Yet many internet companies are failing to do just that.

The population in question is the growing slice of the American population 50 years old and up. According to Steve Jurvetson, a managing director at venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Jody Holtzman, a senior vice president at AARP, many digital companies are doing nothing to accommodate older consumers. The two spoke in a panel discussion today at DEMO Spring 2012 in Santa Clara, Calif., an event co-produced by VentureBeat.

According to Jurvetson, people in this demographic:

• consume 60 percent of all consumer goods,
• consume 80 percent of all leisure travel, and
• shop online 3X as much as 18-34 year olds.

“Demographics is destiny. This is going to shift markets all over the world,” Jurvetson said.

Additionally, the total annual consumer spending by baby boomers is $2.5 trillion, with $1 trillion of that spent by those 65 and up, Holtzman said. By comparison, people in Generation Y spend only $800 billion per year.

“You go onto Expedia, or Travelocity, you wouldn’t know that 80 percent of leisure travel buyers are 50+ from looking at those sites. It’s like they don’t know who their customers are,” Holtman said. For example, fonts are small and difficult to read with older eyes, and there’s no option to make the type size larger.

Travel sites aren’t the only unwitting beneficiaries of an older user demographic. For example, in the popular PC multiplayer game Wizard 101, which is aimed at 7-12 year olds, it turns out that many players are quite a bit older.

“The amount of intergenerational play between kids and their parents and grandparents is a huge part of the game,” Holtzman said.

Similarly, startup LegalZoom, which provides legal documents, has found that many of its customers are 50 or older.

In the end, designing for the broadest possible demographic just makes sense, because it opens you to the largest market.

“It’s an opportunity for making sure that you maximize your market,” Holtzman said. “When you build something that a 5-year-old or an 85-year-old can use, like an iPad, you’re maximizing your market opportunity.”

[Update: Jurveston has just posted some more thoughts on this, including the observation that children hit their peak at 2 to 3 years old, with 10x the synapses and 2x the energy burn of an adult brain, but that adults can slow their decline through mental exercise.]

Photo: Matt Marshall of VentureBeat, Steve Jurvetson, and Jody Holtzman (L-R). Photo credit: Heather Kelly/VentureBeat

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Symbols and messages associated with social media are proliferating on TV, and they’re getting through to TV viewers, according to a new survey of 1,000 U.S. adult TV viewers by Accenture, which revealed high levels of recall for social media messaging, as well as high rates of social media activity in response to this kind of messaging.

Overall 64% of those surveyed said they could recall seeing symbols and images associated with social media, including for example the Facebook “Like” button, while watching TV.  In terms of specific symbols, 42% said they remembered seeing — and understood how to interact with — the Facebook “Like” symbol, while 18% said the same for Twitter hashtags appearing on TV, and 9% said the same for Shazam symbols. 28% said they recognized and new how to use QR codes that appeared on TV.

What’s more, 33% of those surveyed reported actually responding to social media messaging on TV by, for example, “liking” a TV program, at 20%; scanning a QR code, at 11%; searching for a specific Twitter hashtag, at 7%; or scanning the Shazam symbol, at 5%. Among those who interacted with social media while watching TV, 43% said the did it to get more information about a show, product, or service; 32% used social media to get coupons or promotional codes; 31% to enter a contest or sweepstakes; 26% to watch more video; 26% to interact with others about a show or product; 21% to connect with others with similar interests; 20% to share or recommend a video or program; and 16% to make a purchase.

Unsurprisingly, younger adults are more likely to respond to social media symbols and messages on TV. Among adults ages 18-24, 63% said they’d interacted with social media symbols while watching TV. That number dropped to 46% of 25-34 year olds, 44% of 35-44 year olds, 19% of 45-54 year olds, 25% of 55-64 year olds, and just 11% of respondents ages 65+.

Meanwhile motivations varied by gender. Thus 39% of men and 48% of women who interacted with social media sites said they wanted more information about the show. Among women who interacted, 40% wanted coupons or promotion codes, and 34% went on social media to register or sign up for something. Among men who interacted, by contrast, 35% said they want to see more video, and 34% said they entered a contest or sweepstakes.

Forrester Research created the “Facebook factor” to identify how much more likely Fans are to purchase a brand’s products or services. The method, based on logistic regression modeling, requires brands to ask four questions around the following themes: being a Facebook fan of the brand, likelihood to purchase, amount of money spent in the past 12 months, and probability to recommend.

The most interesting piece of the puzzle probably resides in the logistic regression modeling that analyzes the impact that the drivers — such as being a Facebook fan — have on key brand engagement indicators. A logistic model predicts the probability of occurrence of an event, and shows the influence of one variable on another. It analyzes how engaging with a brand while being a Fan influences the likelihood of a purchase, consideration and recommendation of a brand.

