Women Are Dominating Mobile Social Networking. Are Brands Listening?

I just read some rather interesting statistics about women and social media. Contrary to popular perceptions, it is women between the ages of 25 to 54 who dominate the mobile social networking scene not teenagers. Women are not only dominating social networking but they're dominating social gaming as well - a domain long thought to be the stomping ground of boys and men. A survey carried out across the U.S. and the U.K. found that more than half (55%) of social gamers are women with an average age of 43. Not teenage boys, not men but mature, grown-up women.

The reason I find these statistics interesting is that they tend to dispel a number of myths about women and technology. Women are better educated, better travelled and possess more purchasing power than ever before yet old stereotypes about what we want and how we want it still abound. For instance, when Natalie Massenet first floated her idea for an e-commerce site that sold the hottest, most desirable fashions and accessories to women at a click of a mouse, she was told it would never work.

In discussing this with her a while back, she pointed out that people forget that often what matters most to women is securing the product they want when they want it. While it might be nice for ladies to shop in a store with a glass of champagne in hand, ultimately few women have that kind of time to shop at their leisure. She understood this because she was one of those time-strapped women juggling work and family with little time to shop for herself. She is now reaping the rewards of her foresight and I say "more power to her".

My point is that it took a woman to understand what women wanted. Of course, it doesn't necessarily follow that only women can understand the needs of other women. There are some men who do a pretty good job of this as well (Alber Elbaz at Lanvin for instance). The trick for brands is to figure out how to use this information and translate it into a well-integrated social media strategy that will appeal specifically to women. Of course, it would help tremendously if they asked. After all, it's not as though they don't have the tools to reach out to us.

Sincerely,

The Luxe Chronicles

Comments

[Make Do Style]

This is still the most interesting subject. I completely agree ref who uses what and who. No one really researched or investigates. Lots of assumptions are made!