population has great interest. Mark Sherman told me that they realized that people over 40 lived during periods in which no one had universally available ways to stay in touch (consistent email address or cell phone numbers, Facebook, etc.). So giving them a way to find lost connections from their past is a very meaningful benefit.
On the other hand, many people continue to be surprised that Boomers are embracing social media and technological tools to activate old-fashioned values like shared memories. I have written recently about Vibrant Boomer women and social media,, so am not surprised myself, but I’ll bet that lots of entrepreneurs and marketers discount the ways that newfangled technology could support the more traditional values of women (and men) over 50.
If you’re launching a website or promoting a product, consider giving consumers a way to enfold their memories and personal stories into it. Facebook does this with picture tagging, Zoomatlas does it with location-based memories, but so does any business that runs a contest to “Tell Your Story and Win.”
If you’ve got a business that sells something related to the past, consider how you can take it online. Ancestry.com, full of women 50+, has over 8 million unique visitors to prove its success by doing the latter.
Just because technology is new doesn’t mean that it can’t be about the past.
thank you so much Lisa, that helps a lot. I know he tried to blame me for so much stuff, but like I told all of his family and mine none of that added up to a divorce. I do realize it's his needs, it just hurts so bad to think how many years he's
How funny....i only very recently (within last week) read the coconut oil articles on the web. (100 uses, 80 uses etc.) so i bouht some and ordered some from amazon. (Im a stockpiler.)
Have started trying some of the uses. I tried using it a
A little over a year ago, I started a ning site for my old elementary school alumni. It is unbelievable how much joy that little site has brought people. we’ve had two reunions (people coming from as far as California and Boston) and have located our old 3rd and 4th grade teacher, who lives in North Carolina. Several of us went to see her. She’s in her eighties now.
Yes, we have reached the age where we sense how much we were and are still a part of each other. Reconnecting would never have happened if not for the web. Ning is no longer free….but we’re paying customers now…I don’t think any of us could imagine letting go of that magical little site.