For US$89.95, will have a "social media expert" set up your Facebook profile for you. Or, for $9.95 you can buy the do-it-yourself manual.
For people who are comfortable with social networking sites, Jump Start's approach may sound strange. However, founder Veronica Fielding is trying to reach out to the 45+ age group -- older business professionals who might not be comfortable with social networking, but want Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.
"As they hear more about it and see others using it for business networking, they are eager to use it but reluctant to invest a lot of time," she told the The Industry Standard. "They also don't want to appear inexperienced and are concerned about "doing something wrong that everyone will see.'"
A recent found that older Americans are on social networking sites now more than ever. Facebook now has 52 million U.S. users and 170 million worldwide. As of January, more than 50% of Facebook users were over 35, ComScore found.
But Fielding said that many older professionals on Facebook and LinkedIn are not active users.
"During our beta testing we found a significant number of people who fall into that category," she said.
This, however, highlights a question about one of company's marketing strategies, which focuses on attracting customers through social media pages and YouTube. One has to wonder how narrow the window will be on Facebook to capture the attention of an executive who doesn't tend to use it in the first place.
Jump Start's profile creation service is based on individual customer questionnaires that capture "key data for an exceptional business profile." Once the profile is established, customers can change their passwords and update the profiles on their own. The company recommends customers to use social media "every day," but acknowledges that some users may not be able to devote that much time to managing their profiles.