The Female Approach to Social Media

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Everyone uses social media for business and for personal reasons. Marketers must have a clear understanding of how people use social media. Taking an even deeper dive into it, what are the differences between how men and women use it?

There are many differences between how men and women approach and leverage social media. When it comes to proportion, women are at least as involved as men are, if not more. It covers all demographics.

  • A significant percentage of women use social media every week.
     
  • Women have diverse interests and use it for many different reasons.
     
  • A large percentage of women are engaged in order to acquire information, recommendations and advice from others.

It is extremely important for businesses to keep the female presence in mind when they are designing their social media marketing campaigns. If those business owners don’t do that, they are making a huge mistake and will miss out on a great deal of unique opportunities that they will have otherwise. When it comes to decision making, in the cases where there are two principal partners (one female and one male), the woman is the decision maker in many cases. One very important concept to communicate to female online users is that being part of online communities will give them a strong sense of belonging. It will make them feel connected to others, respected, valued and they will feel that they are an important part of their groups. This powerful concept goes a very long way in the business world, where equality between men and women certainly does not exist all of the time.

The female demographic is not only strong and vital, it is also growing on a regular basis. Because women are excellent communicators (as a group), they will be inclined to spread the word about your business more often than men. That is precisely what you want them to do. After all, your business’s success is mostly based on word of mouth.

More and more women are getting over the misconception that social media is only for the very young and are starting to view it as an amazing tool to strengthen their businesses. It is becoming widely understood that social media holds a great deal of power and its potential is endless. It is so useful and the value can benefit all people and all generations. If you are still reluctant or don’t understand quite how to fit social media into your professional life, here are some tips that should help.

  • Start slowly: When you first start connecting to social media groups, you don’t have to join a large number. It is really good idea to go for quality over quantity. If you concentrate on one thing at a time, you will probably enjoy very favorable results. Once you have mastered one (or a few) social media channels, you can branch out to others that you feel are relevant to what you are doing and what you want to accomplish.
     
  • Enlist others to help: You may feel intimidated when you first start to use social media. It is not uncommon to feel overwhelmed but you should resist the temptation to quit right there and then. What you should do instead is to enlist the help, guidance and advice of others until you are at a point where you are more comfortable on your own.
     
  • Mimic others: A really effective approach when it comes to learning how to use social media is to mimic other people who know what they are doing. However, be careful not to copy them word for word. It is more about the concept. If you see that someone online is doing something that would work for you and that you would like to emulate, by all means, mimic.
     
  • Recognize that you are unique: The more involved you get with social media, the more you will see other people doing the same kinds of things that you are doing. Try not to pay to much attention to that. You need to concentrate on building and strengthening your own online presence and on offering products/services and information that only you can provide. That is your edge.
     
  • Recognize that you are human and that you will make mistakes: You will make mistakes (just like everyone else), especially in the beginning. Over time, you will make fewer and fewer. You should consider the mistakes as a vehicle for learning. Human nature dictates that much more is learned from negative than from positive experiences.

Conclusion

Now that you are involved in social media for business, you can reach out to other women and begin to build strong and worthwhile relationships. Always bear in mind that you have something unusual and valuable to offer other people. Your contribution is very real and social media is a tool that will help you to reach out and touch many people and really make a difference for them.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team and don’t forget to “like” our Facebook page.

Author

  • Carolyn Cohn

    Carolyn Cohn is the Co-Founder & Chief Creative Services of CompuKol Communications. Carolyn manages CompuKol’s creative and editorial department, which consists of writers and editors. Her weekly blogs are syndicated globally. She has decades of editorial experience in online editing, and editing books, journal articles, abstracts, and promotional and educational materials. Carolyn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.

9 Responses

  1. Patrick M Dacre says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: ForbesWoman
    Discussion: The Female Approach to Social Media

    Well told. And more accurate than many might think.
    Posted by Patrick M Dacre

  2. Rachel J. Peterson says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Freelance Editing Network
    Discussion: The Female Approach to Social Media

    Wow. Excellent question. Not sure I can contribute much since I'm still pretty green with it all. I'll look forward to reading others' posts about it, though!
    Posted by Rachel J. Peterson

  3. Jennifer Burns says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: NJ Social Media
    • Discussion: The Female Approach to Social Media
    From what I’ve read: women are more active on Facebook and Twitter and men are more active on YouTube. And from my own observation, women are more likely to comment on or like a post.
    Posted by Jennifer Burns

  4. Balaji Kartha says:

    Your question got me thinking. The most incisive fallout of social media is that the complainers have found a voice! Now, from my experience, men are most vociferous when they are unhappy or dissatisfied or plain angry. Women, on the other hand, go silent with negative emotions and are more vocal when they are happy or satisfied.
    Now organizations have anyway to be more nimble with comments on social media, but if my observation is really true – then organizations could use women customers to counter negative feedback!

  5. jsjack son says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Direct Marketing Association "Official"
    Discussion: The Female Approach to Social Media

    Today Social Media is a fast growing networking source. Now-a-days every one communicate with each other through networking only. People from all around the globe knowing each other, building relationship,improving business sales. Women approach in 2 ways either for relationship and for business development.

    In order to improve the business they contact with different people in different countries and they know each other to build strong relationship.
    Posted by jsjack son

  6. Rubia Dar says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Media Professionals Worldwide
    Discussion: The Female Approach to Social Media

    Maybe it's because women don't have the time to moan and just get on with things – instead opt for constructive criticism.
    Posted by Rubia Dar

  7. Caroline Rodehau says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Media Professionals Worldwide
    Discussion: The Female Approach to Social Media

    Having run several social media campaigns we found that females use social media facebook, ect more than men. The female loves to communicate with her girlfirends on lifestyle topics from where did you get that handbag to what Yoga class gives the best result to what beauty products provide the best benefit.
    Posted by Caroline Rodehau

  8. Anne Taylor says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Media Professionals Worldwide
    Discussion: The Female Approach to Social Media

    Is there a current metric stating how the population trends with social media? Do more women use it vs. men? Do women prefer one over another (e.g. do women prefer facebook and men prefer twitter?). Would definitely shape this conversation. Very interesting topic especially as it relates to marketing. Thanks for bringing up.
    Posted by Anne Taylor

  9. Balaji Kartha says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Media Professionals Worldwide
    Discussion: The Female Approach to Social Media

    Now that is the point. As Carolyn says; "female loves to communicate with her girlfirends on lifestyle topics" and she would also share with her friends about her bad experiences – warning them about brands & products & services that she was not happy with. This is where a smart organization could (I could help help if they do not know how!) counter (with not just a positive message but also with personal contact) to covert an unhappy customer into a advocate. Social networks are a great place for PR work – and the presence of women makes it so.
    Posted by Balaji Kartha