About 96 of the top 100 advertisers use Facebook, according to the Forrester report. But how do customer interactions with brands influence engagement with a brand?

In the study — The Facebook Factor — Forrester analyzed four brands: Best Buy BlackBerry, Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola. For all four brands, Facebook “Fandom” appears to have the greatest impact on purchases. For example, the odds of a Best Buy Facebook Fan purchasing something from the brand are 5.3 times higher than a non-fan, while the odds of a Fan recommending and considering the brand for future purchase are 4.7 and 4.0 times higher, respectively.

While it signifies the strength of the relationship between the brand and Fan, the consumer purchase decision is not where marketers can make the greatest impact long-term. Similar to a viral campaign, the value in a brand’s Fan base should focus on recommendations. The Forrester study found that Facebook Fans of each of the brands are more likely to recommend them than non-fans.

Facebook Fans who are BlackBerry smartphone owners have an 87% probability of recommending BlackBerry to a friend or relative, while a BlackBerry owner who does not engage with BlackBerry on Facebook has a 44% likelihood of doing so.

Having a Facebook fan base filled with brand advocates creates power for the brand and becomes a channel for influencers to spread the word — not only across the social site, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, but on search engines, as well.

Steinberg, who also serves as a game industry consultant at TechSavvy Global, has launched a free tip sheet for parents on his web site. In it, he talks about the educational, physical, and job-related benefits that gaming offers. He’s not suggest that your kids play the mature-rated Grand Theft Auto series; rather, he thinks that age-appropriate games will result in all sorts of benefits.

“Video games promote exercise and physical activity, encourage socialization and leadership, and foster dynamic problem-solving and decision-making skills – all areas of tremendous benefit to kids and adults alike,” Steinberg said.

He says that research supports the positive nature of play, and he notes that the vast majority of titles are now family friendly.

“Parents, politicians and educators frequently criticize video games as an alleged waste of time that distracts kids from healthier activities such as homework and outdoor play,” Steinberg said. “But research is quickly demonstrating that gaming can be a perfectly beneficial and well-rounded part of a healthy, balanced media diet.”

As noted before, Steinberg said that Harvard Medical School researcher Cheryl Olson, whose research included surveying data from interviews with over 1,000 public-school students, found that “parent-approved video games played in moderation can help young kids develop in educational, social, and physical ways.”

Olson argued that even games that are not labeled as educational can encourage planning, problem solving, and creative self-expression, and can spark interest in history or geography. Still more encourage socialization, exercise, healthy competition, and leadership.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Taekman, director of Duke University’s Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center, has concluded that “serious games and virtual environments are the future of education.” Games can help students deal with cultural differences or irate consumers — mainly by enabling people to deal with evolving scenarios, making more informed choices, seeing immediate consequences, and shifts in tactics. The tip sheet offers a bunch of other supporting research as well, pretty much aligned with the views of the game industry’s trade group, the Entertainment Software Association.

“Games can definitely be good for the family,” says Patricia Vance, president of The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which assigns video game ratings. “Oftentimes I think parents feel that they’re not because video games in the media are portrayed as violent, and hardcore games tend to get the lion’s share of publicity. But parents need to be comforted knowing that E for Everyone is by far the largest category. Nearly 60 percent of the almost 1,700 ratings we assigned last year [fall into this category].”

Sephora staffers will also highlight their favorite products on Pinterest pinboards. Following a meteoric rise, Pinterest is now the third most visited social network in the U.S. after Facebook and twitter.

Given that Pinterest’s users are overwhelmingly female and Pinterest has been shown to drive considerably more revenue per click than either Twitter or Facebook, the fact that Sephora has pinned its hopes on Pinterest is perhaps unsurprising.

Sephora’s sleek stores have long functioned as the cathedrals of the beauty product world. The French retailer operates more than 300 stores in the U.S. and Canada (and many more globally) and is something of a trailblazer in integrating technology into its retail experience. Last month VentureBeat reported how the retailer, having noticed the high overlap between its customers and Apple users (70 percent of visits to Sephora’s website are from iPhones) introduced iPads running a custom, in-store Sephora app into 20 stores across the U.S.

The iPad application leverages the iPad’s camera functionality to create a “virtual mirror” that lets users see themselves practicing makeup application as a video of the relevant technique are played below. Shoppers can review their purchase history (to avoid shopping disasters such as buying two of the same lipstick) and product information like ingredient lists. Sephora also invested in iPod touches which can be used for mobile checkout in every store.

Sephora’s website is the world’s biggest beauty store. Mobile shopping grew 300 percent on Sephora in 2011 and the company expects another 100 percent increase this year. iPad traffic was up 400 percent in Q1 2012 compared to Q1 2011.

Instagram Deal Sharpens Facebook’s Mobile Focus